My Next Obsession

For those of you that know me in real life (or IRL, if you are cool!), I tend to go in obsessive phases.  Upholstery, sewing, knitting (that's been awhile), painting (walls, not the art kind)-- there's a long line of these.  Something catches my interest, I learn about it, start doing it, go crazy for a few weeks or months and then move on.  Sometimes I come back to these phases and re-visit the obsession.  Why do I explain this to you?  Because I feel a new obsession coming upon me.

FreshNestDesign, written by Erin and Deb, featured this site yesterday. (And if you don't follow Fresh Nest Design, you should.  It's an interior design blog for regular people.  By regular, I mean people who don't have a 5 digit budget to re-do a room-- more like $200 and a Home Depot gift card!)  Anyway, Ana at Knock Off Wood knocks off furniture she sees in Pottery Barn, West Elm, Land of Nod and puts the plans on her site.  Her readers are pretty talented at making the stuff and are posting their projects in her Flickr group.

Here is the Farmhouse bed she made:

She spent $120 making this bed.  Ikea can't even beat that!

These bookcases Ana modeled after those cute Pottery Barn ones.

$60 for both of these.

Plus, she uses Jessica Jones Blue Leaflet as the design motif on some of her mock-ups.  She obviously has a great eye!

She has dozens of plans on her site based on what she has seen in catalogs and what her readers have suggested.  As you might guess, it is all very basic squared furniture- no intricate Victorian styles- but would you really want to make that anyway? And don't worry-- these are no New Yankee Workshop plans that require 8 very expensive power tools.  The plans I looked at need a chop saw, a finish nailer and a power screwdriver.  Cuts requiring a table saw she has done where she buys the lumber.  (Though my husband would be easy to talk into a table saw!)

So, I feel a little of my junior high Wood Shop training coming back to me and I am going to make a piece of furniture this year.  Maybe two.  Hey, I've alway considered a sewing machine another power tool-- to me sewing and woodworking aren't that far off.  Measure, cut, stitch (or nail).  Except fabric stretches and wood doesn't.  But that is what wood putty and caulk are for!

Though I will have to work this around my modeling career.

Comments

[Lorie]

She is AMAZING and I can't get enough of her site. I actually interviewed her for a post here:

http://bedifferentactnormal.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-with-ana-knock-off-wood-part.html

I am saving up for a compound miter saw as we speak. I only wish I would have found her site BEFORE I moved away from my father and all of his tools! I wouldn't have had to be so patient!

[Anne]

I love that website. A couple years ago I made our daughter a dresser, bed, and nightstand from a sketch. The knock-of-wood blog makes me want to do some more.

[Nicole]

Very cool idea. thanks for sharing. I will bug the website although I have no talent with wood.

[shawn]

WOW! This is sooo coool! I'm feeling a new creative wind blowing over to me, too! Not yet sure what it is yet, though... I found this blog very inspiring! Thank you for sharing this!

[Elizabeth]

Please protect our fingers.

[Elizabeth]

I meant your fingers--not ours, unless I'm close that is.

[Jessica]

I found your website when I was on a sewing kick and now I am finding it again since I am on a furniture building kick! Building is very much like sewing in which the measuring and cutting is the WORST part! Once you get past that, it's all good! (other than the breaking drill bits and forgetting to charge the damn drill!)

[Jeannine]

I found your site through hers... she has some great stuff - I plan to make some of her stuff too!

When I read your post I felt like I had found my kindred spirit - I do the same thing - getting all tied up in one type of project then going on to something else... that is why I have a craft room FULL of every kind of craft supply imaginable.

glad to have found you!