Photo By Anthony Garay

DAAP grad Anthony Garay has a lot of ingenious ideas about creating cool furniture with found materials.

So now you have it. Your own turf. You can furnish it any way you like. The only problem being the whole More Taste Than Money thing, a situation not unknown to most of us. How can you get cool furniture for next to nothing? Or better yet, nothing?

Anthony Garay can tell you how. In his recently published book, Turf (at area bookstores, $19.95), the University of Cincinnati DAAP graduate lays out plans for everything from bookcases and headboards to a nifty flower holder. He promises his instructions can be followed by anyone with a drill and a jigsaw. Operating these, he assures all of us who haven't, can be done safely and surely with a modicum of practice.

When Garay, now a designer with Fisher Design Inc. in Walnut Hills, set out to write a book he felt as much a novice at it as some of his readers might feel at starting to build a coffee table. The idea came from a college friend, Amy Hattersley, who upon graduation had gone to work for F&W Publications here in Cincinnati. At a brain-storming session for F&W's HOW series, she remembered Garay's ingenious ideas and helpful advice to college friends. Turf is the result.

Garay contends that useful materials are close at hand -- in the back of a closet or out in the garage. Perfect case in point is his crutch coat rack, in which the armpit supports and tip ends of a pair of old wooden crutches, attached to a gently shaped two-by-four, form a functional, funky place to hang your outdoor clothes when you're indoors. Unused lengths of two-by-four, wood screws of various sizes, perhaps some plywood scraps, are likely to be found in your friend's garage or basement, if not in yours. These might be the raw materials for exactly what you need.

What do you need? A bookcase? Tut-tut on milk crates or cinder blocks and wood boards. Using either plywood or ready-made shelves and 6-foot, 1 5/8-inch steel pipes you can quickly turn out a handsome set of shelves. "This project starts out almost done if you use the prefab boards from the hardware store ... (or) if you choose plywood, you can paint or stain the shelves any color you want!" he writes.

Garay's conversational writing style is clear and snappy. "The projects in this book were designed so that the average Joe or Jane could grab a few things and put them together without a lot of headache," he says in his introduction. He's also an advocate of the hardware store guy. "One of the greatest resources you might discover as you build the projects in this book is the old guy behind the counter at your local hardware store ... share your projects with him." The book is well organized and indexed, and it includes a list of suppliers with Web sites, phone numbers and snail mail addresses.

But you might not need all that. The hardware store guy can help you locate the materials for a neat bench that utilizes prefab metal closet shelving for a high-style look at minimum expense, in contrast to designer benches that retail for thousands of dollars, Garay says. He knows. One of his college co-op jobs was for a prestigious contemporary furniture design company in Minneapolis.

When it came time to settle down, the Mt. Airy native chose to stay in Cincinnati. He likes the fact that Fisher Design is located in the historic one-time Ford manufacturing plant, now converted to offices. His work there is package design, but he finds a visceral pleasure when he can work directly with wood and other materials.

"Making furniture feels like an old trade," he says. It's a trade he likes. There's a good chance that his readers will feel the same way. ©