Furniture Maker Career
Furniture Maker Career
The Real Poop
Ogg tired of seeing family sitting on muddy ground. He find piece of tree and drag it over to fire. Ogg and family sit on tree. Together they watch new episode of Bonfire: The Sequel Part III. Life good.
That's pretty much how we like to think the field of furniture building began. It sheds light on why furniture is an essential part of our daily life, even to this day. Picture your house or apartment, completely devoid of furniture. Hm...hopefully you're either moving, or someone played an awesome prank on you. Either way, the image is a little stark. A house just isn't a home without furniture, right?
Some people can assemble Ikea furniture with their eyes closed. Others...not so much. They'd rather skip over several hours of confusion and stress by buying stuff that's already been put together. Should you choose to fill the vital role of a furniture maker, expect to make $28,440 per year on average (source), in addition to a variety of chairs, tables, cabinets, and scrap wood.
Furniture makers range from basic assemblers to highly skilled craftsmen. One thing they all have in common is their passion for putting things together. As a kid, did you build elaborate Lego structures and pester Mom into taking you to Home Depot for their woodworking workshops every month? Maybe you still do—even better.
Making tables, chairs, cabinets, and other furniture could turn your natural interests into dollars. At first the pay isn't so great—around nine or ten dollars an hour—but you'll get to do what you love for a living. That'd be pretty sweet, right?
However, you'll need more than an interest in building things to make it as a furniture maker. Good eye-hand coordination, attention to detail, and patience are all key traits for a couple of reasons. For one thing, nobody's going to buy lopsided, wobbly furniture. And for another, those power tools can drill holes into and cut pieces off of your body just as easily as if you were another piece of cedar. Forget "Hakuna Matata," "safety first" will be your new motto.
Stamina and strength are also important. You don't need to be a hulking caveman like our good buddy Ogg, but you will need to be able to lift and move heavy pieces of furniture and be on your feet for hours at a time. On the plus side, you can dress comfortably. Jeans and a t-shirt with no holes are considered dress clothes around here. Are you into plaid shirts? Oh, this is the place for you.
Previous experience isn't required to break into the field. Generally, you learn on the job from experienced co-workers. If entry-level jobs aren't available in your area, you can get that valuable experience as an apprentice or by taking a course at a vocational school or community college. It may delay your entry into the paid workforce by a year or so, but you'll get a wider variety of hands-on experiences in a very short time.
Although sometimes the job requires tedious and repetitive tasks, furniture making involves more than just joining piece A to piece B. You'll become adept at measuring and planning, cutting and trimming, setting up machines for precise cuts and hole drilling, and finishing pieces with lacquer, trim, and designs. You'll also be a pro with the vacuum cleaner at home because sawdust has a way of getting everywhere. It's the glitter of the construction world.
If you start to churn out your own furniture or restore antiques, you'd better add creativity and imagination to the list of helpful qualities that you'll want to have. This is where the career can get really interesting. Many furniture builders tire of building the same things the same way over and over and over again. These people branch out into some specialty area. The odds are stacked against you making a living on your own, but for those who do, the job satisfaction is unmatched.
There's something pretty satisfying about lounging around on things you made 100% from scratch. So long as you're good at it, that is.