Building solid wood furniture is more expensive than DIY? Is it an apples to apples comparison you are making (e.g. same quality of wood)?
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I had looked up some tables that looked attractive on West Elm (for example), and then did back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the wood cost, and it seemed like there was a lot of money to be saved, but maybe I am wrong.
I've built a variety of different styles in a variety of materials. One thing that surprises clients is the fact that I quote virtually the same price for quality wood as reclaimed/rustic/construction pine.
Cheap SPF (Spruce,pine,fir) lumber is low quality wood meant for construction. You can make use of it course, but it requires a fair amount of extra work to get good results with. Probably the biggest issue is the poor drying regiment of current mills. The moisture content is WAY too high. Buy a bunch of 2x4s, and stick them in your garage for a month, and half of them turn into pretzels. They of course have very rough surfaces, and require significant milling (far more than quality lumber) to get a good surface to work with.
Knotty Alder is probably my most used wood. People like the look, but the knots are hell on tools, and make joinery a pain.
With reclaimed lumber, you can get lucky, or you can have nails, screws, dirt and grime to deal with. Customers also usually want the "reclaimed" look, which means you can't just mill it down to good wood, you have to somehow prepare and join what needs joined while leaving the exposed surfaces intact.
Anyways, the idea was founded on seeing a friend with no prior experience or inclination in the area (that I know of) build a pretty nice large dining room table. She built it out of pine, so it was inexpensive wood.
Yes, like anything, my statements aren't meant to be absolutes. Lots of people DIY furniture, I've seen a fair amount. The Ana White stuff that people have mentioned can work. But, often the results are not as good a reasonable priced commercial option, and I'd estimate that a fair amount of them look like crap or fall apart in 5ish years.
Finally, I'm really not trying to discourage you if it's something you wanted to do. I love building furniture, and I have a ton of friends and acquaintances that do all levels from DIY to pro. Some do completely DIY* and cycle through stuff(unmustachian) often enough that quality issues really never manifest.
I'm only trying to convey that it's really tough to justify on the basis of saving money.
*It's somewhat amazing what one friend can do with glue and a brad nailer.