One of the things I love about my family are their handicraft skills. Both of my parents are good at woodworking and a lot of things inside their home are handmade. I learned from an early age that simple furniture like desks, shelves or even cupboards can easily (and often more cheaply) be handmade instead of bought. Some of my favourite childhood memories are from woodworking with my mum.
I learned that a lot of things that look all complicated as a finished project, are often pretty easy to make once you’ve figured out the individual steps. It was for that reason that I never feared diving into a complicated looking DIY project (like a fully lined strapless silk dress with spiral steel boning).
My Honeycomb Shelves were one of those projects. I fell in love with the style after seeing this tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess. Then there was an empty wall above my sewing desk and I needed a dedicated space for all the small things that are useful to have on hand while sewing … and some pretty items to put on display. And so I just went with it.
It seems like those more advanced projects are something a lot of people fear, especially nowadays when we’re flooded with pinterest perfection and no-brainer DIY tutorials. People seem to think that woodworking is hard. Well, it surely is if you want to be a professional carpenter, but if you’re just doing it for fun, there are a lot of basic things that are really easy to do.
Basically, woodworking projects are just like sewing: They start with the first step and end with the last. Plus: You don’t have to make muslins and can even get around cutting sometimes, since most hardware stores that sell timber will cut it to your desired measurements for free. Once you have that, all you basically need to do is assemble.
I love my honeycomb shelves, even if they’re not super functional since cramming them with stuff makes them loose their impact. But they’re super nice for displaying pretty things like sewing patterns or art. By the way, these pictures were taken in my old sewing room and a tour of the entire room is coming up very soon.
Alright, that’s it for my first woodworking post. Now, back to photos of pretty garments.
