Getting Started Building Furniture

My brother found a few cool plans from Ted’s wood working

I’ve got plenty of experience at it. I sold lots of stuff to cover the cost of my shed and tools. Then I forgot about safety one day and shaved part of my thumb off. Absolutely don’t let your guard down. If you’re using a tool use the safety features. If you’re using a nail gun you never put your hand or body parts within double the distance of the nail length. All that money I made went out the window with one mistake. Spent maybe $5,000 out of pocket to still have a fricked up thumb. I can’t reiterate safety enough.
I also found that I wasn’t as proficient as some people I found on YouTube. I’m proud that I’ve got cutting boards with my name and hometown burned into them on 3 continents, maybe 6 countries, and 15-20 states so that’s pretty cool.

But YouTube is your friend. You’ll know the guys that know their shite and the ones that don’t.

Stuff made out of strictly 2x4 material usually looks gaudy and obnoxious for anything indoors

I started during covid, now have a garage full of tools. I've slowed down a lot since kids are older and take up all my time with activities, but love having the skill to build something. I've built beds, dining tables, humidors, shelves, built ins, etc. It gets addictive. Started with a jobsite saw and within a year and a half, had a Sawstop cabinet saw, 17" bandsaw, 8" Jointer, dust collection system, Lie Nielson hand planes, and a bad festool habit, haha.

Youtube is a good source. You can start with someone like Fix This, Build That who will have projects with a lot of pocket holes and such. Not the highest end stuff, but when getting started it can be cheaper and easier. Then I moved onto Wood Whisperer, Bourbon Moth, Keith Johnson, Andy Rawls etc.. Guys who will cut real joinery ranging from true classic joints like dovetails and mortise and tenon (Wood Whisperer, Andy Rawls), to guys using newer methods more often but still make interesting stuff (Keith Johnson, Bourbon Moth)

I’m a decent carpenter with dimensional lumber but I couldn’t make a join to save my life. A coffee table is a good place to start

I made a coffee table in the bed of my truck 15 years ago using barn wood plank lumber and some oak 3x3s I got at the general store in downtown Covington

It looks pretty damn good and gets heavy use. So try something like that first, where the shape of the wood you are using determines the geometry of the piece

One tip, if you are buying typical construction grade wood from a big box store, spend a little time sifting through too find the best pieces. Let the wood dry in your shop for about a month or so before you start to build with it.

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I’m starting from basically scratch skill wise. Could build a decent deer stand or duck blind. That’s about is. Have a general interest in learning wood working as a hobby. Need to replace some furniture and always wanted to learn to do it, so here I am.

Do you have any tips, websites, YouTube channels, books, or other getting started resources to recommend?

First few things on the to do list:

-coffee table

-chair for bedroom

-bench for porch

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Do not use lumber from big box stores UNLESS you acclimate it for a couple of months at least before tooling it in any way. Do not plan on using any sheet goods from a big box store for anything...it is all crap and will be a disaster. The lone exception would be MDF...its all about the same.

Lumber, no matter where you get it, is neither straight or true and is not going to stay that way even when you tool it straight and true. This can be mitigated with joinery but its going to move. All of it. Its not as big as problem as most people make it out to be but it is an issue. It certainly is not straight and true from any supplier for any length of time. Straight and true is your friend. Not "close enough for government work" but straight and true to near perfection. It is not going to stay that way long no matter what you do but it is nearly impossible to work with when it is straight and true. The more furniture and wood working you do the more your realize you shoulda spent more time truing up your material...even after 40 years I still almost always wish I had spent more time truing it up.

Plan on painting most projects. A beautiful wood finish is a work of art but most materials will not take a finish unless the finisher knows a LOT about finishing. Finishing is what makes a piece...joinery is for wood workers, finishing is for the rest of the world. Nothing prettier than a perfect dovetail. Most people would never notice it. Painting, especially in the beginning, can hide a lot of mistakes. The difference between staining and painting usually doubles the labor required for pros...most hobbyists never get it right...its like a golf swing, the devoted work at but never perfect it. Its also REALLY hard to repair damages to stained pieces or match a stained piece.

Chairs are TOUGH. The simplest dining room chair is often times the epitome of skilled craftsmanship. It is often the holy grail of woodworking. They are very difficult to build and not look like there were hobbled together. I've never built any I was satisfied with.

It is an extremely expensive and time consuming hobby. There is never enough room for tools and no end to the number of tools one needs. Anything you build will cost way more than a similar item you could buy but the quality, even in the beginning, will be better.

Start off building some boxes. Seriously. Most wood workers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to perfect a simple box. It requires ALL of the skills necessary to build anything. If you have never done it is shocking how out of square a box will become even when you are dead certain your measurements were right. Most furniture consists of a box of some sort...and if it has drawers boxes are what it is, everything else is just window dressing. Seriously...build some boxes. Build them square and true. It will reveal exactly how hard measuring and cutting a piece of wood actually is.

Keep projects simple. If you stick with it you can get fancy but starting off be satisfied with rustic or country chic. Building fine furniture worthy of a juried show is outside the ability of all but the best woodworkers. Norm Abrams was as good a wood worker as anyone could hope to be. He could not build fine furniture worthy of a juried contest.

There are thoousands of good woodworking channels on YouTube. One of the better ones for new woodworkers is Wood Working For Mere Mortals. LOADS of good, simple and practical information. Most of them are kind of too much...but many have good tidbits of information.


Anna White has a good website full of ideas and forums and plans. That is the kind of stuff a beginner should aspire to. After they have built some boxes that are actually close to square and true. Seriously, square and true is not easy to do.