This book was incredibly detailed and well presented. This would be a great book for a public library with a tool collection for DIYers.

There were some ok ideas in this but nothing that would really function for me and my household. Others might get more use out of this.

Received via Netgalley. All reviews and opinions are expressly my own

The Black & Decker DIY series is an excellent set of how-to books for people with a moderate skill base and access to tools appropriate to the job – carpentry and plumbing tools mostly. I enjoy the series very much.

This book especially fits my taste and interest. I sometimes design and build specialty household furniture and the items in this book are close to my own taste – spare and sometimes a bit clunky but very well made. I particularly like the overhead pan holder (which I would make out of iron pipe), the aluminum sheet lamp, and the crown molding shelf.

There are only 23 projects here, but the instructions are comprehensive and after doing a few, you will have built up skills that will be useful for your own designs or in copying ideas you find online.

Tip: From experience I will tell you to buy the best pieces of wood you can. Be sure that it is well dried. Don't overlook salvaged wood that has hardened with age.

Wow, so many cool projects! There are nice, clear instructions for each project, along with lots of photos. The beginning of the book includes a comprehensive run-down of materials needed, and the projects, in addition to being really useful and nice-looking additions to any home, also give inspiration for using readymade components in new ways!

#BlackDeckerReadymadeHomeFurniture #NetGalley

As someone who move like 5 times last year, when I saw this book I though that will be helpful now that I actually read it...damn, I need more money!!! LMAO

Nevermind...however, as an inspirational book is as good as pinterest, and with this I mean, is like a catalogue so...works as a catalogue.

<i>A digital copy of this book was provided by <i>NetGalley</i></b>

Black and Decker home improvement books are usually accessible, informative, and helpful for novice to expert DIYers. This guide is no exception. Full of practical information on choosing the right tools, shopping for hardware, and safety tips. You can make your own rolling bar cart, a room divider made from wood trim moldings, a message center with built-in corkboard, and more. Plenty of photos and easy-to-follow instructions. As usual, my only complaint is that most (all?) of the people demonstrating in the pictures are white men. Don't women or people of color do any home improvement?

These Black and Decker books are always fabulous, always practical and with lots of information and projects for both the beginner or the advanced home maker. At the start of the book there is information about tools, materials, safety and such, with the rest of the book dedicated to project staring from very simple ones such as wooden rope mat, pot rack and other simple items. It then proceeds to a little harder such as club chair, birdhouse and more and the final part of the book concentrates on cabinetry for all rooms including the laundry.
Very easy to follow instructions, with plenty of pictures and close ups. I love the Copper Pipe pot rack, so you can see it isn't only about wood.

Some good content for students perhaps, but for a beginner, it's still too complex and honestly not really anything that you can't get online for free.

An excellent little book for beginning woodworkers and DIY'ers. Full of simple projects, like wine racks and birdhouses. Also has some more complex builds, such as a hobby center or closet home office. But even those are fairly uncomplicated, using stock cabinets and adapting them to the project.
Begins with a fairly substantial description of tools and fasteners. Easily understood step-by-step instructions. Lavishly photographed.
Would be a great resource to people wanting to test the waters in woodworking.

Black and Decker Readymade Home Furniture

What I enjoyed about this book is the comprehensive detail of tools and materials, not just for the purpose of building the projects detailed in the book but for general use as well.

The book offers a mix of great contemporary projects for the beginner and the more experienced artisan. This is a good go-to reference book for practical ideas.

I really enjoyed it.

Love the bright pictures. The lay out and the way the subjects are broken upmakes it very easy to read and understand the material. There are great tips throughout the book that make the projects easier. For example on page 11 there is a small table about plastic adhesives. Its broken down into ideal uses and drawbacks for each adhesive, I found this very helpful and quick and to the point. Other great tips include drill bits and uses and sanding grits and application. My favorite project in the book Each project starts with a picture of the finished project. All materials needed are listed then the project is laid out step by step with pictures. This is what I love about the book. Walking me through a project with pictures and concise instructions leads to having fun and feeling creative. That being said the projects being laid out in such an easy way is deceiving. These projects are not for beginners, you will need some previous knowledge and are for intermediate to advanced DIY-ers.

Living in a rural area where shopping is limited, not to mention we are not rich, I wanted some unique furniture pieces that did not look like everyone else's. Enter Black & Decker Readymade Home Furniture. I am not an expert in either woodworking or decorating but still found these patterns and suggestions easy to follow and have now built several pieces successfully. Start with some of the smaller items and move up to big pieces and you'll find that you too can easily build these. The sense of satisfaction you'll have when your neighbors start oohing and aahing over your new furniture will keep you busy for quite a while.

Readymade Home Furniture takes off the shelf items found at any big box home improvement store and repurposes them into practical items for your home.

While some of the projects are simple like message boards and planters, others are complex like club chairs and closet home offices. There are 23 projects within these pages so at least one will catch your eye. However, remember that Readymade Home Furniture is sponsored by tool manufacturer Black & Decker. None of these projects are for amateurs but more for intermediately skilled home diyers who want to save some time. If you are one of those, you should check out the book for creative ideas and time-saving tips. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Thanks to Cool Springs Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has lots of fun DIY projects! I have a few marked to try and am excited to try with the awesome pictures and instructions. The one downside was that I felt like there were a lot of projects for alcohol bars. Since we don't drink, it wasn't appealing. The other projects looked great though.

This is a practical handbook on how to make home furniture using bits and pieces you find from a hardware store. It includes easy and interesting, and inexpensive projects homeowners can follow—a new workspace, a piece of furniture to add to your living room. The book also offers tips on the right hardware and working with different materials.
The projects in this book are divided into two sections: Creative Reinventions and Built-Ins from Stock Cabinetry. Both sections are filled with inspiring projects, accompanied by photos. A must-have for anyone looking for inspirations for their home.

Thank you to Chris Peterson, Quarto Publishing Group - Cool Springs Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I should have noticed that this book was made by Black and Decker when I requested it, as that helps explain the type of book it is. I love the premise of this book -- that basically the stuff we buy at Ikea and big box stores or order on Amazon are just parts we put together and we can buy the parts ourselves at hardware stores and build our own furniture. I've often thought the same thing when I bought a bunk bed or entertainment center and our family had to spend the next hours assembling it ourselves.

That said, you'll probably find that it's a lot more expensive to do the projects in the book than order that cheap Ikea piece, and the end results frequently look like something from shop class. The book gives exact instructions on what to buy and a million tools to use to make each project. For instance, to make the coffee table you buy four stair rails and specific wood and sides and then screw it all together. To make the "hobby center" (a corner desk area with cabinets above), you buy cabinets, cabinet doors, precut counter, etc. and then screw it all onto your walls. I think most of us can figure out that we can buy a ready-made cabinet and mount it on our wall. It is a little discouraging seeing how much work is involved even in buying all the parts basically ready-made at the hardware store, though.

We live in an old house that was mostly built by hand by some guy I constantly am impressed with. Our house is old and I have no idea who that guy was, but I love the fact that the door to the root cellar under the basement stairs is cut from some crazy old sign, and that every one of the 70+ (really) cupboards in the kitchen is a different size because he build them himself. :) Our oldest daughter and her fiance just bought their first house for $4,000 cash and it's a similar tiny little house that was clearly built by a guy who not only built it himself but added on and improved it over the years with bits and pieces he found. Again, I have no idea who the guy was but I'm so impressed by him. That's the kind of building book I'm looking for -- the kind that would be written by a frugal old guy who can show you how to make a door with an old wooden sign or build cabinets in the garage with wood pieces, a saw, hinges, sandpaper and some knobs.

Obviously, I am not like most woodworking readers, so I don't know if that book exists or ever will. This book is fine if you want to build things yourself and have a lot of tools and a lot of money. The projects are generally very standard, though it's nice that not all of them are wood based. You can make poured concrete planters (again, nothing new) or a lamp with a metal screen and things like that, too.

The book is also very thorough on types of tools, screws, fasteners, etc.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Black & Decker Readymade Home Furniture by Chris Peterson is a book of building useful and stylish furniture for the home and outdoor areas. Great color photos with step by step instructions.

The title of the book is not actually what is inside. Only few of the projects use something that was ready made, namely - premade cabinets, and all the others required raw materials like plywood or particleboard or pvc pipes found at a hardware store, so nothing premade here, unless you consider preparing lumber as being premade.
They start with tools used for most of the projects and what to look for when selecting a tool to buy.
The projects are quite diverse, from a bench to a mat to a birdhouse made of pvc pipe. They all have list of materials and step by step instructions and are accompanied by a set of tiny tiny photos of some of the steps. The language is too flowery for a do it yourself book, and in many cases I wanted to say "get to the point already!" and the text is not always matches to the picture. The entry mat project pictures the mat in front of a shower (page 36).
I like the big section on ins and outs of different materials and how to work with them. They do feature their own Black and Decker tools, which is expected, but the projects can be done with any brand tools, of course.

I received a free digital copy of the book from NetGalley.

"Why are home craftsmen and craftswomen, and even the least experienced DIYer among us, drawn to the local hardware store as if in a trance? ... What is that allure? Just what is it about hardware stores? The answer can be summed up into one word: possibilities."

"...This book is about all the bits and pieces that can be put together in new and ingenious ways to create home furnishings and accents that are at once useful, fun, unique and economical."

The book begins with a "Hardware Primer" which I found particularly helpful. There are photographs of the various types of screws and even a chart for adhesives - providing a quick go-to guide for which type of adhesion should be used in any given scenario and what the drawbacks are for each. There is even a shopping guide for what to look for when purchasing a studfinder (which, I believe every household should own. In addition to those points I have listed, the guide provides much more necessary information and is good for beginners to learn and are good reminders even for the most skilled home craftsman.

The book is divided into sections. After the Hardware Primer is "Creative Reinventions" which contains fifteen projects, all with brilliant full color photographs of the finished product as well as several photos of each project taken as it is being built. These photographic illustrations are a wonderful addition to the book. They allow the reader to gauge how their work measures up to the book at multiple steps during the build process.

I will not list all the projects in the book, but I will name a few that I want to try to build. There is the rustic-chic Trim-and-Rope Mat that can be used anywhere in the home, including the front door, or the bathroom, or even in the bedroom or on the back deck.

The Copper Pipe Pot Rack is next on my husband's 'Honey-Do-List' and I am excited to have it installed in my kitchen. This item could cost upwards of $1500 to buy already built, but will cost less than $100 to do-it-yourself.

The "Chunky Club Chair" is a project I would love to have multiples of. My 'Honey-Do-List' seems to be getting longer as I go through this book and discover more amazing projects.

The "Aluminum Sheet Lamp" reminds me of lamps seen in high-end lighting store. I found similar lamps selling online for $300 and up.

The "Living Wall" will turn your backyard, patio or deck into a work of art and depending on what you plant in it, it could also be a source of fresh herbs or vegetables all summer long. This is one project I plan to start in March and to keep it inside with each 'pot' planted with vegetable seeds and once summer comes I will move it outside to its rightful place.

Believe it or not, all the projects listed above are from only Section One of this amazing Do-it-yourself book. The second section is titled: "Built-ins from Stock Cabinetry" and contains eight more stunningly beautiful projects that can be completed in a single weekend.

The "Media Bar" from this section looks like something you would see in the "After" shot of a professional television renovation show. It is also being added to my 'Honey-Do-List." Wow! My husband is going to be a very busy guy, and my home will look phenomenal when these projects are completed.

I rate BLACK & DECKER READYMADE HOME FURNITURE: EASY BUILDING PROJECTS MADE FROM OFF-THE-SHELF ITEMS as 5+ OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I will come back to this post and add photographs of each project as they are completed.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to save money by building projects themselves and who are interested in upping the resale value of their home. These small projects will make a big impact on your home decor and I am very excited about getting started.

**Thank you to #NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book.**