If you are considering making a pivot to woodworking, it is not advisable to start with complex projects. If you fail in such a challenging project, you might quickly lose interest in woodworking and mark it out as too difficult for you. You might also make up your mind, concluding that woodworking is not your cup of tea.
Woodworking, however, is not completely difficult. Yet, it entails developing your woodworking skills incrementally. This means you should start with basic woodworking projects, then transition to more complicated tasks. You cannot leapfrog from being a newbie woodworker to an expert without passing through an apprenticeship.
Best Woodworking Projects for Beginners
As a beginner, starting with simple woodworking projects will be best for building your confidence and woodworking skills. Once you’ve gained enough belief in yourself, you can transition to more complicated tasks. However, if you don’t know which projects to start with, you can check out the following most recommended woodworking projects for beginners:
1) Wall Hooks
Making wall hooks is always fun and delightful. Wall hooks, of course, have a functional role in your home. They can help reduce mess and clutter in any part of your house, for wall hooks will let you hang hats, coats, bags, mitts, etc.
You can infuse your creativity into these projects, letting your artistic flair emerge in every wall hook you create. As such, if you can make excellent wall hooks, you can surely bring a smile to your wife’s face.
2) Wall Shelf
Aside from wall hooks, you can also engage in building wall shelves. Wall shelves are undoubtedly a beginner project, allowing you to raise your measuring and cutting skills a notch. Besides, you can make your wall shelves basic or very versatile.
At the onset, you must decide which style and material you prefer for your wall shelves. For example, you can use softwood, plywood, particleboard, pre-made, or any other wood. Moreover, you may need brackets to support your wall shelves. Besides, a little stain can adapt the wall shelf to a room’s overall design.
3) Photo Holders
Another excellent way to improve your cutting skill is by making photo holders. You can design and paint these picture holders to complement your room’s design. Besides, you can create various picture holders for the different parts of your home. Photo holders, of course, are easy to make, but it can improve your measuring and cutting skills.
4) Key/Mail Holder
You may have the habit of frequently forgetting where you put the car keys or mails, and if you have such a habit, it will be best to make your first mail/key holder. You can wall-mount this key/mail holder and give it a stylish design that readily complements the wall of your room.
A key/mail holder can be simple plywood or any other type of wood. You can stain it to give it a rustic look. If you are great at engraving, you can engrave your name or any other name onto it.
5) Wine Rack
A DIY wine rack can be a great way of showcasing your bottle collections But building it is also one way of showcasing your improving woodworking skills. You can make simple wine racks or something elaborate.
Yet, as a beginner, you can start with a simple wine rack. Building a basic wine rack will not require high woodworking skills. But you can use this project to improve your woodworking skills.
You can make wine racks of various designs. For example, you can make a countertop wine rack, A-frame wine rack, wooden wall wine rack, wood crate, and many other wine rack designs.
6) Beer Caddy
You can make a wooden beer tote for 12oz bottles. Beer caddies, of course, are excellent gifts. But making a beer caddy may look easy, but it actually entails a good plan and detailed attention to your designed plan. You can invest in quality plywood and lumber for this project.
You can also infuse your artistic touch into your design. Building a beer caddy can help you enhance your cutting skills and let you get the hang of using the drill and the table saw.
7) Bathtub Tray
Building a bathtub tray is an excellent way to practice and improve your woodworking skills. Besides, having a bathtub tray when you take a bath allows you to have a place for your drinks and books while you are in the tub.
This tray doesn’t need an elaborate design. It can be as simple as cutting a wood piece that could stretch from one side to another side of your tub. Spruce it up with stain to it more impervious to moisture.
8) Coat Rack
Another excellent beginner woodworking project is a coat rack. You can select a good wood and carve the hooks out of the wood to make a seamless coat rack piece. You can also start with measuring and prepping the wall. Then, cut the wood and paint the board. Moreover, you can add hooks instead of carving the hooks right into the wood’s body.
9) Storage Box
Storage boxes come in various designs and styles. They also come in different sizes. Building a storage box allows you to enhance your skills in cutting and making joints. Besides, it will help you master the art of measuring and cutting materials.
Storage boxes are easy to make. You won’t need many power tools to complete such projects. Yet, they are undoubtedly handy for storing things and other stuff.
10) Monitor Stand
Another excellent beginner project to kickstart your woodworking career is by building a monitor stand. Of course, you might not need a monitor stand because you can just let the monitor sit on your desk. Yet, with a monitor stand, you can free some space on your desk.
You can use thin metal for the legs or just simply provide it with wooden legs. You can also bore a tiny hole at the back of the monitor stand for running the cables through.
11) Cutting Board
A cutting board is among the most straightforward projects you can engage in as a beginner in woodworking. So, if you are at a loss as to which project to make, you can make a cutting board. Besides, your wife will surely appreciate it and give you a treat if you can make her a nice cutting board.
You can make cutting boards of various sizes and shapes. Besides, you can practice cutting circles and irregular shapes projects if you make round cutting boards.
12) Wooden Spoon
You can make a wooden spoon in many ways. First, you can find a wood branch with the appropriate thickness and shape. Afterward, you can cut the wood down to its specific size. You can carve the wood using a knife and sand it to smooth it.
If you use the spoon for stirring, you can use walnut or oak. But if you use the spoon to scoop up food, you can use pine.
13) Scrap Wood Trivets
As you hone your woodworking skills by engaging in many beginner woodworking projects, you will soon accumulate wood scraps. You can make a trivet out of these scraps. Trivets can be an excellent addition to your home decor. Besides, you can sell them if you do them well.
You can improve your drilling and cutting skills if you engage in this project. Similarly, you can make your artistic side flourish with this simple and easy-to-make project.
14) Wooden Sofa Sleeve
You might not have thought about this project. But adding a wooden sofa sleeve can make your life a bit easier while whiling your time seated on your sofa. You can equip this sofa sleeve with a cup holder to prevent accidental spilling of your coffee.
You can make pocket holes using a Kreg jig, though using a Kreg pocket hole kit is just optional. You can also practice making holes in the wood as you engage in this project.
Conclusion
Newbies in woodworking should start with simple projects that are not complicated and challenging. Since your skill level is not yet advanced, you can incrementally build your confidence as a woodworker by completing simple tasks. Besides, you should develop a high level of patience as a woodworker. Without patience, you will never succeed as a woodworker.
In the past, to become an expert woodworker, you need to undergo an apprenticeship. A master woodworker would usually slowly guide an apprentice to learn the rudiments of woodworking. Then, gradually, the master introduces the beginner to more difficult woodworking projects to enhance the apprentice’s knowledge and skills.