Built-In Furniture: A Gallery of Design Ideas (Idea Book) (ISBN 1561583952)

Amazon.com Review:
With Built-In Furniture Jim Tolpin has put together an idea book, a lushly illustrated look at built-in furniture through history and in modern homes, from Shaker attic storage systems to Frank Lloyd Wright room designs to contemporary dream houses. A blending of furniture and architecture, built-ins are known for saving space, but Tolpin takes us to a new level of art and inventive design; for example, he depicts a cleverly designed, secure document-storage area that is completely hidden behind a pivoting bookcase. Even a casual page-through reveals hundreds of useful, creative ideas, such as a revolving entertainment center, hidden storage rooms, and elegant but sturdy built-in shelves. Built-In Furniture will have you walking from room to room, fantasizing about built-in projects that you could construct yourself.

Neat Stuff !!:
Built-In Furniture is a great book for everyone who's ever dreamed of having a secret door to a hidden room or just wants to utilize seamingly wasted space. This book of ideas has been a great launching pad for my own new home design. It's NOT a project book with plans and instructions but if you're in the "looking for ideas" phase this is a good picture book.

Built-In, North American Style.:
This book does have enough pictures of built in cabinets/furniture from every room in the house to give you an idea of what can be done, but I found that other books I have read, such as Kitchen Design books, have way more information on certain topics than this book is able to cover. There is also some instructions on how to make some of the cabinets yourself. The style is all North American which is ok, but you should also read some books on how the Japanese design built in furniture, such as, Small Spaces: Stylish Ideas for Making More of Less in the Home, by Azby Brown.

Ideas abound!:
Apparently the hardcover edition reviewer bought a bad copy - this is an excellent book with crisp, bright photos and excellent ideas for expanding any room. But don't stop here...let this serve as a base and let your imagination really take off. I've used ideas from this book to make projects that turned out much better!

Not a How-To Book:
This is mainly a picture book rather than Tolpin's usual instruction manual. While the photos are quite interesting and the book has some good ideas on space usage this is closer to a decorating book than a woodworking book. This would be helpful as a what-if book for building a new home or a remodel. Otherwise it's not particularly useful.

Just some nice pictures:
Lots of terrific ideas if I owned a million dollar home, but hardly applicable to simple housing with less than expansion rooms.