Request for help/advice – what do you do when you have too much furniture?

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Charity route is the best option. I rarely make anything for family anymore but I enjoy working in the shop and i don't do it to make money. I either donate it or sell it for ridiculously low prices at craft shows and donate the money. I donate to Special Olympics, Fragile X, Autism, or the Arc. Take your pick. There are many groups that need the bucks.

[Doug Dawson]

This thread is probably not 100% consistent with the typical topics here in the Neanderthal cave. Nonetheless, if my fellow Creekers are willing to bear with me, I would very much appreciate advice and suggestions about how to best address what has become for me and existential woodworking question: What should I do now that our family has more furniture/woodworking projects than we need?

Move to a bigger house.

Or partner with a retail outfit that can sell your stuff. Giving it away to charity is the same as burning it, if it's free it won't be appreciated. Put some value on your own work. You may as well get something out of it.

[Joe Bradshaw]

Mike, my lady friend and I Have almost the same problem. We are both turners and spoon carvers and the occasional stool makers. Luckily, she has a large(15) family in the area. Every Christmas, we have a family Christmas dinner and then have games to determine who gets to get first pick of our stuff. So far, it has worked out well.
Joe

[Pat Barry]

Maybe time tomove into metalworking. Thats a nice complimentary skill to develop. Forging, welding, brazing, etc.

[John K Jordan]

Mike, one idea: make smaller things. Most people have limited space for furniture and other large things but might appreciate finely crafted and exquisite small things like jewelry boxes, trays - beautiful wood, well-crafted dovetails, perfect finish. If you want to make things to sell I think there is still a significant market for miniatures - I met someone recently who made and sold small things to collectors for their "doll" houses. Perhaps take up woodturning, wide open for creative exploration. You can easily make smaller things that can be given away. If sticking to hand tools, how about carving? Carved chess sets in in well-crafted tables/boxes with integral chess boards might be sold in galleries. I embellish small wood-turned things with chip carving and other carving.

[Stan Calow]

Mike, I approaching that point too. I've made just about everything I can for family and friends, and am not good enough or interested in making things for retail. My first step to phasing out is the hardest - not to buy any more wood. I want to use up what I have and move into turning more.

[Doug Dawson]

Mike, I approaching that point too. I've made just about everything I can for family and friends, and am not good enough or interested in making things for retail. My first step to phasing out is the hardest - not to buy any more wood. I want to use up what I have and move into turning more.

Here's another idea: have your wife hire an interior decorator. She'll make you get rid of everything you have and start over. That's useful for learning a different furniture style.

[Doug Dawson]

Maybe time tomove into metalworking. Thats a nice complimentary skill to develop. Forging, welding, brazing, etc.

That is so true. Metal is really hot in retail fine furniture right now.

That's something I'm going to have to get into. Currently I'm just embedding springs and rubber hoses into odd locations in the work, but it tends to weird people out and I'm going to have to start taking it more seriously.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Mike,

I have come into pretty much the same condition, and the approach I have decided to take ( or that has been forced upon me ):
1. If I want to make something I know we don't need, and the cost of material won't be to high for me to justify, I build and donate to our local Saint Vincent de Paul Society. They are very good at giving it a good home to someone that needs it or they sell it and use the money for real needs.
2. If someone comes to me, and want's something made, and I think it is something I will enjoy, I take on the job. This has the advantage that someone else pays for the material and I have a chance to earn just a little less than minimum wage for time I spend doing something I enjoy. I don't actively try and drum up any business. I just sometimes take it if it comes my way.
3. I have moved to making smaller things like tools (you can never have enough of those).
4. Last resort if things don't turn out on a project is that it can always go on the end of my driveway with a free to good home sign. So far, nothing I have done this with has remained more than a few hours.

[James Waldron]

When SWMBO and I down-sized, we found a consignment shop that took on and sold a lot of our surplus furniture, some my work, some purchased antiques, a few modern reproductions. We made a bit of money, not a lot, and solved the space problem in short order.

Since then, I've found a charitable outlet for a bit of my work.

In the next couple of months, son and wife are buying a new house and will have a few needs; I may be permitted to park a piece or two with them. That won't happen until he and I finish the urgent repairs and upgrades they are planning, of course. We manage to work together on projects without (much) violence.

[Matthew Cashman]

The obvious answer to me: make something that is very, very technically challenging. Make a period reproduction, or a bombe chest--or get in to marquetry, or do something that involves a lot of very ornate carving. Louis XIV. Once you've plowed four years into it, use it to replace one of your extant pieces. Give the older one away or sell it.

[Matt Lau]

An alternative option- How about post photos of your existing furniture as a "online gallery" for prospective clients?

Sell off stuff you're tired of, or make new stuff.
If you have a good reputation, you can be like Nick Offerman.

[Tom Bender]

How about using Face Book? I'm not a user but it seems like a way to find friends who could use the stuff.