Staying Busy and Staying Motivated

Simple DIY projects that anyone can do!

Practicing social distancing and staying at home has been extremely hard for this girl! I love networking, coffee shop meetings and happy hours more than most so when I had no choice but to stay put I had to figure out how to keep busy.

I love woodworking, it has been a passion of mine for some time. I started with small projects like picture frames and worked my way up to an entire home remodel. These past few months I have had more time than usual to spend in my wood shop feeding my creative spirit.

"Working in my wood shop is like therapy for me. It gives me peace and calms me."

My most favorite projects I have completed to date are my Mid-Century style coffee table and a 3-foot by 4-foot wood lathe art piece. (pictured below)

Retro Coffee Table:

The coffee table was a super easy build and only cost me about $55 total. I picked out the nicer plywood by the wood grain and had Lowes cut it for me. I have my own table saw but it is so much easier for them to do it and at only .25 a cut it is definitely worth it!

For the legs, I used a 1.5in dowel rod and cut it to the height I wanted, mine are 4.5 inches tall. Once I had the table assembled, I used an air gun on mine, I stained it and let it dry. Super easy!

Reclaimed Wood Art:

Using reclaimed wood is so much fun to work with. Once you sand it down the grain is absolutely beautiful! Each individual piece of wood has its own story to tell.

This wall art piece is one of the first ones I created. This type of project is more advanced and takes more time. I used my chop saw for 100% of the cuts on this one. There are like 5000 or so 45’s (not really but it felt like it) and several 90-degree angles that had to be cut and stained before I could assemble it. I measure out the base piece to size and mark out the center from there, this creates my template for the lathe to be glued to.

Since this project I have built so many more, most of the time creating custom designs for others.

Working in my wood shop is like therapy for me. It gives me peace and calms me. Building a beautiful piece of art or furniture is just like building solid relationships with your clients and customers. You choose each piece of wood with care, appreciate the natural grain and mold it into something amazing. It takes time and patients, but the end result is so worth it!