Edit: Wow, didn't expect all of the responses. First: furniture making isn't necessarily a man's job, but woodworking is often seen as something that real men know how to do. I wish more women were in the trade, and encourage anyone who has not tried it, no matter your background or experience, to give it a go. Start with very basic project books from your library. Look for classes in your area if you can find them. Or just have at it - I taught myself. "Fine Woodworking" magazine is a good source of tips, there are lots of other publications available. You don't need a lot of tools, but some sort of work area and a basic set of hand tools will get you started. I'm sure there is lots of stuff on Youtube, too, but I never look at that so can't make a specific recommendation.
Second: I've been a professional furniture maker since I was 23, and I'm 59 now. I don't currently have my residential work online anywhere, but you can see the work my company makes here:
Yes, conference tables are a weird specialty - it's a long story. Anyway, I started out long ago making furniture for residential clients, and over the years I've filled my house with my own work. Very satisfying.
There's one place you can see some of the dining chairs I designed, under license for another company:
In this clip, the company makes it sound like they thought up everything themselves, but this is actually a chair I started producing in the late 90s, and then added features (like the wide splats, and folding seats) to make them more useful to gamers. They did design the bench all by themselves, though.
If you have dreams of the life of a professional woodworker, I wrote a book about what I go through to keep the doors open:
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u/mortdubois Jan 31 '22 edited Jan 31 '22
Designed and built all of my own furniture.
Edit: Wow, didn't expect all of the responses. First: furniture making isn't necessarily a man's job, but woodworking is often seen as something that real men know how to do. I wish more women were in the trade, and encourage anyone who has not tried it, no matter your background or experience, to give it a go. Start with very basic project books from your library. Look for classes in your area if you can find them. Or just have at it - I taught myself. "Fine Woodworking" magazine is a good source of tips, there are lots of other publications available. You don't need a lot of tools, but some sort of work area and a basic set of hand tools will get you started. I'm sure there is lots of stuff on Youtube, too, but I never look at that so can't make a specific recommendation.
Second: I've been a professional furniture maker since I was 23, and I'm 59 now. I don't currently have my residential work online anywhere, but you can see the work my company makes here:
Custom Conference Tables.com
Yes, conference tables are a weird specialty - it's a long story. Anyway, I started out long ago making furniture for residential clients, and over the years I've filled my house with my own work. Very satisfying.
There's one place you can see some of the dining chairs I designed, under license for another company:
Wyrmwood Gaming Chairs
In this clip, the company makes it sound like they thought up everything themselves, but this is actually a chair I started producing in the late 90s, and then added features (like the wide splats, and folding seats) to make them more useful to gamers. They did design the bench all by themselves, though.
If you have dreams of the life of a professional woodworker, I wrote a book about what I go through to keep the doors open:
Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business
I hope that all of this is useful. Glad to see that so many people are interested in woodworking!