Woodworking Projects You Can Do At Home

Above: Order wooden doll making parts from a woodworking supplier, and make the cutest wooden toys ever. And if you’ve never seen all the supplies available, enjoy!

Looking for some woodworking projects that you can do from home, in order to inject individual style and comfort into your space in the new year? Harness all that “new year” energy and delve into some simple projects that you can easily do from your own home workshop. The project ideas I’ll share with you here involve a few power tools and would likely be done in a garage space. If you don’t have a place where you can truly make a mess with wood dust and noisy tools, not to worry I don’t either, though I’ll admit I do dream of that sometimes…….and it is fun to learn about projects that I might theoretically do! Okay, lets get started!

Simple Wall Shelf Or Set Of Shelves

Creating a simple wall shelf, or a set of shelves, is quite simple, and it can change the entire ambience of the room. It takes little to no effort to style a wall shelf, and it can easily change the mood in the room depending on which direction you choose. You can arrange photos to create a montage with multiple shelves, or use a single shelf to display a stunning art piece. The options are endless, and not time consuming. Be sure to select the finish of your choice in order to make sure the shelf works with your decorating scheme. Honestly, the lengthiest part of this project would be cutting the boards to the exact size necessary for your project.

You’ll likely want to use a table saw for this project, and if you don’t already own one, it is a great investment for anyone that loves to DIY (and has the space for the saw.) There are many table saws out there, and detailed reviews of these options might assist in educating you about your decision. If you’re looking to complete more than a few woodworking projects around the house, investing in a table saw might be just the thing to make sure you actually complete those projects of your dreams!

Above: Love these oh so simple wooden plant troughs, an amazing way to add interest to a rustic table.

Rustic Plant Troughs

A really great way to keep your table looking great is with these rustic plant troughs that can be made from recycled wood. The trough is simply a wooden box made to fit little pots of plants, and you can even choose to make one very long trough or two smaller ones as shown here. This is a great beginner project as imperfection add to the charm. Now you have an excuse to go out and buy a whole bunch of little plants, or make some with cuttings from existing plants. While the plants shown here are leafy varieties, succulents would work well too. If you want to fill your trough with vases of water in which to root cuttings, make sure to make the trough high enough to hide the vases or jars. Hmmm, I think I need a bunch of these!

A Home For Local Wildlife

While it sounds more like a high school woodworking class project, creating your own birdhouse can be lots of fun and make a great decorative accent in your garden.  If you love local birds, why not put your woodworking skills in the right place and make them a house? With this project you can be simplistic or go all out and give the birds a fancy hotel. Get creative with the stain, or consider painting your birdhouse to match the style of your own home. Just remember to place the birdhouse at a fair distance from the actual house so the birds will feel comfortable settling in.

Above: Cutting boards are definitely something I would make if I had a workroom and a power saw!

An Over The Kitchen Sink Shelf

By placing a shelf over the tap of the sink, you’ll create a practical place to store kitchen items or even grow a few plants. As long as the shelf is high enough to allow easy access to both faucet handles, and isn’t obstructing a window view this can work perfectly. You will have the added benefit of increasing the aesthetics of your kitchen (as you can use the shelf for practical and decorative items) and you’ll also have added surface area to store anything you might need handy near the sink.

Create A Private Lock Box

When it comes to the simple side of things, this one is extraordinarily simple, but it offers you some privacy and/or safety. If you have kids at home, and you have spare wood, this project is for you. You can easily put together a lock box of various sizes, and if there’s anything the little one’s shouldn’t be getting into you can keep it locked up and out of harm’s way. If you’re creative you might even design your latch out of wood. This is a perfect example of a simple woodworking project you can do from home to use up spare wood, and practice your skills.

These are just a few of the many projects you can do from home. There’s really no end to the variety of items you can create with wood, from converting old furniture into something useful, or making a sweet doll bed for your kids. A simple wall shelf is certainly a great beginner’s project to take on, as is creating rustic troughs to hold little plants. Give your backyard wildlife some space to build a home, or increase the surface space in your kitchen. Whatever you choose, the satisfaction of creating things for your home is a great way to start the new year!