In our home, we live by a simple motto: if you can think it, you can make it. Our longtime readers know this well: when we need to improve something or add a new thing entirely, we usually try and figure out how to make it ourselves. We love figuring out how to build what we need, rather than just buying it. This happens not also for small fixes and crafts, but even for full-on furniture projects.
Most of the time, it’s my husband who takes the lead with his woodworking skills. It could be for adapting a store-bought piece that doesn’t quite work for us, transforming something old into something useful again (even serving a new purpose entirely different from the original), or creating a brand-new piece from scratch. But I do my part as well, not just helping him, but sometimes making detailed plans and working first hand into those projects.
Here I’d like to share some of the custom furniture pieces we’ve made together over the years. Each one started as a problem to solve or a dream for our home. Here’s what we achieved with our creativity (and a lot of sawdust!).
Most of the pieces of furniture we custom made for our home
Table of contents
Our modular tables set
The very first furniture project for our home was designing and building all the tables. Locutus chose oak wood and planned them as a modular system. Our main kitchen table is 2 m x 1 m, complemented by three smaller tables, each 75 cm x 1 m, which we usually keep in a row as crafting tables in the living room. But they can also be combined in different ways: two small tables can join the big one to form an almost-square, or the small tables (one, two, or all three) can extend the short side to create a long banquet table.
The squared steel legs, placed exactly at the corners, are both a design detail and a practical solution: when tables touch, their legs overlap, making the whole system look lighter. Their placement also contributes to the modularity of the system.
Each size was carefully calculated so that, no matter how the tables are arranged, no one ever ends up sitting with a leg in the way. The result is a set of tables that truly adapts to our life.
A steel foldable clothes hanger for our terrace
Well, one of our most practical DIY furniture pieces isn’t even made of wood: it’s a steel clothes hanger for our terrace.
The strong winds here made store-bought hangers useless (I’ve had to chase runaway laundry around the building more than once!), so my husband teamed up with my metal-worker father to build a sturdy, wall-mounted solution.
It folds flat when not in use, opens at different heights to fit everything from shirts to bedsheets, and can handle even the windiest days. You can find out more by reading the full step-by-step story of how they designed, welded and installed it.
Extractable clothes hanger for our wardrobe
After the success of our outdoor steel hanger, my husband wanted an equally practical solution for drying clothes indoors, without having a bulky portable hanger cluttering up the room.
So he planned a custom, extractable hanger built right into our bridge wardrobe. Mounted on heavy-duty drawer slides, it pulls out when we need it and disappears completely behind the shutter when we don’t. We even added a shelf above it to make the most of the space.
Do you like the project? Go and read the full story of how we designed and installed it.
Adding an open shelving to a chest of drawers
Finally, let’s talk about wood. And here you’ll see how sometimes the smallest details make the biggest difference.
We had a chest of drawers that almost perfectly fit a wall recess… almost. The gap on both sides bothered my husband enough that he tracked down the exact same wood to build an open shelving unit to extend the piece seamlessly. A little project, but one that made the whole corner feel built-in.
One of the shelves was custom-sized specifically to hold our (very heavy!) wedding photo album. Funny enough, we crafted quite a few things for our wedding too: let me know in the comments if you’d like a post about that!
We turned an old wine barrel into a grill stand
We inherited an old wine barrel from my uncle and turned it into a unique, fully functional grill stand for our terrace. My husband wanted it to have a sturdy storage compartment inside, a fold-out tray for dishes, and wheels so we could easily move it around.
The restoration was the longest part: we removed the metal hoops one by one, sanded the wood smooth, glued and reinforced the staves, then carefully cut a door into the curved surface. Inside, we added a fixed shelf, plus a clever foldable one, secured with magnets and a hook strong enough to hold cooking gear. Finally, a sunny weekend saw it painted and ready to use. Now, this once-forgotten barrel is one of our favorite outdoor pieces.
A custom upholstered container bench
One day we decided we needed a custom bench in our entrance. Something sturdy enough for two people to sit while changing shoes, with hidden storage inside, and matching the red-and-white furniture of the room. My husband built the wooden container with reinforced corners, and we painted only the inside because the outside was going to be upholstered.
For that, we had the best help ever: my husband’s granny, a former shoe seamstress. She made good use of her faithful Singer 31K15 from 1915 and sewed a perfectly fitted white faux leather cover with red stitching. The lid was upholstered in matching red leather, carefully smoothed to avoid wrinkles, and designed with a clever wooden stopper so it never slips.
Now, this handcrafted bench not only completes our entrance but also carries a lovely piece of family history thanks to granny’s touch.
A fantasy window charging station
One unconventional DIY project for our home is a USB charging station, disguised as a tiny window scene. We wanted something prettier than a plain charger sticking out of the wall socket, so we designed a miniature window frame, with terracotta roof tiles and a flower pot hanging from the sill. There’s a photo behind the window, an eerie scene from a fantasy world.
Inside the pot, instead of using fake moss or grass, I embroidered the base entirely by hand using turkey stitch, creating a lush, grassy look. The charging cable comes directly from the socket behind it, completely hidden by the structure, so when it’s mounted on the wall it looks like a charming dollhouse window rather than a gadget.
A gardening tools container inside an old wine barrel
After turning our first inherited wine barrel into a grill stand, we couldn’t resist restoring a second one to create a matching piece. This time, we made it a stylish container for gardening tools.
We followed a similar process: sanding the wood, reinforcing the metal hoops, cutting a door, and adding inner shelves for organization. To make it practical, we mounted it on wheels so it can be easily moved around the terrace. Much fancier than the usual prebuilt plastic containers!
Custom wall shelves for displaying tiny items
Our most recent addition is a set of custom wall shelves for the corner of our entrance.
Each shelf is just 4 cm deep (with one at 8 cm), the perfect size for displaying miniatures, tiny books, figurines, micro cars and little travel souvenirs.
Beyond showing off small keepsakes, the structure also has a practical feature: it frames and hides electrical outlets and switches, blending them into the design so they’re far less noticeable. That’s the main reason why Locutus planned this project.
The warm wood finish ties it all together, matching the custom tables nearby (also built by Locutus).
The first wooden footstool made by my husband
Last but not least, a project my husband built before we even met.
He made a wooden footstool with a container for his bedroom, using thin fireplace sticks glued at different heights to create a beautiful 3D texture.
The lid is topped with a custom-made pillow, cleverly fitted with magnets so it stays in place without sliding. Now it lives in our home, a sweet piece of his past crafts that we still use and love.
Those are the pieces we’ve made so far, and surely more will come. My husband loves designing custom elements to improve our living space, and I love telling you about them. So stay tuned to know more about out future projects!
What’s your favorite? Have you ever built custom furniture yourself? Maybe something we haven’t thought of yet? Tell us in the comments: we’d love to hear your ideas!
