DIY Furniture – Ten Furniture Pieces You Can Make Yourself (Because I Did, And I Show You How!)

I’ve been spending some time lately going back through some old posts, updating photos, clarifying steps in DIY projects, etc. I’ve enjoyed being reminded of all of the projects I’ve worked on over these last 17 years of DIYing and blogging about it. I’ve especially enjoyed seeing some of the DIY furniture that I’ve built over the years, some of which I had completely forgotten about. Here are ten of my favorites.

DIY Ottoman Coffee Table

Of all the DIY furniture I’ve built over the years, the DIY ottoman coffee table with the diamond-tufted upholstered top is probably the fan favorite, and it’s my favorite as well. I found a Layla Grayce ottoman coffee table that I loved, but it was too expensive for my budget, and the wrong size and color for my living room at the time. So I set out to make my own, customized for our living room, and I ended up with my favorite piece of furniture I’ve ever made…

It took me three posts to go over all of the DIY details for this project. You can see those here:

• Part 1 – How to do diamond tufting (a modified method)
• Part 2 – Finishing details on the tufted top
• Part 3 – How to build a coffee table base with a shelf

DIY Side Table With Greek Key Base

This DIY side table with the Greek key base was also inspired by a table that I saw online, but couldn’t afford at the time. So I made my own at a fraction of the price, and it was a relatively quick and easy project.

You can click here to find the step-by-step DIY details for this side table.

DIY Scalloped Console Table

I made this funky DIY console table to go in the entryway just a few months after we bought our house. I was inspired by several ideas that I put together into one table, but it was mostly inspired by a table from Horchow that was priced at almost $1200. I made mine out of MDF at a fraction of the price.

The fun thing about this style of table is that you can create literally any design on those legs that you want. As long as you have a jigsaw, your only limitation is your imagination. You can see the details of this project here:

• Scalloped Console Table – Part 1
• Scalloped Console Table – Finished

Small Two-Shelf DIY Bookshelf

This small two-shelf DIY bookshelf is one that I made to fit in an empty corner of the condo bedroom. It was a fun and easy project, as the basic build only took about two hours. And of course, the dimensions can be changed and customized to fit any space. I could even be made twice as wide to be used as sofa table and bookshelf combo. This one lands in my top ten because I made it completely out of scrap wood, so it cost me nothing extra to build this for the room. That made this project extra satisfying.

You can click here to see the step-by-step details of how I built this DIY bookshelf.

DIY Upholstered Wing Back Dining Chair

Remember that time I tried to turn my living room into a dining room? 😀 That plan didn’t quite work out (it was one of my most ill-conceived ideas ever, actually), but as with all of my failed projects, some good things did come out of it. And one good thing that came out of that bad idea was probably my most impressive DIY furniture piece. I actually built and upholstered my own DIY wing back dining chair. I mean, I built this chair completely from scratch and upholstered it myself. And I’ll thank you to notice the detail of the matched pattern from the side to the skirt. I was so proud of that detail. 😀

I shared this project in two parts, which you can find here:

• DIY Wingback Dining Chair – How to build the chair frame
• DIY Wingback Dining Chair – How to upholster the chair frame

DIY Upholstered Bench

Five years ago, I built two of these DIY upholstered benches to flank the pantry doors in our current breakfast room. And while this room has seen some pretty major changes over the last year, these benches are still there.

This style of upholstered bench is a relatively easy project, and you can make them in any size you need to fit our specific space. If you can do a wrap-and-staple upholstery job (yes, you can), and use a Kreg Pocket Hole Jig (it’s easy to learn), then you can make a DIY upholstered bench.

I divided this project into two posts — one for the build and one for the upholstery. You can find those here:

• DIY Upholstered Dining Bench – building the frame
• DIY Upholstered Dining Bench – how to upholster the seat

DIY Six-Drawer Console Table

I built this DIY six-drawer console table specifically for the entryway of our house, where it still sits today. It’s a large piece of furniture, and was one of the most involved furniture projects I’ve done. It wasn’t terribly difficult, though. But it did take some patience to get through all of the steps needed to get from a pile of wood to a finished six-drawer console table.

While it wasn’t too terribly difficult, it did take a while to build, and it took me three blog posts to detail all of the steps. You can find those here:

• DIY Six-Drawer Console Table With Lower Shelf – Part 1 
• DIY Six-Drawer Console Table With Lower Shelf – Part 2 – The Completed Basic Build
• DIY Six-Drawer Console Table With Lower Shelf – Part 3 — The Finishing Details

Large DIY Writing Desk

This is the desk that I built to go in the “office” corner of my studio. This was a very easy built, and I would even say, it’s a good beginner project if you’re wanting to build your first piece of furniture. It can be sized to fit your specific space, or even reworked slightly to create a console table, sofa table, coffee table, etc.

I shared the DIY details of this project in two posts — one for the build, and one for the finishing. You can find those here:

• How To Build A Simple Writing Desk
• Finished DIY Writing Desk

DIY Herringbone Console Table With Lower Shelf

This console table started out as a DIY coffee table that I made for our living room. Then when I decided to rearrange the living room furniture into its current configuration, I needed a larger coffee table. But after spending so much time assembling the edge grain plywood herringbone top, I wanted to repurpose the table so that it could be used somewhere else in our house. I cut the top into two pieces (which made me so nervous!), and turned the coffee table into a skinny console table that was the perfect fit for our remodeled hallway.

You can find the posts with the step-by-step DIY process to make this table here:

• DIY Edge Grain Plywood Herringbone Coffee Table (shows how I made the herringbone top)
• DIY Console Table With Lower Shelf

Small DIY Console Table With Turned Wood Columns

I’ll end my top ten favorite pieces of DIY furniture that I’ve made with a very simple project — this small DIY console table with turned wood columns. The hardest part of this project is finding two wood columns at a reasonable price. These were given to me, so they cost me nothing. But you can search flea markets and consignment stores for columns (perhaps on an existing piece of furniture that you can take apart) that can be repurposed for this table. But once you have the columns in hand, the rest is so incredibly simple.

You can click here to find the step-by-step DIY tutorial for this small console table.

These aren’t all of the DIY furniture pieces I’ve made over the years, but they’re some of my favorites. If you’d like to see more DIY furniture projects that I’ve done, you can find those here.