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Did you know DIY furniture was a thing?
Well friend, I have a confession.
We are the DIY kind of people and I had no idea it was a thing.
In the many years of DIY home projects we’ve done, it never once occurred to me that an everyday person, like me, could build beautiful, quality, long lasting furniture with simple tools you may – or may not – have in the garage…like the kind of furniture that people can’t help but ask about when they come into your home. AND the kind of furniture that I would spend a small fortune on because….the more expensive the better quality, right? The longer it will last? The kids couldn’t possibly destroy?? I have spent many small fortunes on furniture that my children have turned around and destroyed.
Has that happened to you? No, just me?
Stumbling upon the concept of DIY furniture was one of the best things that has ever happened to us and here’s the story of how our DIY furniture addiction began.
To understand where I’m coming from, I’ll give you a little insight to where I was in life at this point. I was so busy and tired (oh, so tired!!) raising a teenager and a 10yr old an 8yr old and toddler twins and a newborn that I barely even had the time to take a shower let alone the time to sit down at the computer and explore the world wide web. 🙂 And it wasn’t until 4 years ago that I really even discovered Pinterest. I had only heard the raves about it from a few friends.
My husband and I are DIYer’s by nature. We are a team in everything we do and I love that he jumps on this train with me! I’m the idea girl and he’s the make it happen guy.
We had owned a total of 2 houses at this point. The first house we replaced flooring, windows, built a fence and painted walls and such. The second house we took on bigger projects and built a 20×20 multi-level deck, built a large perimeter fence and painted walls and other easy stuff. I think back to those days and wish so bad I could go back with the knowledge I have now and make that house even more awesome with what we know now … but we all start somewhere and that was our beginning!
So my point is that we had some knowledge and tools. And a orange Home Depot book with tips on home improvement. 🙂 We didn’t have HGTV, DIY Network and there were very few blogs back then. (circa 2004ish)
Then we moved to Texas and I found Pinterest
Fast forward to 2012, we moved to Texas I didn’t know a soul and so I didn’t really have much going on except normal Mom day to day stuff, so in my free-time while littles were napping I discovered anawhite.com on Pinterest!
Side note: A little ironic to me, she’s from a small town in Alaska…and so am I, I actually only lived about 70 miles away from her! In Alaska land mass terms, that’s like next door. We practically shared property lines. But I didn’t know who she was until I moved 4000 miles away! So crazy.
Anyway, so being in a new land with no friends and no house (we were in Corporate housing at the time) I started obsessing on Pinterest. Once my mind was opened up to DIY furniture…it was all over! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some wood and start building. And as soon as we moved into a house, it was game on.
First Project
Mr. funny guy. This laundry pedestal was the first thing he built and I painted! We found the plans over at Ana White. (of course!)
And then I was inspired and obsessed
We were renting a house here in Texas because our house in Alaska did not sell….for 1 1/2 years. That’s another story for another time! So, we had zero DIY home projects to work on. We couldn’t do anything to our rental house, so we started furnishing it!
Our second build was Playroom Shelves. This is an old Instagram picture. (awesome iPhone 4 photo quality) These were awesomely inexpensive, somewhere in the range of $35 for 2! Still have them but they are different colors now.
When I discovered all this new furniture building stuff, I also found this book. I loved all of the plans found in that book plus it’s really pretty to look at! It’s a great compilation of beginner to intermediate projects!
So then, we built a Media Center. We built the side shelves to go with it too, I don’t have any pictures though! We still use this cabinet in our TV room but we sold the book shelves that were on the sides.
Then we built a table
We seriously impressed ourselves with this one. We used this plan to build our table. We have since sold this table and built another one just like it but it’s painted white!
Building furniture gave me something that I never knew I needed or wanted! I can build and paint just about everyday and love it. It provides a creative outlet that I love so much! To furnish our home with solid custom furniture, handmade completely by us brings me so much satisfaction. And once we got the hang of how it goes together, we started designing and building or altering plans ourselves! And then you can make it exactly how YOU want it! I can’t articulate how amazing it is!
It’s like free therapy…except for the sanding…that’s like torture. 😉
We increased our knowledge with each build and we increased the size of our projects with that knowledge and experience!
Next was the Farmhouse Console Table and Hutch
This one is a favorite and we have built several and sold them! From plans out of The Handbuilt Home too.
I copied, exactly, how Ashley at The Handmade Home finished her hutch! She did it perfectly. And we have made a few of these farmhouse table/hutch’s in different colors and this color is by far my favorite still!
The tilt-out trash bin with drawer
At this point, my husband was gaining confidence in his ability to construct furniture and so he modified this trash bin and added a drawer and made it a little bit taller and wider to fit a full size trash container inside. Based off of this plan. {Color Sherwin Williams JUNE DAY glazed with a dark brown}
Another one of my favorites was this cute + functional wood trunk From these plans. I still use this wood trunk in my house for blanket storage but I have since painted it white because, you know, I can’t leave well enough alone. I Love the function of this build.
Looking back now, we built quite a bit that year in our rental! I can’t even express the feeling of satisfaction that comes with building furniture. Sounds a little dramatic, I know, but it’s an amazing feeling to furnish your home with your own two hands AND the feeling of saving thousands of dollars doing it!….it has seriously become an addiction and an obsession, friends. Furniture shopping will never been the same for us. We walk into a store, look around, talk ourselves out of spending obscene amounts of money on furniture pieces we can now build for a fraction of the price!
It’s amazing. You should totally give DIY furniture a try if you haven’t already!
