Are you an experienced woodworker who’s spent years developing your craft? Or perhaps you’ve just recently started working on wood projects as a new activity to pass the time? Either way, launching a woodworking business is an excellent way to turn a hobby you love into a venture that earns you money, as a side gig or as your full-time job.
If you’ve been contemplating becoming an entrepreneurial woodworker and starting your own business with your DIY wooden projects, you might be wondering what kinds of wooden items are popular with shoppers and best to sell. To help inspire you, we’ll tell you all about some great wood products you can make today and provide you with helpful tips to guide you on the path of successfully selling your creations online!
What kinds of wood products can you make?
One of the best things about woodworking is that there’s a project out there for everybody. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert in crafting wooden things, you’ll be able to find a product that suits your skill level and interests.
If you’re a bit lost as to where to begin, here are 15 ideas for profitable wood products that you can build when launching your very own woodworking business!
1. Planters
Delight plant-loving shoppers of all kinds by creating handcrafted planters to help grow flowers, vegetables, fruit, or other plants, for either indoor or outdoor use.
With this type of product, it can be quite beneficial to have some knowledge about growing plants, especially about taking care of the specific plant(s) grown by the people in the niche you’re hoping to attract, in addition to your woodworking knowledge. For instance, growing tomatoes will require a much different type of planter than a simple box for holding succulents.
An added perk of making wood planters is that they’re fairly easy to create. This makes them particularly appealing as things to make and sell for those new to woodworking projects.
2. Birdhouses
Different from bird feeders, which simply offer a place for birds (and often other critters like squirrels) to grab a snack, birdhouses serve to shelter birds from the elements and provide them with a safe area to build their nests in peace. Because of their wide range of customization possibilities, they also make excellent wood products to craft for a woodworking business!
Design birdhouses as simple or complex and as big or small as you’d like, adding features such as a hanging seed feeder and a perch to make them even more appealing to your target market’s feathered friends.
3. Signs
Other popular wood products to make and sell are signs, created for either indoor or outdoor use. This item is often seen at weddings and other celebrations as a way to direct guests or simply add extra charm to the event or in people’s homes hung on the wall as a decoration, featuring witty or inspiring messages or personalized text, such as a family name.
Furthermore, wood signs can be made in all kinds of shapes and sizes, adapted to the suit the individual needs and preferences of the customers you’re hoping to reach. They’re one of the easiest wood projects to craft, which means they’re the ideal product for newbie woodworkers looking to transform their favorite new hobby into a profitable business.
4. Storage boxes
Modern or vintage, big or small, simple or elaborate, wood storage boxes allow for plenty of flexibility when it comes to their design. More than just a decoration, this wooden item is very useful for storing all kinds of things, like clothing, books, children’s toys, art supplies, sheet music, and so much more!
Besides helping people to keep their homes more organized, a larger wood storage box with a lid can also be used as a coffee table or even as a place to sit. For the simplest approach, you can alternatively opt to make and sell plain yet practical crates by just lining up planks of wood to form a crate. No matter the design of the box you build, aim for durability.
5. Wine racks
For many wine enthusiasts, maintaining a varied collection of wine at home is a must. Rather than storing wine bottles in their cabinets or on their countertops, they often prefer to keep their wine organized via a designated rack. Appeal to this particular niche of consumers by crafting beautiful wine racks from wood, intended to accommodate anywhere from just a few bottles or dozens, depending on your design.
As with many of the DIY projects on this list, the level of complexity is completely up to you with the rack you create. Just be sure to check the strength of your finished products before offering them for sale, as you’ll want to be confident that they’re able to hold the expected number of bottles with no issue.
6. Picture frames
An excellent beginner-friendly option for wood craft ideas to sell, picture frames used to hold photos and artwork are popular goods that can be found in nearly every home. This kind of product is very easy to create and can be crafted in any style—the only essential is that it has the correct measurements to display the intended-size photo correctly.
Furthermore, if you also sell crafts like prints or other framable art projects that people may want to display on their wall, desk, or other surface, why not make picture frames that perfectly complement your designs to boost the value of your business’s creations? To give shoppers the most flexibility (and therefore increase your chances of earning a sale), offer them the option to purchase your art with or without the frame.
7. Guitars
While guitars are admittedly more complicated to craft than other wood products on this list, they can be quite profitable projects if you find the right niche of musicians who appreciate handcrafted, one-of-a-kind instruments.
Generally speaking, solid wood acoustic guitars tend to have better resonance and sustain compared to their laminate wood counterparts. However, they’re also usually less resistant to changes in humidity and temperature, so you’ll want to be sure that you store your finished products safely.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the type of wood you use to make your guitars will be very important, as it can have a significant impact on the sounds that a guitar produces. Although the best wood for your instruments will depend on your objectives and your budget as well as that of your target audience, common options include spruce, cedar, koa, maple, rosewood, walnut, and mahogany.
8. Children’s toys
If you’re young at heart or simply like making items for kids to enjoy, creating children’s toys from wood may be the perfect projects for your woodworking business. Building blocks, cars, trains, dollhouses…the choice is yours! Allow your creativity and imagination to go wild to craft fun and/or educational toys that children will love.
While many kids seem to be glued to smartphones or other mobile devices nowadays, there’s still very much a market for classic wooden toys that are easy to use and keep little ones entertained. Just be sure that you follow your local and national safety regulations pertaining to kids’ toys as you go about making products to sell.
9. Jewelry boxes
Jewelry boxes are more than just a product to keep necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and other sparkly pieces safe and in one place. They can also serve as a lovely decoration to add to the ambience of any room!
If you decide to make wooden jewelry boxes, it’s best to consider what types of items your customers are mostly likely to put inside, as that can make a difference in how you structure the interior in terms of the number and size of inserts. When it comes to your product’s design, you might opt for a simple, understated look or go for something a bit more ornate, with handpainted touches, carved motifs, and elegant hardware.
10. Kitchen products
Want to put your woodworking skills to use in creating products to assist consumers with their culinary efforts? Note that many people prefer using kitchen items made from wood for numerous reasons.
From cutting boards and rolling pins to napkin holders, spatulas, and spoons, wooden versions generally last longer than those crafted from plastic. In addition, they offer greater heat resistance and don’t risk passing harmful chemicals on to the food you’re cooking.
Wooden utensils are also much less likely to scratch cooking surfaces and containers. Finally, many consumers simply favor the look of wood kitchen products over metal or plastic goods.
11. Chess sets
Chess players of all skill levels are sure to appreciate a well-crafted wood chess set. This woodworking project will require a bit more effort than other items, but it has lots of potential to be a successful product for your business if you can figure out a way to make your creations stand out from the competition.
When making your chess sets, keep in mind that besides the board, you’ll also need to include the chess pieces, which will necessitate a bit more delicacy to create. Consider crafting your set in a way that allows users to store the pieces underneath the board for added convenience.
12. Furniture
If your woodworking skills are a bit more advanced, making wood furniture might be right up your alley. With this product, researching your niche is a must, as you’ll have a wide range of items from which to choose.
Want to start with something simple? Maybe begin with crafting coffee tables. From there, you can consider expanding to other pieces, such as chairs, headboards, benches, nightstands, dressers, headboards, desks, stools, and more. You’ll also want to decide if you want to make furniture designed for indoor or outdoor use, as this may determine the types of materials you use.
13. Bathtub caddies
With the growing emphasis on self-care these days, many people are looking into how they can bring more pleasure to simple activities. For instance, taking a bath is an inexpensive, easy way to relax and let the stresses of everyday life melt away. Adding candles, a good book, snacks, a glass of your favorite beverage, and music can help to make the experience even more enjoyable.
To keep these extra bathtime goodies close by and prevent them from accidently falling into the water, a bathtub caddy is the perfect ally!
A bathtub caddy lies across the bathtub and is simply a wooden board that features sections to hold different items that a person might use while taking a bath. Keep in mind that with your customers’ bathtub sizes likely to vary, it’s a good idea to make your wood caddies adjustable to be able to safely accommodate different widths.
14. Surfboards
While surfboards may seem like a seasonal product at first glance, remember that if you have an online store, people from all over the world can make purchases from your site at any time. Furthermore, in many areas, the weather allows for year-round surfing, making wood surfboards a great project to consider for your business.
High-quality surfboards crafted from wood offer a number of benefits. They’re usually heavier than other kinds of boards, allowing for greater stability, momentum, and glide. What’s more, wood surfboards are often a more sustainable option than those made from plastic.
15. Coasters
Another product that’s very easy to make and that’s sure to be a hit with a large group of consumers due to their practicality is a set of wood coasters. Placed under glasses to help prevent water rings from damaging an expensive table, coasters are crafts that allow for plenty of customization.
Your wood coasters can be round, square, or any other shape you like. Simple coasters don’t require extensive woodworking skills, but you can certainly get more elaborate with your designs if you prefer. You never know…there’s quite possibly an untapped market for a specific coaster design that’s just waiting for you to dive into!
How do you sell DIY wood products?
Now that the wheels are turning in your head in terms of ideas for your woodworking business, let’s take a look at how to actually get started with selling your products!
1. Choose your niche
At this point, you likely have a pretty good idea of some of the different kinds of wood products that you may want to make and sell. Even if you don’t choose any of the projects listed in this article, hopefully they’ve at least given you some inspiration for what you ultimately decide to create for your business.
Once you’ve selected your product, you’ll need to choose the specific niche on which you want to focus your efforts. As there’s bound to be similar products already on the market, check out other companies’ offerings and ask yourself how you can make your creation stand out from those currently available.
For example, if you decide to sell wooden signs, trying to create a product that will appeal to all shoppers is going to be impossible. You might instead decide to concentrate on crafting signs for special events, signs with witty or inspirational quotes, signs with sayings in another language, etc. In addition, think about what type of wood you want to use. Are you going to carve your writing into the sign or paint it?
Note that if you’ve never made the particular wood product that you have in mind, it’s best to create a test product before moving on to the next steps of launching your business. Although you may consider yourself to be fairly advanced in your woodworking skills, every project is different and may require a little extra time to ensure a final result that will please both you and your customers.
2. Start making your products
When you’re preparing to launch a new business, it can be difficult to know precisely how many items you should have in stock at any given time. Too many, and you may be wasting a lot of money on supplies and storage space. Too few, and you run the risk of missing out on sales or disappointing customers when they face longer-than-expected wait times.
Nevertheless, you’ll want to have some products ready to go before your business is live. It’ll likely take you a bit of time to get a feel for demand, but start by making the number of products that you feel comfortable with. Another option is to gauge interest by checking with your audience on social media or offering pre-sales.
As you begin making your products, remember that using high-quality materials is key, whether you’ll be sourcing them on your own or via a supplier. Wooden items can be more time consuming to create than other goods, so this period before you start selling will help give you an idea of how long you can expect it to take to finish a product from beginning to end.
3. Create your online store
Once you have your first products ready to go, you’ll need to find somewhere to sell them. For this, you’ll have different solutions available, namely, a physical store, an online marketplace like Etsy, and your own online store.
Keep in mind that physical stores involve quite a bit more overhead and are therefore generally much more expensive to run, making them not always a great option for new entrepreneurs. While online marketplaces make it easy to get started with a business, they usually come with quite a few restrictions and tend to take a hefty commission fee from a seller’s sales.
For these reasons, creating your own online store may very well be the wisest option for your business. In this case, it’ll be essential that you select a stellar ecommerce platform like WiziShop to accompany you.
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After creating your online store, you’ll be ready to begin adding your products to your website. Remember that because people won’t be able to have your creations in front of them to see and touch, you’ll need to include high-quality photos and accurate product descriptions for each of the items you list.
Ensure that you have good lighting for your photos and that you capture your products from different angles so that potential customers can get a better idea of what you’re selling. For your product descriptions, add any details that may be pertinent to the consumer: the item’s measurements, materials used, weight, capacity, etc. However, your description should also demonstrate to visitors how the product can help improve their lives.
Another important step of listing your products on your website is to determine how you want to price them. Figuring out the pricing for your creations can be a little tricky at first, as you want to be sure that you charge enough to compensate for your time, effort, and supplies purchased but not so high that shoppers turn to your competitors for their purchases instead. Don’t hesitate to check the web and even marketplaces such as Etsy to see how much money businesses are charging for products similar to yours.
5. Get the word out about your products
Yay! Your ecommerce website is live, and your carefully crafted wood products are ready to be purchased. While you might think that you can simply sit back and relax as you wait for the money to roll in, this is unfortunately not the case. It’s important for you to begin promoting your products and letting the world know that your business exists!
The marketing channels you use to spread the word and get traffic to your ecommerce website are completely up to you, but you’ll of course want to think about where your ideal customer is most likely to be.
For instance, you’ll definitely want to create social media accounts for your new brand to promote your business, but the specific networks you choose should be the ones most frequented by your target market. You might love creating videos on TikTok, but if your potential customers never use the platform, it won’t be beneficial for your marketing strategy.
Besides utilizing social media, consider starting an email newsletter to keep subscribers up to date with all the newest happening in your industry as well as with news concerning your products and business. If you enjoy writing, don’t hesitate to create a blog on your site as well. However, as with any other form of content marketing, your blog will be less about promoting your products directly than it will be about helping your target audience find solutions to problems so as to build your authority as a brand and increase trust.
If you have the budget for it, you might also think about integrating paid advertising into your strategy. From ads on social networks to those on search engines like Google, a little investment in these methods can go a long way to expanding your reach!
Take your business to the next level by offering customization
Making wood products to sell online can be a very rewarding experience, financially and creatively. As you can see, there are all kinds of different items you can create for your woodworking business—and the DIY products mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to possibilities.
Whatever you decide to make, note that you might want to consider giving people the option to order customized products from your online store, either from the moment your site is live or down the road when you have more experience.
Many consumers will be happy to pay more for this service, and depending on what you make, it may not require a lot of extra effort on your part. By allowing shoppers to customize their orders, you’ll be able to charge more for the items you sell and grow your business even further!
