Have you ever found yourself at an exhibition or handicraft store or wanting to redo your kitchen cabinets but didn’t know how? Woodworking is a common hobby that many people got into during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. While woodworking is a fun and exciting hobby, you might be interested to know that you can also make money doing it!
From building cabinets or furniture to carving animals out of small pieces of wood, there are no limits to what you can do with woodworking. In today’s world, everything that you get in a store is mass-produced. Owning something one-of-a-kind is lovely, which is why the woodworking market is always thriving.
In this article, we’ll take you through the best ways to make money through woodworking. We’ll explain what woodworking is, how to get started with woodworking, what tools to use, and the most profitable woodworking projects.
Let’s get right into it.
Table of Contents
What is /Woodworking?
Woodworking is another form of craftsmanship wherein one works with wood by cutting, carving, and shaping the wood to create a variety of things. These things can be for practical or daily use, such as a cupboard or bookcase. They can also be decorative things, like vases or fruit bowls.
In other words, woodworking involves working with wood to produce an object!
How to Start Woodworking & Earn Money?
If you want to start woodworking, you need to remember that you don’t necessarily need to invest in a studio space or a separate room. Instead, you can work in your backyard if you have one, or you could work from your kitchen table if you live in an apartment. Simply cover your floor with drop cloths to make cleaning up easier.
In terms of equipment, you’ll need some wood, of course, and a sawhorse. We’d recommend that you do some research before purchasing any other equipment so that you’re prepared for the projects you want to take on.
Once you’ve gotten your equipment, it’s time to dive into making money.
Every woodworker has a specialty, and you need to figure out what yours is. For instance, do you enjoy larger projects like building furniture, or do you prefer whittling or woodturning?
Here’s a short list of woodworking projects you can take on to make some extra money:
Build small pieces of furniture
Everyone who loves wooden furniture loves something handmade and unique to its creator. If you want to make some money quickly, we’d recommend that you build a set of chairs or small tables and sell them at a farmer’s market or a craft fair. If you have the time and skill to make each piece of furniture unique, chances are you will make more money than you originally anticipated!
Whittle small decorative objects
Building furniture can be pretty intimidating, mainly because you’re working with larger and more expensive pieces of wood. However, you could always try whittling smaller pieces of wood to make decorative pieces to display in a home. You could make small animals or birds. The best part of whittling is that you can do it in your spare time, and if you learn how to do it quickly, you can carve many figurines and sell them in large quantities at once.
Revamp furniture
If you’re a regular Tik Tok user, you might have noticed that flipping or revamping furniture has gotten quite popular in the last few years, and for a good reason. Once you learn how to sand, prime, and paint wooden furniture, you can scour thrift stores for old pieces of furniture and sell them for a profit. This allows you to spend less money but earn more!
Tips to Get Started Making Money Woodworking in your Own Garage
Before you jump the gun and get too excited about woodworking, you need to ensure that you have the right tools and enough space to kickstart your journey.
Find a Location
As we mentioned earlier, you don’t necessarily have to rent out a studio space or clear out a room in your home if you don’t have the money or resources to do so. Therefore, we’d recommend that you try and find a space in your home that you can clear of all woodworking paraphernalia when you’re finished with it.
However, if you plan on spending most of your time woodworking, then we’d recommend using a garage or spare room to store all your tools, equipment, and wood. If you have a full-time job and use woodworking as a creative way to express yourself outside of work, then a separate space can help you do some of your best work.
Buy the Required Tools to Woodworking Started and to Get Money
The list of tools to do any task can seem like it never ends, but here’s a list of the main tools you will need for woodworking.
Power drill
A power drill will help you drill holes, sand, and buff your work. If you invest in a wireless power drill, you might just end up making life easier for yourself because you can move it around in your working space. The wireless feature also means that you don’t have to worry about tripping over a cord or that your supplies get caught in the cord.
A circle saw
A circular saw will help you cut pieces of wood with straight lines. Once you’ve purchased a good quality circle saw, you don’t have to worry about trying to saw a piece of wood in a straight line! Just make sure that you’re comfortable with using power tools, and you’re all set.
Clamps
A good set of clamps will help you hold two pieces of wood together. If you’re someone who works with larger pieces of wood and struggles with fastening them together to glue them, for example, then the clamp makes this job a lot easier for you.
Sandpaper or a sanding machine
If you buy a sanding machine, you can sand bigger pieces of wood much quicker and more evenly. However, we’d also recommend that you purchase some sandpaper as well so that you can easily sand smaller and more intricately cut pieces of wood.
Buy Wood for Your Woodworking Projects
A woodworking project without any wood is just a project! If you’re a woodworking novice, we’d recommend purchasing less expensive wood the first few times you get started. This way, if you make any big mistakes, you’ll find that you haven’t spent a lot of money on wood that’s gone to waste! Once you get more comfortable and start experimenting with different types of wood, you’ll get a better idea of which woods you’re comfortable working with.
Build Custom Pieces of Wood Furniture
Once you’re comfortable working with wood, you can start building custom furniture pieces for people. You can either sell them online or at craft sales or flea markets. The best part about making custom furniture is that you might start to receive orders once your name gets out there! As a result, you can make a significant amount of money.
Make a Team
You can next start to build a team of woodworkers if you decide to start your own business and shop. In addition to hiring artisans, you might also need to hire someone to run your shop and manage all business expenses.
Decide What to Make
If building custom furniture isn’t something that you or your team is interested in, you can always try making other products to sell. For example, you could make wooden crockery. Since sustainability and eco-friendly products are becoming more popular these days, wooden bowls, spoons, and plates are likely to do well in sustainable and earth-friendly market spaces. Suppose you’re not interested in making crockery or flatware. In that case, you could always make home decor by whittling or carving smaller pieces of wood to create tiny animals and other decorative items.
13 Most Profitable Woodworking Projects to Make and Sell
Here’s a list of the top 13 most profitable woodworking projects to make and sell. If you love woodworking but don’t know what you want to make, this list will hopefully help you get started.
Wooden Toys
As we mentioned earlier, sustainability and treating the earth kindly are hugely important and necessary in today’s world, especially with climate change being what it is. Wooden toys are an extremely profitable project to take on, mainly because you can have more creative control and freedom over what types of toys you make. Wooden toys also allow children to be more creative in their playing, especially if they can dismantle a toy and put it back together. If you paint and embellish the wooden toys with nontoxic materials, then you’ll realize that wooden toy making is extremely fun.
Wooden coat racks
Everyone loves making a fashion statement when they wear a fabulous new coat. However, this doesn’t mean that your home doesn’t need to make a fashion statement either! Coat racks can be a wonderful woodworking project to take on. You can choose to take on custom orders so that your clients have racks that work very well with the space they live in.
Fruit bowls
As you might have realized, we recommended making plates or bowls from wood. In addition to wood being a sustainable material, it also adds aesthetic appeal to your home. There’s nothing more classic than a wooden bowl filled with fruit on a dining table!
Wooden Utensils
If you choose to make wooden utensils, you’ll probably sell out of whatever stock you have very quickly! Wooden utensils are becoming more and more common in today’s world, especially as people move away from using plastic utensils and disposing of them after a single use. If you have a wooden spoon and fork in your bag at all times, you’re making a small but noticeable difference to the earth!
Raised Garden Beds
Raised garden beds are extremely popular among people who love to garden because they help you control how healthy your soil is. One of the best parts of woodworking is that you can customize a raised garden bed to suit your clients’ needs and the amount of space they have.
Birdhouses
If you want to diversify your products and start building something new, birdhouses might be the way to go. They can brighten up a garden while also attracting lovely birds at the same time!
Floating Shelves
We’d argue that floating shelves are one of the more straightforward woodworking projects to take on, simply because they are just pieces of flat wood built to be attached to a wall. They are easy to put together and quick to make!
Rustic Signs
Rustic signs add to the aesthetic appeal of a home. Woodworking is an excellent trade because of its versatile versatility, and rustic signs are the perfect example of said versatility.
Cedar Planter Boxes
Planter boxes are easy to make because you only need a few slates of wood and some screws to get the project done. We love cedar planter boxes because they are easily customizable and quick to make.
Pallet Wood Coat Rack
A pallet wood coat rack is another project that is easy to whip up quickly. All you need is a bit of wood and a few screws, and you’re all set!
Step Stool
A wooden step stool is easy to build, and it adds to the overall look! Think about it. You don’t want to display an ugly metal or plastic step stool in your home, but a wooden step stool can add to the decor in your space. You can even hang things on it!
Tealight holder
A tea light holder is small and easy to make, which means you can make several in a single go and sell them quickly!
House numbers
This last project idea gives you the chance to build something creative and beautiful. You can choose from a variety of fonts and sizes and sell them quickly.
How to Sell & Promote Your Woodworking Projects?
Starting a business of any kind is tough, and it can be hard to figure out a plan to make money, sell products, and promote them.
Here’s a quick guide to selling and promoting your woodworking projects.
Start Selling Locally
Before you jump the gun and open an online store, start selling your products locally. Keep an eye out for craft fairs or flea markets. You can also rely on word of mouth to help you make customized projects for friends and family. Don’t run before you can walk!
Selling Woodworking Online
Once you’ve built up some savings and have enough stock to open an online store, take the plunge and open an online store. You can either start an Etsy store or search online for other valuable platforms that will help you. The Facebook marketplace can also be a great place to start.
Share your Woodworking on Social Media
You can market your woodworking business by using social media. We’d advise you to do some research about what hashtags to use. Create various social media pages and use them to promote your business.
Join Online Communities
Search for online woodworking communities and network there. You’ll be surprised by how many like-minded woodworkers there are out there.
Join Quora and other Q&A Platforms
Join a question and answer forum like Quora. By doing this, you can provide feedback and create a name for yourself in the woodworking community.
Start a Woodworking Blog
If you’ve got the time and energy, start a woodworking blog. If you find something specific to you as a woodworker, then you can create several blog posts about it and share it online. You’ll reach a wide variety of followers in this manner.
Start a Woodworking YouTube Channel
You can also start a woodworking channel on YouTube! It can help you grow your business, while you can also share tips on how to woodwork.
Conclusion
In this article, we took you through the various ways you can make money woodworking at home. We also took you through the different woodworking projects you can do! The next time you work with wood, we hope you think of us.
About Carson Derrow
