Home made furniture

When living off the land, it is helpful to acquire some skills to make the things we need.  It has been a slow process for me to wake up to that reality, but I am starting to embrace it and have fun!  I love working with wood and I've explored my talents on making numerous pieces of furniture.

My journey started with the butcher block counter tops for the kitchen.  The earthship is always in a state of construction, but over time it will get done as we are doing everything without mortgages or debt of any kind.  So it takes time to get everything done.  

This picture was taken when I installed the counter top.  I just cut 3/4" strips out of 12 foot long 2x4's that were salvaged from a pipe line project.  This wood would have been buried if my friend did not save it from the hole.  It is amazing how much stuff industry buries when they are done with it rather than finding alternative uses.  So our counter tops is made with industrial waste!  

My next challenge was to make a bench and end table with a very large tree that had fallen during a storm.  I wanted to honour the tree rather than just burning the wood.  So I made two benches and two end tables, cut with a chain saw and sanded down to finish them.  Turned out okay for my first attempt!

This one sits in my family room now with a round glass top on it.  

I had some ply wood kicking around so I made this bassinet from a plan that came out of dad's old Popular Mechanics books.  Turned out nice.  I ended up staining it and giving it as a gift to a dear friend of mine who just had a baby a few months ago.  

I got my hands on seven lifts of scrap 5/8 plywood from a manufacturer in the city that makes truck box liners.  So what can I do with all these scraps?  I make boxes.  Lots of boxes!  They can hold more than any cardboard box and will last much longer too!  

As my skills increased, I was then confident enough to tackle building a canopy bed for us.  What would normally sell for several thousand dollars I made from birch on the land we steward and the total cost was a few days of my time.  

I will also add that all this stuff was made with solar power, except for the log bench and end tables!  They were made with a chain saw.  

I now work hard to build rather than purchase.  It is very satisfying to do this as well.  Start simple and before you know it, you are building everything!