this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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The massive wood furniture that lasts two lifetimes is only as cheap as the IKEA counterpart if you do it all by yourself, in your own little woodshop, and only need to pay for glue, nails, hinges, and electricity. And still only of you Include felling and milling the trees on your own.
Some years ago, I wanted one wall of the living room done with a custom-made, wall filling book shelf. Estimated cost by the carpenter: 7000. I paid about 3000 for IKEA furniture and other materials and did two walls of shelves instead of just one, suspended the ceiling, ran a ton of wires and redid the whole living room electrical and communication infrastructure. Yes, all that for half the price quoted by the carpenter. Guess what? None of the furniture has broken down so far. And I don't expect it to.
Carpenters build house frames, cabinetmakers build furniture.
Is it legit $7,000 for a big wall filling bookshelf?
Sounds insane.
Like who would ever buy that service?
My dad is a cabinetmaker. At 34 I can reflect on my life and I have never seen higher quality cabinets than his. Nothing comes close.
I remember he used to complain that people could get cabinets cheaper at Walmart so he lost more and more business.
I think with wage stagnation, people can't afford custom cabinetry anymore. So it seems insane to us to spend that amount. But you can imagine that with the price of lumber and the cost of skilled labor that 7000$ comes quickly.
Honestly, I spent most of my 20s as a cabinetmaker, I even had a shop of my own and just keeping the lights on, charging for materials and gas will run a basic piece of furniture into the thousands. That's without making a salary at all. Nothing is cheap anymore and we can't expect people to work for free. That among many other reasons is why I'm working in a different field now.
Lots of people.
Proper woodworking is a very specialized skill set that isn't all that common anymore. The tools to do proper woodworking can also cost a small fortune and take up a very large amount of space. The cost of good lumber from an actual lumber yard is also very high. You can't make any good looking furniture that is going to last out of wood bought from Menards.
My dad used to do professional capentry and cabnetry. His woodshop takes up the entirety of a repurposed decent sized barn. The loft of his barn is full of old lumber that has been curing for several years. Most of the lumber he uses he has had to scrounge up from auctions just because most modern forestry methods don't produce nearly as high quality of lumber. Modern forestry methods are far more efficient because the trees chosen grow faster and the cuts are more efficient but that also makes the wood weaker and the grain paterns less attractive. Old growth hardwoods are ideal for most woodworking. Generally modern forestry also rarely works with certain wood types because it isn't economical to do so. Walnut is a beautiful wood but if you have ever seen a walnut tree then you know why it's hard to make any decent planks out of one.