Category Archives: Furniture of Necessity

“To know and not to do is not to know.” — Wang Yangming (1472-1529), Neo-Confucian philosopher

The central idea in my next book, “The Furniture of Necessity,” is that there is a type of furniture that escaped the whims of fashion and has remained unchanged through the centuries because it is useful, simple, sturdy and (in … Continue reading →

“Now, in order to have anything good made in stuff, or in hard material, we must seek out the artist to provide us with a design, and then a workman to carry it out as mechanically as possible, because we … Continue reading →

I admire the everyday ordinary furniture from the past, particularly from before the Industrial Revolution, what’s known as vernacular furniture. The makers are usually unnamed, often not professionals. I like it because of its directness, honesty and functionality. It tends … Continue reading →

Back before the invention of wood movement, joiners had much more flexibility in the way they designed furniture. Without the fear of cross-grain self-destruction, furniture makers would build chests, cabinets and sideboards with the grain running in opposition – horizontal … Continue reading →

Yes, I finished it. I actually wrote about it on the Popular Woodworking blog, not here. Sorry about that legerdemain, a man’s gotta eat. Read about the chest here. More to come. — Christopher Schwarz

If you subscribe to modern theories of wood movement, then most of the six-boards chests out there should have exploded into a pile of splinters, lace doilies and purple heart medals. They are, after all, the platypus of the woodworking … Continue reading →

The act of naming something is, in my view, a kind of violence. But it also is a helpful form of shorthand. With furniture, the most common way to name it is by its ornament (Chippendale, Arts & Crafts, Ikea). … Continue reading →