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View Full Version : Project Bizzaro from Mrs.



Pat Germain
05-26-2007, 1:30 PM
Now that I'm getting my shop together, my wife has been voicing requests for what she'd like me to build. No problem there. She says she wants some low and short bookcases and things to hold small baskets and such. Check.

But we have a bizarre problem here. My wife keeps pointing to particle board and plastic laminate "things" at Wal-Mart and saying, "Build me one of those". Or, she points to something of bamboo and balsa wood stapled together at Linens & Things and says, "Why can't you build that?".

I tried explaining those aren't the kinds of things I want to build. "Too hard for you?" she says. I emphatically protest and get, "Oh, you're too good to build something like this?" :rolleyes:

It seems my lovely wife grew up in a house where every furniture item was the cheapest thing available at K-Mart. I bought her a pretty nice, solid wood dining set a few years ago and she was tickled pink. We also have a nice, knotty pine bedroom set. I'm not ready to build a dining room set or bedroom set, but perhaps Dear Wife doesn't understand there are things in-between the dining set and particle board boxes.

So here I am in project bizarro. Perhaps I should start with some nice cutting boards. ;)

Jim DeLaney
05-26-2007, 5:54 PM
Take a picture, or some measurements of whatever item she's pointing at, then make a piece using those dimensions and style, but make it from quality materials, and with sophisticated joinery.

For instance, one of those little $29 particle board & KD fastened bookcases, "copied" in cherry or walnut, with dovetail joinery might both satisfy and 'awaken' her.

Over the years, I've made several pieces from stuff that was 'idea shopped' from lower quality sources.

Jason Boushard
05-26-2007, 5:58 PM
my wife does the same thing lol

Ian Abraham
05-26-2007, 7:07 PM
The problem is you are looking at the same item, but seeing different things.
You see a crappy piece of mdf and plastic held together with staples :o
Your wife see a piece thats the size, shape and colour she wants. :rolleyes:
She doesn't even look to see if it's stapled or dovetailed together, and the mdf looks sorta like wood.

So make a sketch, draw up a rough plan and build it. Pick a wood or stain thats looks similar.. heck even make it out of knotty pine if thats what she likes. But built it with dovetails, M&T joins and whatever other nice joinery you want to use. Your wife might not appreciate that, but she will have a decent piece of custom built furniture that looks how she wants, and you can quietly smile and plan the next project.

Cheers

Ian

Pat Germain
05-26-2007, 8:08 PM
Great ideas, guys. Thanks. I guess this is yet another example of the "Mars & Venus" thing.

John Schreiber
05-27-2007, 1:19 AM
I’ve seen a lot of this recently and I think there are two issues going on.

1) For whatever reasons people just don’t understand or appreciate quality.

2) People pick things based on fashion and they know that fashion will change in a short time and they will end up throwing stuff away away, so they don’t see any benefit to owning quality.

There are a lot of good and bad explanations for those things, but I think it reflects poorly on society.

Pat Germain
05-27-2007, 9:53 AM
Hey, that's a good point, John. Similarly, I helped a friend move last year. She had just married and was moving into a giant house. When I was loading the truck, I kept seeing one cheap, flimsy shelving thing after another. Some were wire, some were bamboo, some were particle board. Seriously, there must have been about fifty of those things.

I remember thinking if my friend wasn't using free labor, it would be best to just throw those shelving things away. Quite literally, the cost of moving those things would outweigh the purchase value if using a professional moving company. Those things took up and wasted a lot of space.

Had my friend asked me to move about fifty nice hardwood shelving units, I actually would have enjoyed it.