Rico was one of the main reasons I started woodworking in the first place - BECAUSE he does "rough and ready" stuff that is functional yet not too hard to make. I would never have dreamed of thinking I could actually make my own kingsize bed without his simplistic style. Now I'm making things, and even thinking maybe down the road I might be able to make things that members of my family might keep after I'm gone - and it was Rico Daniels not Chris Schwartz (who I'd never heard of) that did that.
If you saw some of the things people have posted on his facebook pages you'd realise he's done quite a bit to help make people look at recycling / repurposing more as something they can really do. Just like people used to do many years ago - if you really looked, how many farmhouse tables were made in a cabinet makers workshop, and how many were made from old bits of wood because they needed a table?
We've been trying for ages to persuade a tv company to make more of his programs, to no avail.
So knock his style and furniture maybe, but not the message, have a look at my photobucket pics - the bed and fireplace in particular came to fruition because of Rico's first planted seed.
(off OP a little but it turns out that he and I were both Guardian Angels back in the 90's - the guys who rode the tube lines in london voluntarily as a visible presence against violent crime late at night, but as we hardly ever knew each others real names I didn't find out until only a few years ago.)
