
The Pleasure of Designing your own Furniture - duopixel
https://medium.com/@duopixel/2b093e64c88
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mashmac2
For those who haven't yet read The Existental Pleasures of Engineering by
Florman, I highly recommend it; it's short, concise, and talks about how
engineering/hacking/building can bring satisfaction to those who practice it.

[http://www.amazon.com/Existential-Pleasures-Engineering-
Thom...](http://www.amazon.com/Existential-Pleasures-Engineering-Thomas-
Dunne/dp/0312141041) (non-affiliate)

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groby_b
I'm happy he could have it made for $1,150 - in Mexico. If you talk to
carpenters in the US, you'll find that making furniture is a tiny bit more
expensive. A single couch can easily be $5K.

I've considered it, done the investigation, and decided I don't want to spend
that kind of money. Turns out that "Scandinavian Furniture" is doing quite
well :)

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swalsh
Depending on the type of wood, 1k might barely cover materials. Walnut for
instance might be pretty close to $1k for a table. I recently built a dining
room table out of Red Oak, and it was close to 300. Red Oak being one of the
cheaper hardwoods available in New England.

[because i'm shameless.. here's my table
[http://i.imgur.com/6RBAEkc.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/6RBAEkc.jpg)]

~~~
Domenic_S
That table is fantastic.

~~~
chrissyb
Agreed, nicely detailed!

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snide
I've taken it one step further and actually learned basic furniture carpentry.
I'm primarily a UI designer by trade but I found the skills easily
transferable. In an odd way it's no harder than the basic layout CSS I write
every day.

The big different of course is that when I mess up with wood I can't just
erase everything and redo it. Woodworking has taught me to slow down.

~~~
atom-morgan
> I'm primarily a UI designer by trade but I found the skills easily
> transferable.

Would you mind highlighting a few of those?

~~~
snide
Sure. Most of woodworking is measurement of rectangles. That's pretty much my
entire day in CSS. Instead of pixel pushing I push inches. Woodworking even
has it's own box model. When I make a cut on a table saw I need to account for
Kerf, which is the part of the wood being stripped away. It's like a border
1px on my box :)

The rest is just basic design. If you know how to arrange a web layout, you'll
find designing furniture much more fun.

Probably the reason I like it most is the permanence. Although sites I've
designed for the web have lasted decades at this point, none of them keep the
actual design for a year or two. When I build something in wood it's going to
be like that forever. The only thing I can do is repaint it.

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handzhiev
My girlfriend designed almost all the furniture in our house (she's not a
professional designer), and I think it's far better than if we bought
something ready (we live in odd-shaped small house).

The cost were approximately the same as buying form IKEA. It was now, I would
try to build build some of the furniture myself. A couple of years ago we got
a local woodworker do it. Decent price, furniture built especially for our
home, my girl happy to see her own ideas live, the local woodworker making
some money - it was win for everyone.

~~~
bigyellowtruck
hmm. I wonder if you check back with this woodworker to see if s/he is still
in business and can match the prices. in my experience, you can't even buy the
raw materials for the same cost that Ikea can put out a finished product.
[though ikea's prices are getting higher and the material quality is getting
worse on the majority of their wood products.]

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msandford
It's a luxury that few working in the US can afford in the US. He paid $1100
for all that furniture. Getting that done custom by a craftsman
(craftsperson?) here in the US would probably cost a multiple of at least 2x
and perhaps 5x.

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jowiar
The bed/couch is interesting, in that the original inspiration was the mid-
century classic George Nelson Case Study collection (Modernica makes the
canonical version - it's an awesome modular collection of tables and couches
and beds and things) that Urban Outfitters created their version of, then the
author worked based off of that, largely reinventing the original.

~~~
mturmon
The Nelson sofas seem to have seats that recline slightly, which would make
putting them together into a bed unworkable.

But the Nelson daybeds ([http://modernica.net/day-beds/view-day-bed-
series/](http://modernica.net/day-beds/view-day-bed-series/)) are very close
to what he did. Good eye to notice this!

It's worth saying that modernist furniture of this type can be relatively easy
to copy and riff off of. The Eames furniture and accessories are another
touchstone of the style.

~~~
jowiar
Aye - the daybeds (and the beds) were what I was referring to.

So much of that mid-century design was focused on designing things that could
be constructed affordably - this largely came from the same post-WWII era of
suburbanization where building houses affordably was solved, and a whole lot
of middle-income folks needed to furnish their new houses. Roll this forward a
few decades and we have Ikea's flat-pack furniture, and what was effectively
the 1950s Ikea became "trendy" and "designer" and got priced up.

~~~
mturmon
Yes, another example of the middle moving up is Gregory Ain
([http://marvistatract.org](http://marvistatract.org)) or Eichler tract homes.
Originally made inexpensive for a mass market, and now really prized as a
relatively high-end pedigreed home.

I'm not aware of a parallel to Ikea in home building today. Maybe some of the
urban infill you see.

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brenschluss
To be honest, I think most, if not all design was done by the carpenter here.
Without any dimensions or details or notes or specifications, this is more
like: "The pleasure of commissioning someone to design furniture based on your
own sketches."

It's akin to someone saying, "I made an iPhone app! I drew a bunch of pencil
sketches for a wireframe, and gave it to someone who then built it for me!
Everyone should make their own iPhone apps."

Never mind, of course, that the 'someone' had to interpret the sketches,
create mockups, create design assets, develop and test the iPhone app.

If he gave dimensioned drawings with a standard 4-view layout, with some
pencil sketches, specified the materials, and/or created the design through an
iterative process with the carpenter, then sure, I'll call that design. But
design, this isn't.

HN would understand that most of the importance is in the execution of the
idea. This is a furniture analog to "I have a great idea for an app/website -
I just need someone to build it!"

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mlader
CustomMade ([http://www.custommade.com](http://www.custommade.com)) is a great
place to emulate this process, i.e find a craftsman/maker who can help you
ideate and create great pieces of furniture, jewelry, and other crafted goods.
Check us out if you're interested in buying custom and aren't sure where to
start!

~~~
mlader
Also for any hubot fans out there, we commissioned one of our makers to create
a statue of him for GitHub. [http://www.custommade.com/model-of-
hubot/by/impressiveprotot...](http://www.custommade.com/model-of-
hubot/by/impressiveprototypes/)

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michaelbuckbee
An interesting point on the design your own furniture vs buy prebuilt spectrum
is to treat Ikea furniture as base components that you then customize to your
exact needs.

Definitely not as nice as what the OP had commissioned, but likely less
expensive and easier.

Tons of examples: [http://www.ikeahackers.net/](http://www.ikeahackers.net/)

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PhasmaFelis
Some Ikea furniture is modular from the get-go. I have a Galant desk setup
that I'm incredibly happy with: I mixed-and-matched frame and tabletop parts
to get an L-shaped desk that fits my space and needs perfectly, and combined a
small half-round tabletop extension, three short furniture legs, and a package
of felt pads to make a monitor/speaker stand that I can reposition and store
stuff under.

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the_french
While it may be too expensive to have it made entirely by a craftsman the US,
if you're up to the challenge you can join a woodworking shop and learn how to
build it. It will certainly take more time but you will get a more complete
experience than simply designing it.

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justinlloyd
There is a distinct tactile and visceral pleasure in designing and building
your own furniture that goes beyond the pleasure I receive design and building
complex software projects. The permanence, the necessity of planning, the
measuring, the careful diligence required at each step.

Most of the furniture in the condo I inhabit with my wife is either designed
by us and built by me, or designed by us and built by a local craftsman. We
have been very happy with everything we've acquired so far. There are a few
"stock pieces" that came from various furniture stores, those themselves
either being one offs or antiques, but for most part, it is all custom.

The prices however? Oh how those prices cause us pain. The raw material costs
alone are eye-opening. Having a craftsman build furniture for us after we have
designed it, causes frequent sticker shock. I just know if I walk in and want
something, we are talking North of $2,000 as just the opening price. We have
been on a bit of a spree this year buying five new pieces in the first half of
the year whereas normally we buy one piece per year.

The one thing I know about the furniture that is our home is that it will last
probably longer than our lifetimes and other families will hopefully derive
pleasure and utility from the items long after my wife and I are both gone.

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patrickfl
I've just started getting into making my own furniture last year. I've found
it is a really code release from coding/designing/staring at devices all day
long. Building a website or app is very rewarding, but there is a different
feeling when you build something with your hands that you actually use. It's
nice to have an actually hobby.

I've made 2 tables and a desk. It started out of necessity: I have a really
weird obtuse-angled wall that no desk would fit inside. Wrote a post about it
if anyone wants to see. [http://bit.ly/1k6XiU7](http://bit.ly/1k6XiU7)

Haven't moved onto chairs/couches etc because the whole upholstery thing kind
of scares me. Also - you can easily build most furniture for a few hundred
dollars, but you have to look for it! I have a construction dumpster near my
house right now with a ton of old pallets they are throwing out, that right
there is enough to make some really cool stuff. Also re-purposing is really
"in" right now so in my opinion even better :)

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reitanqild
While I haven't designed my own furniture I insist that it should be real
honest wood (now). Which means I can just give it a polish if the kids scratch
it. Or sand it if necessary.

Also a lot of the furniture is bought from someone around here who had found
something they liked even better.

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mdturnerphys
One path for would-be furniture makers to take is to send computer files to a
computer-controlled router, which are becoming more available via local
makerspaces or sites like 100kgarages.com. (If you happen to have access to a
high-powered laser cutter you can make do with that too:
[http://guavaduck.com/laser/#bed](http://guavaduck.com/laser/#bed)) Starting
points for designs are available from sources like
[http://atfab.co](http://atfab.co), and 3D CAD software is helpful, but not
necessary.

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grey-area
Those chairs are particularly nice. Really nice design, and nice to see the
inspirations too. It's a shame that in many countries (UK and US) carpentry
has become a rarified trade only available to the rich - perhaps with
increasing automation we'll learn to appreciate jobs like this again, making
something wonderful and unique by hand.

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deltaqueue
For what it's worth Buildasofa.com in the US seems to be making custom more
affordable. I can't speak to the quality as I haven't ordered anything, but
several friends speak highly of them and I believe their prices are far below
the $5k number being thrown around.

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alexkiritz
Based on their website it sounds like they just modify their existing designs.

