A Year in Review-Top 5 Furniture Builds of 2022

December 29, 2022
nicole

Hi! I'm Nicole

Fearless DIY. Sharing building project tutorials and interior design tips. Let’s build something beautiful together. For more projects, design tips and behind the scenes, follow me @designtobuild.nicole

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Where it all began. Furniture builds. Building furniture was my therapy following my husband’s life-changing wakeboarding accident. As I share in my About Me page, (you can find my full story here) I never in a million years imagined this would be the path of life God would take me down.

I didn’t even like to decorate my house. And often left it up to my mom and sister to decorate for me. I didn’t have a clue! Let alone, building furniture??? Ha!

I would have laughed hysterically if God would have told my 30-something self that this is what I would be doing throughout my 40’s and now into my 50’s. Ok, now I’m showing my age. UGH! 🙂 But here I am, still building furniture and still loving every moment of it! What used to be my therapy, has now become a love and a passion.

Header image with a table and bench

People tell me all the time, “I could never build that.” Yes, you can! As I mentioned in last week’s post, I pride myself in bringing you accurate and easy to follow tutorials for all of my furniture builds.

A couple months ago I started rolling out 3D tutorials detailing exactly how I build each furniture piece. My goal is to create these plans for all of my furniture. Look for more of them to come in 2023. I love how they add one more layer to making the process easier to understand and follow along.

My Top 5 Furniture Builds of 2022

#1 In Furniture Builds–Dining Table

Starting off the list with one of my most popular pins over on Pinterest. This Pottery Barn dining table dupe is a fan favorite for sure! It is such a simple, yet elegant table. I built ours for out on our deck, but it would look amazing in a dining room too.

A smaller version would be great in a kitchen nook. And with the 3D plans included in the post now, it’s such an easy build. Here are the plans for this beautiful table.

Lightly stained modern table with black metal chairs as part of the furniture builds post

#2 In Furniture Builds–Nightstand

A couple years ago I built these nightstands for my master bedroom remodel. This year, after doing a mini-makeover to my daughter’s bedroom, I built her a couple of them too.

I actually love building these things. Watching them come together is so satisfying. While my daughter’s nightstands are vibrant and playful, ours are more sophisticated and muted. Amazing what paint can do. You can check out the post and 3D plans for these nightstands here.

Mid century modern nightstand in a girls bedroom with pink accent wall

#3 Modern Coffee Table

When I saw this coffee table online, I knew I had to have it. But the price tag was more than I wanted to spend. And let’s be honest, I rarely buy furniture…knowing I can build it myself. (Another perk to building your own furniture–you’ve got this!!).

So, off to the drawing board I went and then to my garage and then voila—a new coffee table! Haha! Ok. Maybe not that easy. BUT, I’ve done all the hard part for you. All you have to do is follow these easy plans and voila! You have a new coffee table. 🙂 It really is that easy!

Here are the plans to build this Pottery Barn coffee table dupe. It’s a good one!!

light wood stain coffee table as part of the furniture builds post

#4 Modern End Table

Usually I’m not about the matchy-matchy when it comes to interior design. But I do love these two pieces together. This end table plays off of the modern coffee table above. And the stain on both of these! So good! I’ve linked the plans and how I achieved this stained finish, here.

It’s another piece that costs a pretty penny in the store. But built at home–oh so affordable….

View of a family room with carpet, furniture and board and batten painted black in the background as part of the furniture builds post

#5 In Furniture Builds–Coffee Table

Yep! Another coffee table. Only this time it’s not a Pottery Barn Dupe. Nope! This one is a McGee & Co dupe I built for our pergola space.

Perusing furniture catalogs and websites is a fun past-time for me. I love to find different styles and then draw up my own plans for them.

Once the plans are drawn, I head out to my garage and work out all of the glitches through the building process. During the building process, I write out the plans for you, on paper.

And then I take those plans to my computer to make them legible and precise. Once those steps are done, I then create the 3D plans to make it even easier to understand and follow along. All of those steps are finished and ready for you, over here in this post.

pinewood outdoor furniture

I’m excited to roll out many more amazing furniture builds in 2023. Not only for our enjoyment, but for you to build too. I hope you’ll give it a try. It truly is so rewarding and fun!

And as always, I’m here to help. You can always DM me any questions you may have over on Instagram, where I check my messages daily. Or ask your question below and I’ll get back to you soon. I check these messages almost daily. So, I promise, you’ll get a response soon.

Until next time…

Let’s go beyond the design to build something beautiful together!

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XO,

~Nicole

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