Making Pine Furniture

For the adventurous DIY home decorator, there is a very rewarding and fun hobby to indulge in: making your own furniture. The benefit of this hobby is that the furniture that you make is 100% your taste and exactly what you want in your house. It is also very satisfying to do some hard handiwork and to then live with the outcome of your own work. You can also take existing ideas and customise them to suit your needs and taste.

Before starting with hobby however, there are a few things that you need to take note of:

  • Firstly it is important to make sure that you have the correct tools with which to do the job. Depending on what you envision doing, the basics would be a decent handsaw, chisels, jigsaw, planes and a lathe. The rest is up to you. Remember that most timber places are willing to cut the wood into the lengths and sizes that you need for a minimal extra payment.

  • Look at the quality of the wood. Pine is a lovely, soft wood with natural grain markings and knots. Be careful of too many knots as this could weaken the wood. Also look out for knots that make holes in the wood. The knottier that pine furniture is, the better it looks.

  • Another consideration is the pattern that you want to use. Unless you have your own, unique pattern in mind, you can also find patterns in magazines, on the relevant websites or in books on woodwork.

  • Decide on the type of finishing that you want to put on the piece of furniture that you’re making. There is a variety of stains available and you need to choose the correct one for your environment and home. Remember to damp proof the wood first. If you want to use the wood’s natural colour, put on a decent, clear varnish that will protect the wood from liquid spills and heat.

Setting out to make the furniture, make sure that you have the correct dimensions and patterns ready before cutting the wood. Use a pencil and ruler to mark out the pieces that need to be cut and also draw the pattern on the wood so that you can easily cut and carve it out. Next you can choose to use either hand tools or power tools to do the cutting and the shaping for you. Remember that the furniture also needs to be sanded down. You can also use a power tool for this, but eventually you’re going to do the finer sanding work by hand.

Before applying the finish, make sure that there are no more rough spots on the pine furniture. When applying the damp proof and any stains, let each application dry thoroughly before applying the next coating. Make sure that everything is done undercover to ensure that no dust settles into the finish or that unexpected wind or rain interrupts the process. It may just ruin the finish and then you’ll need to redo it.

Once finished, put it into the room where it belongs and enjoy it for years to come.