Anyone making and selling furniture on the forum?

[Jassim Jaffer]

Hi all,

Im looking to get a corner desk for my new place and don't really have the skills yet to make one myself.

Wondering if anyone knows someone making nice reclaimed furniture that isn't mega expensive?

I have a few projects of my own going on, but no place to work on them and no time neither.

I hope everyone is doing fine!

Cheers!

Jas

[Matthew Haynes]

Hey,

I’m not able to take this on but have been wondering if it’s feasible to make money from hobby woodworking projects, would be interested to find if anybody else is managing to?

Doesn’t seem to make much financial sense for someone with my abilities, as an example I’ve recently been building a toy chest for home, it’s come out really well and am quite proud of the joinery and think maybe somebody would pay for it.

But … I was frugal and still spent well over £40 on materials, I spent two days so far building it and need another to paint and fit hardware, 30 hours all in I guess. So i’d need to sell it for multiple hundreds of pounds to hit minimum wage on my time, even more so for a living wage. Doesn’t seem possible to me, even if I cut my time in half it’d still be an expensive item.

Wondering if anybody else has sold any work where the return covers an hourly wage, or Jas, if it’s not too forward what kind of price you had in mind given the cost of materials and timescales.

For the time being I’ll keep doing fun projects for our home, family + friends, I’d need a serious improvement in quality and productivity to be able to do this for money!

Matt

[Mark Lilly]

Hey Jas,

Depending on what you're after I might be able to take a look at it. I use my works workshop and examples of my work can be found at mlfurniture.tumblr.com . My contact details are on there if you fancy sending any images over of what you're interested in.

Thanks,

Mark

[Mark Lilly]

Hey Matt,

It's an interesting one in this day and age, there is still a market and clients available for handmade furniture but it has to fulfil a certain requirement that the client can't just purchase something already available (eg. a certain size to fit something, a certain finish to match something else, have a specific function). I make furniture as a hobby and do manage to sell it with a small profit (mostly through sites like etsy), but as long as I'm enjoying what I do along the way I'm ok with that. Paying myself a 'wage' with furniture making comes along with many attributes that I'm completely not interested in (eg batching out the same product on a bigger scale, quicker turnarounds, having to build things that you aren't personally interested in.) I currently love having the ability to say no to a job that I'm not that interested in ha!

Would be interested in hearing others thoughts on this!

Thanks,

Mark

[Chris Ward]

Don't know how well I fit into this question, as I'm trying to take my furniture making pro...

I haven't started selling my furniture yet, but am desperately hoping that there is a market. I'm almost at the end of my two year course in Fine Furniture Making, and will shortly have three pieces to sell. One of these is a table that I've ploughed four months into (never spend four months on a speculative piece: it is insane). I've gone down a very high-design, furniture-as-art route (we're yet to see how successfully), with the intent of being able to market the design, the story, the fact that it's a one-off as much as the piece itself, and thus command a figure that would pay me minimum wage for my time. 

I need to get a lot quicker if I want to make furniture making work, probably do batch runs, standard products etc. I half expect my future holds a move into fitted kitchens or contract joinery, with the occasional furniture commission to feed my soul: bringing in enough furniture income to keep the workshop lights on is hard work, particularly in London.

Cheers,

Chris

[Matthew Haynes]

Interesting stuff! I'm sure if there is a living or profit to be made then it's from the kind of pieces you guys are making, higher end / bespoke with excellent choice in materials.

The furniture I have made so far is not a million miles away from what might be available in oak furniture land or similar (think painted shaker style sideboards / cupboards with hardwood tops). There's not a whole lot that sets it apart aside from hopefully a little more love going into my projects :)

I think for my next project I may try something more aesthetic, am feeling quite inspired looking at Marks portfolio! Be very interested in seeing some pics from your coursework too Chris once you're done!

Matt