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How to Build Modern Furniture
214 pages
A tactile, mid-century masterclass that turns raw wood into functional art through patient, guided craftsmanship.
What it feels like
Reading this manual feels like stepping into a sunlit, sawdust-scented workshop with a master craftsman at your side. The pace is steady and methodical, inviting you to slow down and appreciate the tactile joy of working with wood. Dal Fabbro’s tone is both authoritative and warmly encouraging, breaking down the elegant symmetry of mid-century modern design into accessible, practical steps. The prose is clear and precise, stripped of unnecessary jargon, focusing instead on the pure mechanics of functional grace. It is a deeply satisfying experience that appeals to DIY enthusiasts, amateur woodworkers, and lovers of mid-century aesthetics. Ultimately, it offers the quiet, grounding thrill of transforming raw materials into something beautiful, durable, and entirely your own.
- Mood
- tactile
- focused
- industrious
- sawdust-scented
- Tone
- instructive
- encouraging
- practical
- authoritative
- warm
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- craftsmanship · functional beauty · the joy of making · self-reliance · mid-century aesthetics
- The writing
- Clear, precise, and methodical, prioritizing accessible instruction while maintaining a deep reverence for the materials.
- The arc
- Moves from the initial anticipation of a raw project to the quiet, grounding satisfaction of completing a functional piece of art.
- Who it's for
- Amateur woodworkers, DIY enthusiasts, and mid-century design aficionados who crave hands-on, practical projects.
About the book
The author of How To Build Modern Furniture has long had a warm and intimate relationship with the art of working with wood. As a boy in Italy, where he was born in 1913, his first toys included the hand wood working tools which surrounded him daily in his family's shop, where fine originalfurniture was designed and crafted by hand. This inheritance, plus many years of experience and experiment, has enabled Mario Dal Fabbro to design and execute furniture of rare functional grace and symmetry. At the same time,because of technical superiority, his furniture does not sacrifice any of the strength and durability usually associated with more ponderous pieces. Between 1938 and 1948, Mr. Dal Fabbro became widely recognized abroad as an imprtant exponent of creative contemporary furniture design. His output was prodigious; he designed hundreds of pieces for private individuals and for renowned Milan furniture houses. Many of his designs were acclaimed at international furniture exhibitions and competitions. He also found time to write several books on furniture design and construction which were published in Milan by Hoepli and Goelich. Mario Dal Fabbro came to the United States in 1948 and now designs furniture for American manufacturers. Since coming here he has written a number of furniture boks including the very popular How To Make Built-In Furniture. He is also a contributor to the do-it-yourself pages of many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and House and Garden.
Description from Open Library.
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