That’s a good question….
I guess it all started when my daughter needed a shelf for her room. She wanted something stylish, and minimal, while my wife, and I wanted something that would last but not be too expensive. I had seen some industrial pipe furniture online, and figured it couldn’t be that hard. In the end… I was right; it wasn’t that hard.
However, it wasn’t cheap either! The piping alone from Lowe’s cost somewhere around $150. The 1×12 pine planks weren’t too bad, but I ended up closer to $225 when it was all said, and done. This was definitely not your Wish or AliExpress quality furniture though. I was able to stand on the top shelf without the thing breaking. She would never be putting so much weight on it, but I wanted something that would last, and be durable. She decided not to take the shelf when moving to Nashville, so we repurposed it to a bookcase / plant shelf in the living room. That was the first piece of true furniture I built.
When my wife’s green thumb kicked in, and she was able to keep plants alive for more than a few weeks, our house suddenly became a lush green landscape. It truly is beautiful. However, we didn’t have a lot of places to put the plants other than a few couch end-tables. So, alas, I built my second shelf. That was the beginning that started it all.
I’ve built more now, a few that are fancier, and a few that are strictly utilitarian. All of them serve a purpose though, to ease the clutter in our house, and provide a nice display for the things that are important to us. Not all of them are pretty, but that’s what happens when you begin something new. I rebuilt the base of my nephew’s crib since the original was lost, and made a lunch tray for my wife now that she gets to come home from work for lunch.
My next adventure is live-edge oak tables. The wood has been curing for almost a year, and I can’t wait to get it planed out and polished up. I’ve found that I prefer taking a custom design, and drawing up my own plans rather than working from someone else’s template. Let us build something custom for you from Timber & Pipe.
