“New Built-ins Idea Book”, by Sandor Nagyszalanczy

Nagyszalanczy, Sandor. New Built-ins Idea Book. Newtown, CT: Taunton, 2005. Print.

I haven’t intentionally been on a run of Taunton books (and I haven’t been paid to review them, unfortunately!), but when you get into a topic like home-building they keep cropping up.  This is the first of their “Idea Book” series that I’ve read, and it is indeed a great big bunch of ideas for built-in furniture.

One of the suggestions that keeps cropping up in small-house discussions is the use of built-in furniture to save space.  Combine that with the idea of spaces doing double duty, and creating my own built-ins starts to sound like a good idea.  The book has sections on passages, kitchens and dining areas, bathrooms, living spaces, entertainment areas, bedrooms, kids’ rooms, workspaces, and utility areas.  I didn’t find the introductory chapter on planning to have any new ideas, but I borrowed the book to look at the pictures, and it’s worth it for those alone.  I sketched out a few ideas, and I’ll probably borrow this book again when I have a particular space I’m looking at working on.