Working with wood wasn’t always interesting for me. It was my brother, who got a wooden case with tools for Christmas. At my elementary school we learned how to make a flying duck or goose (I don’t remember so well) with a manual jig saw. When I did one of my occupational therapy internships at a rehabilitation clinic for children and young adults in the Netherlands, I used the same duck/goose project at the wood working area to work on concentration, hand strengthening, working with a step-by-step-plan etc. Slowly I got interested again! Now when I see my kids having Makers Space at school and having so much fun working with wood, I got into woodworking projects again!

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Tips and tricks for working with wood

I’m totally wood working nerd. I’m slowly getting into more projects with a higher difficulty level. But I just love to see kids getting creative with scraps of wood and then I want to make things too. Especially things for our home. Below you’ll find an awesome list of woodworking projects and here you can find a list with easy wood working projects for kids!

Safety First

Hertoolbelt.com will show you how to get started with tips and tricks on woodworking. She will go over how to protect the eyes, ears, nose and lungs and more about safety measurements.

General tips and tricks

Buying wood lately is not fun. The prices are so high, because a lot of people are doing home (renovating) projects and in need of wood. We’ve been going to the lumber places once a month now to spread the costs a little. I hope the prices are going back down again soon.

• Looking for the right kind of wood is important. Do you need it for an outdoor or indoor project? Is it humid where you live and how is the weather affecting the wood outside?

• Avoid, curved, warped, bowed twisted or split wood.

• Cut off factory edges, so the edges are nice and smooth, before you cut the right sizes for your projects.

• Sand pieces before putting your project together.

• Use paintable putty or caulk to get a cleaner look and stain or paint your project after.

• Measure and cut as you go.

• Use painters tape if you cut plywood. This will help getting a straight edge without splinters.

• Measurements of wood are different. For example if you buy a 4″x4″ (this is the rough cut), but the actual (surfaced) size is 3.5″x 3.5″. Hertoolbelt.com has a quick table with the rough and surfaced sizes.

Tools and materials

Here are some tools and materials I’m using, but as my projects are getting more advanced, there will be more I’m going to need:

goggles, mask, table saw, miter saw, drill press, clamps, tape measure, straight edge, speed square or layout square, sander, brushes, paint, old cloths or baby wipes, stain, wood glue and hot glue, gloves, hammer and nails, screws, pencil, screwdrivers.

I’m in the middle now of cleaning and organizing our wood shed. We just got a wooden floor in the shed, it still needs to get 2 or maybe even 3 protection layers of varnish or polyurethene. Then I can get more organized with peg boards for the above materials and tools. And a special area for M, where she can make her own creations.

10 Woodworking Projects for you to try

1.  Wooden board for bread or cheese

This is an easy project. You can buy blank boards and use a wood burner tool to write or draw something on it. Add a leather string or twine to make it more rustic.

If you have scraps of different kinds of wood, you can also make something more advanced like this, if you have table saw and clamps.

If you’re going for a more vintage look, here is a great blog post where to find the right wood and the right stain to use on wooden food boards.

2. Driftwood Travel keep sake

My friend was going to the ocean for a family vacation where a river flows in the ocean. Tons of driftwood washes up on the shore. She was telling me a fun idea she’s going to make as a keep sake, a memory of this beautiful family vacation time.

Hang all kinds of memorabilia on strings from a nice piece of driftwood to hang on your wall. It’s going to be a story by itself! Think of shells, pictures on small wash cloth pins, small bottles with sand, dried flowers, tickets to parks etc.

3. Wooden table for the couch

Last year I made this small table for our couch (problem #3 on this blog post). Perfect for small areas. It fits nicely under our couch and it is sturdy enough for my laptop. Our youngest turns it the other way for her to sit on the ground and eats her snack.

4. Chair for your cozy reading nook

This was one of my first “bigger” wooden projects…but so fun! My husband helped and it was great working together….with a building plan, that is! I’m definitely going to make more of these for outside!

5. Simple Trays

Any kind of wood you could use, but treat them with safe varnish, see #1 wooden boards. On Etsy you can find all kinds of vintage handles, like the ones in the picture. Easy and fun to make!

6. Blanket or towel ladder

This was a much needed project for us. I like the wood and the stain color. I’m not into the metal radiator towel racks. In the Netherlands these are very popular. I just like it vintage and cozy. It didn’t take me that long either to make it.

7. How to transfer photo’s to wood

There are several ways how to transfer an image to wood. Here is one that uses Mod Podge. If you have an ink jet printer, you can use this method to transfer an image onto wood. And this method uses acetone. Read the instructions well!

8. How to add letters to wood

With this project, I wanted nice letters on wood for my herb boxes. It was a fun project and I’m happy with the result.

9. Bowl with round wood chips

This is a fun way to use small slices of wood. I had some from a project, but they were too small to make Christmas ornaments, so this will be a beautiful, organic idea….and not to mention useful…to use smaller wood pieces. Find here how you can make one yourself.

10. Coat rack made of branches

And if you had enough slices of wood, you can use the branches with other branches sticking out of them (if you don’t have any in your garden, you can find them here) for this lovely coat rack. We live in the woods and this will be a perfect addition to our entrance.

I cannot wait how some of these turn out. I would love to see your woodworking creations. And oh, don’t forget to check out these 10 easy, but awesome kids projects with wood!

Danielle

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.