This was a fun challenge because the entire apartment is only about 55m² (590 sq feet) with two bedrooms, so most commercially available furniture was simply too large for the space. The clients wanted to make the most out of every square meter, so I designed the entire interior around smaller pieces that would still be comfortable and functional.

I'm an architect, so I designed the whole space in Rhino first and then fabricated almost everything you see in my shop. Beyond the furniture, I also built the TV console, the sculptural wall cladding that continues into the entry hallway, the suspended light fixture, the mirror and picture frames, and the sofa and chair frames.

Most of the woodwork is solid maple, stained to a walnut color and finished with water-based polyurethane.

The TV and hallway wall was probably the most involved part. The fluted sections started as 1" thick glued-up maple panels and were CNC machined, leaving about 1/2" of solid material behind. I designed the fluting in Rhino so it starts and stops exactly where the angular pieces need to attach, leaving flat mounting areas.

The 3/4" maple angular pieces sit on 1" spacers so they float in front of the fluted surface. They're glued and screwed from behind with no visible fasteners. The wall sections sit on roughly 1 1/2" frames and hang on French cleats, which also created enough space behind them to hide LED strips for indirect lighting.

The floating TV console is also all maple. The black sections are maple drawer fronts painted for contrast. What looks like a separate shelf on the right is actually part of the same assembly, with the angular back providing the support.

I also built the dining table and chair frames. The table base is made from individually CNC-cut maple slats fitted into circular maple rings, with a Calacatta stone top. The chairs and sofa use floating mortise-and-tenon joinery with Domino tenons. I built the frames in my shop and then sent them out for upholstery.

The two small stools were made from glued-up stacks of maple and turned on a CNC lathe.

The black angular element running across the ceiling is actually a light fixture I designed and built from plywood. It's a hollow structure with all of the wiring concealed inside, and the shape and openings for the individual lights were CNC cut before the entire assembly was painted black.

I also made the floating maple frames for the mirrors and artwork. I worked with a local artist who created the artwork itself.

The whole project took about two weeks to design and another month and a half to fabricate and install. Everything was fabricated in my shop and then brought to the apartment for installation.

It was a lot to fit into a small space, but designing everything together meant I could control the proportions of every piece and make the most of the available room while keeping the same material and design language throughout.

Happy to answer any questions about the design or build process.

I am constructing a bookshelf for my daughter’s nursery. The joinery is a dado front to back about 1/3 the depth of the wood (lumber is milled to about 3/4in, so the dado is about 1/4inch) and the middle third of each shelf is a through tenon.

I cut my dados a hair too wide. Based on my feeler gauge, it’s about .031inchs, or around 1/32. The dry fit shelf is far from wobbly, but it has more movement than I’d like. I’ve done this same shelf once before and my dados were so tight that the glue up was a stressful nightmare, nearly catastrophic.

A big part of me says to do nothing. Glue it up, and it will be plenty rigid. But I also want it to last a lifetime. At this stage, what would you do?

Just finished this coffee table, was not sure in wich direction im going with this build but it came out as one of those old vintage tables.

Top is solid black walnut and base is red oak.

I make pixel-art coasters out of white oak on my CNC, and I’ve been chasing a “shiny” version for a while. Finally got there, but I honestly can’t tell anymore if I nailed it or went too far.
The process: each blank gets cut in one setup — the pocket, the border, the corner details. Then the art goes on. The shiny ones get two extra steps after that. Real 24k gold leaf laid into the small stars around the sprite, and glitter mixed into the epoxy before the pour.
The leaf was the hard part. It’s thin enough that a stray breath takes it off the brush, and once it’s down in a star that small there’s no correcting it. I ruined a few learning that.
The glitter epoxy is doing most of the visual work. Flat printed color goes glassy, and the light travels across the pixels when you tilt it. Which is also the problem — it’s nearly impossible to photograph. Every shot either blows out the sparkle or flattens it completely, so these pictures are underselling it.
Every image is the normal version next to the shiny one. The Gengar is my favorite of the four; the purple reads completely differently under the epoxy than it does flat.
So: does the shiny version hold up, or is the glitter tipping it into cheap territory? And if anyone has a trick for photographing sparkle without losing it, I’m listening. Or even improving the shiny side of it, I am all ears! Cheers! 🍺

Sapele finished with Rudy Osolnik's universal finish recipe.

Construction is doweled dados and finger joints. Hardware is all from Gerstner.

I’m starting my woodworking journey by building out my workshop. I’m currently attempting shop cabinets for the first time. This project required my first hardwood purchase, which was ~16 board feet of maple (~$240). I milled the maple into face frames, as well as rails and stiles for cabinet doors using my planer and table saw.

I’m a complete amateur when it comes to lumber, but I was surprised by the variation in colors across these maple boards. There are also many knots and a few small voids and worm holes.

Is this normal for maple? Or is this just poor lumber? I live in a remote area in Wisconsin with essentially no choice for buying hardwood (I had to drive over an hour for this purchase). I wouldn’t be surprised if the shop took advantage of me as a first time buyer.

I’m not worried about the looks of the cabinets (which I like in a way). These are for the shop, and the wood is perfectly sound for this purpose. But if I intend to buy “clear” maple for future projects, how would I go about clarifying my expectations at the time of purchase? Thanks in advance for helping the new guy.

A hurricane decimated much of my woods several years ago. The vast majority of trees that came down were maple, and the majority of those are curly and figured maple. I have more maple than I know what to do with at this point, but damn if it isn't pretty.

I milled and assembled the cherry frame, then designed a weaving frame to go inside of it. It took a few iterations to figure out how to make the inner frame strong enough to withstand all the tension of the weaving. After trying a few different weaving patterns I decided to go with a simpler one to allow the light to pass through consistently. In the future I plan to modify the frame to try some patterns more reminiscent of weaved chair seats, and to try a few different shapes and sizes for the frame. The frame is finished with osmo oil.

These cabinets for my boys' playroom were sitting at 99% for almost a year. Finally got round to finishing the drawer fronts and oak tops and can call this one complete. Very pleased with how it all turned out.

It's just basic carcasses made out of 18mm mdf. Pre finished the oak mdf and pre painted the mdf for the open shelving before assembling those carcasses. Drawers were bought in as I'm not good enough for dovetails, haha. The arches were tricky with the router and essentially assembled a massive face frame to stick on.

Finish was rubio natural and I can't remember the paint colour but had the word coral in it I'm sure, haha.

https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/s/h4cX37V99G Edit: my parents only paid $12k. $30k was the quote.

Thank you everyone for your overwhelming feedback that my parents were ripped off. Also thank you to the many private DM's I received after the post was locked, who gave me vital information on what to say to B, examples of products they built for a similar price, how cheap of materials were used, and even a news agency who was willing to write an article.

Long story short: my parents fired B. The word of so many experienced woodworkers really bolstered their confidence. But before that happened, they tried to come to a compromise.

In email, I helped my dad write a "come to Jesus" message about the poor quality of the bookcase and demanded things be fixed properly by who they had hired: B. B admitted the workmanship was bad but he said hiring a sub is "normal" (despite all marketing, his contract, and previous discussions never mentioning this) and he still wanted M to fix it. He promised he would do a better job supervising. My parents warily agreed.

I then wrote a new contract for them to sign, that stated basic quality expectations my parents would use to judge the bookcase before paying the final balance. It also included a deadline (missing previously), and resolving any disagreements through arbitration. B was fine with the quality expectations but did not like anything else in the contract and wanted to keep things under his original contract which "protected both of them" (which is about 3 sentences of legal terms, vastly incomplete, and said he could demand payment and lawyer fees no matter what with no recourse for my parents).

Giving him more chances, patience, and grace than deserved, my parents responded and asked him to tell us what phrasing or clauses he would like in the new contract so they could both proceed confidently. B said no.

Before this email exchange, B had suggested putting a lien on my parents for non-payment. My parents are prepared. We have more than enough evidence. And B is incredibly lucky--not once in this whole disaster did they ever ask for a price reduction or refund. They were going to keep the cabinets and only have them rebuild the bookcase. They were willing to work through the problem but B remained stubborn and prideful.

So that's it.

I am going to tear out the bookcase for my parents. But first we'll leave it so any future woodworkers we interview can see and we can gauge their reaction.

Do you have any helpful tips on finding someone quality? Better search terms than "woodworker?" Key questions so we can judge if this person knows what they're doing?

We're near Indianapolis

I’m wondering if there is a sliding miter saw that I can lock the blade height on so I can use it to cut half lap joints as I would on a radial arm saw.

My Inca radial arm saw was stolen from a job site

This guy passed away and in came the estate sale people, they posted a pic of a random pile of dirty would and said $5 per board to get it all sold before the estate sale. I went and checked it out and after hours of digging through everything this is all the black walnut I could find. I said some aren’t full boards and some are odd shape and asked if they would take $50 for everything and they said yeah that would be great! Absolutely insane deal

Hi all, thought I’d share that the porter cable dovetail jig is 100$ off what it normally goes for.

https://www.menards.com/main/tools/power-tools/routers/porter-cable-reg-12-dovetail-jig/4210/p-1444425504459-c-10087.htm?srsltid=AfmBOorZGW5YNL7aw7EXzCHYdnrTtcigOIhtusLAm1Q-connXqlt4Nop

Question in the title. Some of it is still liquid, a large portion has congealed. Can I safely put this in a dumpster?

I am a high school wood shop teacher in need of some ideas. I have a few students this year with Autism. I am looking for some project ideas that I can do with them using hand tools. Any ideas are appreciated.

I made these 3 bookmatched veneers from one end of a maple board (8/4 x 8” x 10’). One end of the board looked like what I expect maple to look like, and on the other end the grain did this crazy thing. Is there a name for this? It isn’t really “curly” per se, and I don’t think it’s a burl - the grain rings just went nuts. I want more, and I want to know what to ask for when I call my lumber people. Thanks!

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I live in the Netherlands, so most products would be available. Went to a local construction supply store and got recommended this, took it home but I'm hesitant to use it.

Preferably I want something waterbased or non-toxic.

And is oil better or varnish?

creating a floating Walnut slab bathroom shelf for my wife. it's a half bath with a sink on top of the wood so it shouldn't get too much water just some splashes from the sink, but no humidity from showers. Any suggestions on an appropriate finish to use?

original post where I butchered my test piece and corrected my method using feedback from reddit.

Here I have my finished tabletop with 3 coats of osmo 5 hours in-between coats and Scotch Brite white pads. I'm sure I saw this in a video somewhere but I added the brite pad to my orbital sander and used it at the end to get any leftover - huge difference between this and hand wiping.

I haven't made my table legs yet but was really excited to post these results. thanks for looking

Hi all! I have a project where I need a glue up of larger pieces to be really, REALLY strong (big home climbing gym bucket holds). I know that glue joints are as strong/ stronger than the hardwood generally, but what if the pieces are too big for my jointer? Are void spaces or small gaps completely filled with glue as strong as the wood around it?

Put in a more straightforward example, what happens if I join two pieces of wood that aren't perfectly parallel and have a small gap in spots? Are the gaps (if fully filled with cured glue) as strong as the surrounding wood?

I generally use titebond 2 if that matters.

Thank you!

Whew was this a learning experience. The wife wanted a small cutting board for when we need to only cut one thing like an onion. After making my first board with a friend I decided I wanted to try to make my own and decided it was going to be end grain. I do not have the right tools for this job and it’s been a pain for the last few months of me getting everything flattened out. It’s not perfect but it’s finally good enough for me to call it a day.

I used Iroko and Padauk wood and when I cut the pieces using a hand made miter sled the pieces were all different heights. I hand planed the board to a certain extent and then used lots of 60 grit sandpaper to level it out before moving up to 220 as my final grit. Had to go back and glue up lots of cracks and there’s still one tiny one I didn’t notice until I oiled it but I’m hoping the board wax will fill that in. I used a router table with a crappy bit to get the edges curved but had a tear out in one corner. I hand sanded the edges until they were roughly even and round. Pretty proud with how it turned out and honestly just glad I’m done with it. It’s about 8.5” x 7”

I recently made a big rift sawn white oak table for someone and they asked if I could replicate the frame of a piece of artwork they have to hold a mirror. We didn’t discuss price and I plan to give them a good deal on it because everyone deserves one now and then. Curious though to know what others would charge. 56”x41” 2.5” deep

Does anyone else use Google Slides to lay out their projects. I find it works really good for simple stuff like this, nothing 3D though.