Furniture is now made from all kinds of materials, which are based on wood-shaving elements, although, however, you can even find furniture products made from plastic. But solid wood furniture still remains popular, although it is now less often seen in houses and apartments. This is due to the high cost of the source material. Do-it-yourself solid wood furniture will cost much less than if you plan to purchase it in a store or make it to order.
DIY solid wood furniture
Why is solid wood furniture still popular?
Some may call such furniture old-fashioned or boring, but the facts remain facts - they continue to be used to this day, although much cheaper and easier-to-process materials can now be found on the market. Why, despite this, such furniture products remain among the most popular? It's simple - solid wood as a material has a lot of advantages that other types of raw materials do not have.
It is better to make a do-it-yourself wooden bed for a child from coniferous wood.
Natural wood, first of all, is an environmentally friendly material. It does not contain harmful resins or other substances; it consists only of exclusively natural components. This means that you should not be afraid of allergies or any diseases when using solid wood furniture. This is especially true for people who already have certain pathologies, especially those related to the respiratory system, as well as for children whose bodies are quite sensitive to various influences. By the way, some of the wood species used to create furniture can themselves have healing properties, beneficially affecting the indoor microclimate and improving human condition.
Solid wood furniture
Attention! Unlike chipboard or MDF, natural solid wood does not contain formaldehyde resins or other adhesive components, some of which can become a source of carcinogenic substances in the air.
The next advantage is the unconditional beauty of the array. What could be better and more pleasant than the color of natural wood? Of course, in certain interior styles, a bright facade will be the best option, but in general, natural wood has been and remains relevant and suitable for many styles. This color of furniture is especially appreciated when using country, ecological style, etc.
Handmade coffee table made of wood and glass
Next we should talk about the durability of the material. When properly used, an array can serve for decades without losing its strength and quality. And with proper processing of raw materials, it will remain just as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. The average service life of wooden products is 40-50 years . So wood is an excellent material for those who want to get furniture that will last forever. Plus, if necessary, it is quite easy to repair.
A wooden table for the kitchen made of solid wood is a classic type of furniture, which now will not be cheap
Also, wood is a malleable material and quite easy to process. This means that you can make a bed or nightstand out of it exactly in the form and style that you would like to see in your home. No other material allows you to change yourself as easily and simply as wood. Almost all design solutions and even the most creative wishes can be brought to life. In addition, any wooden product created with your own hands can be made so exclusive that such a cabinet or any other piece of furniture simply will not exist anywhere else.
Making a cabinet like the one in this photo will require the use of quite complex tools.
On a note! The main disadvantage of solid wood furniture is its high cost. However, homemade furniture will cost several times less, because you only have to pay for the material.
Advantages of wooden furniture
When does wood furniture look great?
Solid wood furniture is perfect for many styles, but it is worth highlighting three main ones when it is recommended to use such products. Brief information is presented in the table below.
DIY wooden kitchen
Table. Styles in which it is recommended to use solid wood furniture.
| Style | Description |
| Country | This style is somewhat rough and angular. Wood surfaces are usually not treated with any artificial materials. Most often, this design is chosen for private houses and cottages, as well as for kitchens. There is some primitiveness and antiquity in this style, and they are its highlights. |
| Provence | This style is well known to women. It is gentle, cozy, harmonious and, so to speak, affectionate. Decorative elements - vases, flowers, beautiful dishes. Wooden or wicker products are often used as furniture, giving the room completeness and charm. The main thing is to use fewer coarse and massive products. |
| Eco style | This is a natural style, where the first place is not beauty and fashion, but the naturalness and environmental friendliness of the materials used. It is similar to country, but has a lighter color scheme. There can be a lot of modern technology and products in an eco-style room, but natural wooden furniture is often used. |
| Loft | Simplicity and a kind of beauty, a combination of sophistication and some homeliness are the characteristics of the loft style. Wood here is an excellent option for the material used, and you can use not only wooden furniture, but also other wooden elements. The main thing is that there is no pretentiousness and a large amount of decor - the furniture should be extremely simple, comfortable and functional. |
Children's furniture made of handmade wood
On a note! Previously, it was believed that natural wood would fit only into country or classic style. However, modern designers have proven that this is not the case, and wood is an excellent option for other styles, not only those presented in the table. Often the most important thing is to choose the optimal design and decor.
Dinner table
When choosing a simple table, it will not be so easy to choose exactly the option and specific style that you would like to recreate. You can make your dreams come true even on a limited budget! We've rounded up 20 of the best dining table designs you can make yourself.
What kind of material is there?
If you open a botany textbook, you will find a huge number of tree species and species, and the raw materials made from almost all of them can act as materials for creating wooden furniture. But there are certain breeds that are used most often. By the way, the use of some species may depend on the area of residence of a person.
Types of wood
Thus, in Russia and European countries the most common materials are walnut, pine, oak, beech, ash, and maple. They differ in their physical characteristics, as well as color, density and cost. Let's take a closer look at the most common types.
Table. Types of wood .
| View | Description and characteristics |
| Pine | It is the most common type of wood used for furniture. It is inexpensive, but at the same time it is quite durable and beautiful. Pine is easy to work with, and it is almost not afraid of mechanical impacts on furniture during its operation. Often used to create decorative surfaces. An excellent option for building cabinets. |
| Oak | The most durable type of wood, at the same time – one of the most expensive. Oak furniture can be used for centuries if it is made well. One of the most frequently used options for creating absolutely any furniture products. It is not afraid of insect attacks, and is not afraid of moisture, except in large quantities. Moreover, it is quite easy and pleasant to work with oak. |
| Birch | Soft wood with a pleasant light color, easy to work with, but can be a little finicky. Often used to create decorative items. Does not apply to expensive breeds. But it is not suitable for massive and heavy furniture, as it is too soft. |
| Willow | Willow can be an excellent option for creating light furniture - cabinets, armchairs, chairs. Beautiful, but soft. Willow furniture can give a room a special charm. |
| Cedar | Durable and elegant cedar, not afraid of water, is an excellent option for creating furniture for the bathroom and kitchen. |
| Beech | Durable almost like oak, but water-resistant material. So you should not place furniture made of such wood in the bathroom or kitchen, or you will have to treat the material with protective compounds. |
Features of choosing the type of wood for furniture
Original designs
You don't have to be a professional carpenter to create original garden furniture. It is enough to learn to see the natural beauty of the things around you.
If there are pallets of building materials left at the dacha, do not rush to throw them away. The products make original coffee tables, with minimal processing required: sand the surfaces and varnish the wood.
Pieces of cut trees with a thick trunk can easily be turned into interesting chairs. It is enough to clean them of bark and knots and cover the surfaces with wood varnish.
Material selection
When choosing the type of wood, it is important to decide in what conditions the furniture will be used. The microclimate in the room, as well as the load placed on the products, can play a significant role.
If you want to make durable and heavy furniture, then it is better to stick to hardwood. For example, it could be ash, elm, rowan, oak and others. These are strong and dense rocks that are perfect for making a wardrobe for clothes or books, or a massive bed.
Deciduous trees
Where the load on the furniture will be minimal, you can take softer and often cheaper species. For example, maple, willow, alder, birch .
If you want to create a very beautiful product, then you cannot do without expensive and noble breeds. These include mahogany, wenge, mahogany . These are truly beautiful materials in their texture, but you will have to pay a hefty sum for them, which not everyone can afford. Also, you should not get involved with expensive breeds if you have no experience in creating furniture yourself. In this case, there is a high risk of spoiling expensive and beautiful material - it is better to first practice on cheaper wood. Trial copies may well continue to serve in the country.
DIY wooden furniture
It is also important to purchase high-quality wood for products. It should be with a minimum of knots, well and properly dried, and dense. It is not worth purchasing cheap wood belonging to low quality categories for furniture, especially for its front parts.
Particular attention should be paid to the direction of the growth rings that define the pattern of the wood. So, it’s better to take the one where the rings are parallel. This wood is highly durable, will not warp and will last longer.
Tree core on the diagram
Important! Wood defects are clearly visible in the cut. You should not purchase material that is uneven in color or overly bright in color.
Interestingly, natural wood as a whole can be partially replaced with elements made from the same chipboard, but with a natural wood finish. The quality of the furniture in this case will not be much worse, but the material will be cheaper.
Chipboard
Hand tools
The simplest is the ax. Using it, you can split wood, trim it, cut it.
A carpenter's ax must be properly sharpened. If the chamfer of the tool has a concave shape, then it will bounce off the material, thus reducing the quality of work. A tongue and groove tool is used when cutting on the edges of grooves. An end plane is needed for processing the end elements, respectively. A humpback (a type of planer) is used when working with shaped (oval, cylindrical, convex, concave and other) surfaces. The stanchion is used in the manufacture of gutters of different radii and sizes. The jointer is needed for planing and leveling a large surface. A set of chisels is used for artistic carving.
A straight chisel is used to clean up the background, and a “jamb” is used to make geometric patterns. To create the necessary relief, cranberry is used. To make three-dimensional elements and cut through contours, use jamb knives.
We make furniture from solid wood ourselves: features of creation
So, now that the decision has been made to create furniture yourself and the material has been selected, it is worth getting acquainted with some aspects of the construction of such structures. Namely, with the stages of work. In general, the list of work stages looks like this:
- idea formation;
- creation of a detailed drawing with all dimensions;
- selection and acquisition of materials;
- creating a product - cutting, applying certain compounds, assembly, finishing and decoration.
Cutting wood is one of the important stages. The appearance of the finished furniture will largely depend on the correctness and sequence of actions. It is most convenient to cut wood with a circular saw, but installing one at home is problematic. So at home it’s easier to get by with an electric jigsaw, and then mill the edges of the parts or process them with a grinding machine. As for the jigsaw, it is important to choose the right blade according to the technical characteristics.
Lumber cutting
Advice! Since when sawing with a jigsaw, unsightly chips often occur along the edge of the workpiece, it is recommended to make workpieces with a small margin, which is then ground off.
For those who want to make their own furniture for the first time, it is recommended to choose a product with the simplest possible configuration. Carved and figured shapes are extremely difficult to make with your own hands accurately and beautifully the first time. As a last resort, you can invite a master for cutting. Sometimes furniture factories also help with cutting.
DIY master class on making a table from solid ash
Also, do not forget that for wooden furniture you will need fittings, fasteners, etc. Special drills may be needed to install door awnings (this will depend on the type of awnings used).
What can you do on your site?
Fencing.
The fence is an important part of any site. And to make it, you don’t have to buy expensive materials; you can use the “gifts of the forest.” A picket fence made from branches collected in the forest will look original.
Fences are needed not only to surround your garden from the outside, but also to divide the space internally.
These can be slatted walls that will appeal to climbing plants, or flower boxes arranged vertically in a checkerboard pattern. This wall looks very beautiful thanks to the flowering plants.
Flowerbed.
This is the kind of craft that no garden can do without. But a stump left from a cut down tree, a log, or even an ordinary large log can become a flowerbed. But you will have to arm yourself with a chisel and a hammer to hollow out a recess in which the flowers will then grow.
You can make it simpler and decorate a ready-made flowerbed with twigs or neat bars.
Bridges.
The decorative bridge will delight both children and adults. You can even dig an artificial pond for it, but even without water such an element will look quite natural.
Track.
Ordinary paths instantly change the impression of your dacha or garden. Neatly designed paths help create the “face” of the site.
And making them is as easy as shelling pears:
- It is enough to prepare tree cuts and collect pebbles from the shore of the nearest body of water. At the same time, the cuts do not have to be the same diameter - it will be even more interesting if they are different, but the thickness should be the same.
- Don't forget to first dig a trench (its depth should not exceed 10 cm) and fill it with sand.
- Cuttings, pebbles, earth are laid on top, and lawn grass seeds are planted.
A little about finishing
If we talk about the finishing of finished furniture, then it is this that will allow you to achieve a finished and beautiful look of the product. Thus, wooden furniture can be varnished, tinted, or painted. Sometimes a procedure such as de-tarring may be necessary - treatment with acetone, gasoline or alcohol to remove traces of resin .
Painting will not preserve the natural color of the wood, but good varnishing will ensure the preservation of not only the shade, but also the structure. Moreover, the varnish will give you a glossy shine. Before painting wood, it must be primed. Tinting makes it possible to improve the color and give the wood a certain shade. The main principle here is maximum naturalness of the material.
Applying varnish to wood
On a note! The easiest way is to use varnish. This is an easy-to-use composition that will allow the wood to remain the color it naturally has, but will significantly extend its service life and will not allow it to darken.
Shelves and racks
The day has come when your books will no longer be on a chaotic journey around the apartment. It's time to make shelving, and our selection of 40 unique shelving and bookshelves that will awaken the urge to make your own will help you with this.
Here are hanging shelves that are perfect for small spaces.
Making a children's bed from alder
Step 1. First of all, you need to purchase boards (in this case alder), as well as small fasteners and a mattress from a hardware store.
First you need to purchase all the necessary materials
Step 2. It is best to initially make a drawing of the crib, but in this case the master used the purchased mattress as a basis and, based on its dimensions (120x60 cm), created a crib. So if you have confidence in your abilities, you can do the same.
The purchased mattress is used as a basis.
Step 3. You need to apply markings on the boards. The long side of the bed should be 120 cm. Next, you need to saw off the excess using a miter saw. You need to make 3 such blanks.
Marking the boards
Sawing boards
Step 4. You also need to cut 10 blanks 60 cm long - these will be the slats for the mattress on which it will lie.
Cutting blanks 60 cm long
Future slats
Step 5. You also need to make the drawers. The blanks for the drawers in this case will be 90x67 cm.
Tsars are being made
Step 6. Now you can start assembling. You can place the headboard blanks first on a flat surface and see how everything will look, as well as figure out how to attach the parts.
Future headboard
Step 7. In the side planks at the ends you need to drill holes for wooden dowels, which will help connect the parts. For convenience, you can make a special simple template with holes equal to the diameter of the dowels and use it when drilling.
Drilling holes
Holes for wooden dowels
Step 8. Using wood cores, you can easily mark holes for other parts of the headboard. So, they need to be installed in ready-made holes for dowels in the planks, press the planks in the area where they will connect to the leg boards, and punch them along the edge of the board with a hammer. There will be traces that can be used to navigate and drill new holes. The cores can then be removed.
Joinery cores
Using carpentry cores
The planks are punched with a hammer
Step 9. At the marks left by the cores, you also need to drill holes for wooden dowels.
You need to drill holes according to the marks.
Step 10. Now you can insert the dowels into their rightful place, additionally coating them with PVA glue.
Dowels are inserted
Step 11. To assemble the crib, long furniture ties 90 mm long are also used. With their help, you need to securely tie the elements of the backrest and other parts of the crib.
Long furniture ties are used
Step 12. You need to attach a 30x40 mm block to the lower side drawer using ordinary self-tapping screws.
The block is attached with self-tapping screws
Step 13. Next you need to assemble the bed frame. The lamellas will be fixed to the bars installed along the sides.
Assembling the bed frame
Step 14. The crib is almost ready. Now you need to paint it with special oil, dry it and you can use it.
The crib is almost ready
Painting the bed
Finished solid wood crib
Video - Children's bed made of wood
Console table
To make this item, you need plywood, the thickness of which is 1 cm. It is advisable to immediately cover the ends of the sheet with self-adhesive film. You can iron narrow strips with a flat, heavy object (an old iron, for example). Before starting work, the plywood should be thoroughly sanded.
Its surface should be smooth and even. Using a drill, you then need to drill holes in the connection areas. Self-tapping screws will be screwed into them.
The table will consist of 3 wide parts, arranged in the shape of the letter “P”. For greater stability, 2 narrow boards should be screwed to each element. For better joining, you should step back two to three centimeters from the edges of the plywood.
A thin narrow strip is glued to the sides. It will hide the joint areas. PVA or simple wood glue is suitable for fixation. Pre-prepared metal corners should be secured to the underside of the tabletop.
They are fixed with self-tapping screws. Having lubricated the joint areas with glue, you should attach the tabletop to the supports and tighten both sides at a right angle. For greater convenience, rollers are screwed to the legs at the bottom.
A hole should be drilled according to the shape of the wheel. The roller is fixed with bolts, which are usually included in the kit. Here you should try to fix the elements at the same level.
