Here are 10 examples of wood crafts that have shown themselves to be best-sellers consistently for many years. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Some wood crafts will be suitable than others depending on where you live, if you intend to sell locally.
- You can specialize in making one of the wood projects or choose a broader category. For example, you can either make only children's toys or expand yourself to the full children category for woodworking like furniture, cradles, cupboards etc.
- The best selling wood crafts mentioned below belong in profitable woodworking business niches. Your job is to discover more such crafts in every niche. The caveat is what is said in point number one. Different wood crafts will prove best sellers depending on who you are selling to.
- Your own skill and interest plays a large part in what you make. The more you enjoy making something, while turning out work of quality, is deeply connected to your success with a woodworking business.
- Target a niche. I cannot say this enough number of time. The more specific you get with what you make, the more money you will make. Find ways to target people with a particular need. Read more about creating niche best selling wood projects.
So, this list is not just naming 10 individual high selling wood projects. They are also broad categories that you can work in, and come up with other great ideas of your own.
10 Best Selling Wood Project Ideas.
Children wooden toys are definitely a profitable niche, but woodworkers are deterred in working in this niche because laws in the US require mandatory testing and compliance with certain safety standards. This is often an expensive process and difficult to engage in for individual woodworkers with small businesses.
Children’s Wooden Toys.
There was a time when toys made out of wood were the common thing. These days in most markets they have become a novelty. You only have to ask around to realise the premium, crazy prices being charged by stores for wooden toys for children. Wooden toys are a hot selling category for many reasons.
They are considered a novelty, safer than toys made from other materials and they usually last a very long time. The result is that parents and everybody is ready to pay top dollar to buy even the simplest of wooden toys as long as they are well made from quality wood.
Since this is an item for children, you do need to make the toys safe, sturdy and durable. Do not compromise on the materials you use. It is very common to have a different set of laws coming into play when making things for children is concerned. Make sure you find out what these are in your state and to adhere to them completely.
Parents are in dire need for special furniture for their kids. Good quality is appreciated and duly compensated for. Read 7 reasons why you should make children’s toys and furniture.
Baby Cradles.
A baby cradle is just one example in what is a very popular woodworking category i.e. baby and children furniture. Parents often like to get special furniture for their children. Most of the times they need it. Babies and children need tables, chairs, storage cupboards, beds and an assortment of other items.
A wooden crib is a classic woodworking product that is always in high demand. Parents will usually spare no expense in picking up the best cradle they can afford to buy. Once more, pay extra attention to the safety and quality of the product and use only the very best materials.
A great option when making children's furniture is to make it self assembly kind. That way you can even sell your furniture online and easily ship it in dis-assembled form.
Chair Side Bookcase.
Bookcases never run short on demand. Every household needs several of them. However, a simple variation can make your project stand out and become a hot selling woodworking item. Make bookcases specifically to complement armchairs. They are a popular addition that very few can resist. Not to mention they are items of great utility.
Picture frames.
Picture frames is a very versatile woodworking project. You can make it as simple as you like. A little bit of ingenuity allows you to create several original designs. This is one woodworking project that can never go stale, because you will never run out of ideas to make new designs and also because it is an evergreen item that will always be in demand.
The key to making this wood craft a success is to reach a lot of people. Wood frames can exist in a wide price range and one can take advantage of this by having a versatile pricing range. Everyone loves picture frames and with your pricing model you can attract a wide range of spenders too.
One can also take advantage of promoting and selling online because this wood craft is relatively small and lightweight and perfect to ship to people all over the country. We love crafts that allow us to expand our market on the internet. The potential of reaching people online is limitless. If you know what you are doing, you can really scale your sales.
We wrote a post on how to promote and sell woodcrafts sometime back. Read it for some extra information on the subject.
Small wooden boxes.
It doesn't really get simpler than this. Think of ideas for making small boxes that sever a purpose. There are so many things that people need small wooden boxes for.
As long as you use good wood, make the box strong and use good finishing, your project does not have to be either elaborate or complicated. A simple but popular example of our small wooden box is a chip box. I'm sure you can find dozens of other useful ideas for your woodworking box projects.
A birdhouse is simply an example of the numerous simple and attractive wood projects you can make for the garden and the outdoors. Other examples are pot holders, garden chairs, trellis, garden storage boxes, planters, pet bowl stand, small tables, benches and so much more. Garden projects is an enjoyable and easy woodworking niche to work in.
Birdhouses.
You should know that outdoors woodworking projects are extremely popular. There are many small projects you can do for the garden, portico etc. A very charming and popular woodworking project is a birdhouse.
It's a little strange but you can charge premium prices for birdhouses and people are ready to pay for it. People who want to enjoy birds coming to the garden, attach a high value to a functional and nice looking bird-house. And who doesn't really want pretty birds coming and chirping in their gardens. Therefore, birdhouse is one of the top-selling woodworking projects.
Here is a link to a post we wrote on how to make perfect birdhouse for the right birds.
A blanket chest is a good wood project. In fact, any kind of a chest is usually a good project to make and sell. Wooden chests look great anywhere in the house and they can be used as a convenient storage for lots of things, including blankets. You can even design one to work as a centre table as well as storage.
Blanket Chest.
I can tell you from my experience and perhaps you know this as well, a blanket chest is an item of great utility. A blanket chest is not necessarily an item to be only used in cold weather places.
Most of the households use items that need to be stored away either during the day or at night. For example, extra throw pillows need to be removed from the bed every night before sleeping. Similarly, sheets, covers, blankets that are used while sleeping need to be stored in a convenient and accessible place during the day.
A blanket chest is a utility item of everyday need in a majority of households. And that makes it one of the best sellers. Once again, the stress on making this woodworking project is on quality, endurance and finish. The design and the construction can be left simple.
You step in to wholly different skill set when you start working with a lathe. You can make simple objects with a lathe and still create best sellers. Some examples of wood crafts made with a lathe are bowls, spoons, paper weights, baseball bats, candle holders and more.
Fruit Bowl.
You may be well aware of the fact that items for household are always popular. This is an example of a really simple woodworking project that sells very well. While making fruit bowls, the finish is important. Many crafters prefer to leave it as natural as possible, relying mainly on beautiful grain of the wood to give the food bowl it’s look. You do get food safe finishes for finishing wood crafts such as this.
NOTE: An interesting fact that many woodworkers point out is this. General finishes are considered unsafe for wood crafts that are going to come in contact with food. However, many professional woodworkers tell us that this doesn’t matter so much as one might think. The reason is that a finish has two compounds in it, one is the solvent and the other one is resin. The solvent part is the harmful one whereas the resin is not. After a finish has curated and dried completely, all the solvent has evaporated and only the resin remains on the wood surface, which is not dangerous.
Anyway, this is something I have hears some professional woodworkers say and I don’t know how far it is correct. If you know something about this, please free to leave a comment below.
Because a fruit bowl is a common item, it sells a lot. However, because of the same reason there are lots of them available. The good news is that it is not difficult to make unique wooden fruit bowls, as well as the fact that simple and elegant food bowls sell just as well.
Getting a simple lathe will be a great idea for this wood project.
Clocks and timepieces are needed in every home. Wooden ones are classic. Small wooden clocks for the home are a very attractive craft to make and sell.
Wood Clocks.
You will be very surprised at a lot of things about this project. It is very economical to make, simple, takes little time and ends up looking and selling like a premium high quality woodworking item. Well, clocks come in all shapes and sizes and you don’t have to restrict yourself to any one. There are 2 different ways you can go with this.
First example is the picture shown above. You can source the watch mechanism from somewhere and then craft a well finished wooden body to fit that body in. The overall result should be something you see in the picture above. There kinds of wooden clocks are a great addition to office desks and wall mantles. But there really are hundreds of designs you can create for all kinds of clocks for walls, desks, side tables etc.
The second option is to actually create the complete clock from wood. This means making a pendulum clock with every part cut from wood, including the gears inside and everything. This is definitely a niche wood craft and even though it is not very practical, as it needs to be winded often, minimum once a day, many people would love to have it hanging on their walls as a unique show piece. Do look into it and see if you find the project interesting.
Wooden Spoons and Ladles.
A very very interesting woodworking project you can undertake is to make spoons and ladles of all sizes out of wood. These items are really coming back in a big way. I sincerely feel you can attract a lot of attention and sell these items very well. People are beginning to use more wholesome utensils in the kitchens. Wooden spoons and ladles are going to be raging popular products.
Getting a lathe will go a long way in making any kind of wood bowls, spoons and ladles, although this wood project can be done with a handful of hand tools. All you will really need is a set of good chisels and sanding pads.
NOTE: Learning to make a new wood craft using hand tools is a good practise. Using hand tools, one can take their time, work slowly on the wood craft and really understand the technique one needs to learn. Power tools are faster and that is also the problem. Beginners will find it easier to control hand tools till the time they learn.