Your Store Furniture

Is it cheaper to DIY your own furniture or to buy from a store? Let's find out. But first, let's take a look at the sofa table my wife wanted to buy from the store. Pretty cool, right? But it was gonna cost nearly $5,000 for the size. And here's the space we're gonna do it in. I got measuring and figured out t But to size matter, let's ask my wife. Ugh. T Let's move on. Using dimensional l But I needed to make a template first. That was either gonna make t And I continued with chopping all the wood up, because I needed to get it into manageable portions. After I milled it, I had one leg and another. But I needed to do further flattening on it, because it was a bit wonky. But I know what you're t Let's talk n We already went over how much it was gonna cost to buy t W I mean, that was outrageous. Am I right? I'm just the working class. Where's the working class furniture store? Since when in life did inflation get so expensive and through the roof, to buy a simple table in a furniture store was gonna cost $5,000. T But pus Ugh. T And I was beginning to doubt myself on t Sometimes when you start these DIY projects, you could be really insecure. Or not confident with your skills or your technique. And I gotta say, I was really feeling that right about now. T I'm gluing them up and getting ready to clamp them down. And w The l Are you kidding? I mean, that's a savings of more than $4,000. Wow. But I know what you're t So what? What are you gonna do with that savings? Well, I had a plan. And it was to buy a new truck. After all, I am a carpenter and I need one badly. I mean, geez. Take a look at my beater. I've had the handle's broken, the seats are ripped, the dashboard is cracked from carrying l I mean, it's time. So I got busy going to car dealers And again, inflation slapped me in the face Since when did it become acceptable for a new car payment to be over $1,000 a month? What? Over $1,000 a month? No, thank you. So for now, I guess I'm gonna keep driving my beat-up beater until the day the wheels fly off. Let's get back to the table build. Inflation's got me b Oh yeah, I've been using that template t And now it's time to see if it fits. Come on, baby. Yes, that side went in. How about the other? Pop that side, little elbow grease. Okay, t But if you remember the original one from the store, that thing was So I needed to compensate for that and beef up the sides of t Now, the most important part, in my experience It doesn't matter how awesome you build the piece. If the finish sucks, the piece sucks. Now, I'm using angle grinder and a wire wheel. What I'm trying to do is remove the soft grain from the wood and retain the hard grain. T And t So I need t And t I'm adding some stain. And t Kind of It's got undertones of browns and grays just popping through and it just looks awesome, right? Well, t So far, my plan is working out pretty well. $110 to build t And buying it and spending $5,000, that seems absurd. But since no one's asking me, we'll just move forward with the second layer of paint. You can see how it'starting to come together. And you can still see that dark brown popping through in some of the low parts of the grain. That's that old, weathered effect. Nice, right? Now let's take a look at t And here it is in the space. I mean, I pulled it off, those dovetails, the finish. This thing looks like aged l I really nailed it. I'm really proud of myself. My wife loves it and she's already decorated it. Would you DIY it?