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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 s
by groby_b 13y ago
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 :)
- silverlake 13y agoMy gf is doing it now using a carpenter found on Etsy. It will be cheaper than comparable furniture from West Elm or Restoration Hardware. But this is for tables, not for a couch. Unfortunately, she started on the project before I could teach her SketchUp. She and the carpenter email sloppy drawings back and forth. We have no idea what we'll receive this month.
- rayshan 13y agoHas she blogged about her experience anywhere? Would love to hear more.
- eshvk 13y agoI have been doing experiments by getting stuff from shelves to frames built by etsy folks. It has been working out somewhat well. I do have to add a few modifications on my end. Haven't scaled up to a couch yet.
- groby_b 13y agoShe found a local carpenter, or somebody will ship cross-country?
- swalsh 13y agoDepending 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 13y agoThat table is fantastic.
- chrissyb 12y agoAgreed, nicely detailed!
- mercwear 13y agoI am an amateur woodworker and you are 100% correct on the price of wood. It's based largely on geography as well. I cannot tell what type of wood was used for the build but the frame of that table appears to be pine which is pretty cheap in most areas (and a decent wood too!).
- rpenm 12y agoI like a nice through mortise.
- ImprovedSilence 13y ago>> If you talk to carpenters in the US, you'll find that making furniture is a tiny bit more expensive. Na, you just need to figure out who to go to. My buddy lives in SE Pennsylvania, and he had as some seriously nice furniture made by some of the local Amish. Total cost for his bedroom and kitchen furniture combined-> $1200
- groby_b 13y agoI think that's a fairly large exception. We don't all have friendly Amish around :)
- justin66 12y agoIt's a bigger exception than you think. The Amish are as good as anyone at figuring out how much their work is worth. It's not usually such a steal.
- vailripper 12y agoThat's quite surprising - Amish furniture tends to go for a massive premium!
- bigyellowtruck 12y agoA note on nomenclature in the US: A $2,000 [or $5K] couch is "woodworking" or [furniture making] not "carpentry." The perceived value is based on a hugely different frame of reference. A carpenter can come to your house with a helper and a pickup truck full of tools and charge you $15,000 to remodel your bathroom with materials bought exclusively from home depot. sad.