Make Your Own Furniture Out of Timber
We’re all willing to make our own furniture – it’s likely you’ve made a few pieces already, but in the form of flat-packed pieces rather than making it from scratch. With a few tools and a bit of confidence, you could make furniture from scratch and customize it to your own designs. It works out cheaper than buying it from shops, and you avoid that moment when screw E needs to go into F but you have no idea what F is and you only seem to have 3 screw Es instead of 4.
Making your own things is incredibly satisfying – you’ll have Facebook bragging rights and don’t need to be particularly skilled. One of our favourite furniture-making blogs is from Ana White, a woman who had never made furniture before in her life, but after she and her husband built a home in Alaska, she had to make her own beds and tables to save money. Here are some of our favourite designs, with links to the plans so that you can do it yourself. If you’ve been following us on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve probably seen us link to a few of these already.
Make Your Own Dining Table
This dining table wouldn’t look out of place in a highstreet furniture shop, but you can save money by making it yourself (and avoid waiting 4-6 weeks for delivery). The plans make a table that’s 1828mm long, but you can customize it to any size – perfect if you have a small room or if you need an unusually large table to seat a big family.
Build Your Outdoor Furniture
If you want to start with something relatively safe, outdoor furniture might be the best way to go. You can pay thousands for quality outdoor seating. Or you can pay less than £100 to make it yourself, and feel the pride of sitting on your own creation.
Make A Farmhouse Bed
If you’re sick of wobbly beds with MDF headboards, make one from solid wood. This farmhouse bed is fast, cheap, and you don’t need special tools to make it. There are 5 steps and you start by making the headboard before making the body of the bed and fitting it all together.
Save on a Dollhouse
You really don’t need to spend so much on a dollhouse – it’ll be even more fun to include the kids in the design process and get them to help you make it on a rainy day. Use this plan as a base, and see if your kids want to add their own special touches to make it really theirs. Ana White’s site also includes some dollhouse furniture designs, so you don’t need to stop there.
Make the Kid’s Room More Interesting
Any boy would love to sleep in a fire truck. This is a great way to make the bedroom more interesting and add valuable storage space.
