There are several resources that suggest that you can make a lot of money from making heirloom furniture. This is not necessarily true. There are some very special set of circumstances under which a woodworker can make money in this category of woodworking, and its not just the advanced skills you require.
One common characteristic of all heirloom furniture is that it all comes with a steep selling price. In order to sell this very expensive heirloom furniture, you will need to produce a craft of a very high quality, and be a woodworker of high skills.
A customer is also more likely to buy expensive heirloom furniture from a woodworker who already has an established reputation.
Without the requisite skills and being a well known name, it is extremely difficult to make, sell and actually make money in the heirloom business category.
Something to watch out for is the number of man-hours it takes to finish a complex woodworking piece. The final price-tag for selling it for might not seem much when you calculate your income per hour.
There is definitely a market for heirloom furniture and you can find ways to target a select audience that will buy it. However, there is a much larger section of society that is looking for good quality, aesthetically made furniture for practical and everyday use. It makes more sense to start a woodworking business in this category.
By providing quality furniture you can quickly create a profitable woodworking business. Once you have established an income stream you will have the opportunity to improve your woodworking skills (if you need to). You may then experiment with the heirloom woodworking business if you wish to without risking a loss.
People are in need of well designed, well built furniture and cabinets. The often have to settle for cheaper quality products made out of plastic and particle boards. You can superimpose your wood products on this segment by creating a better product.
For example, many woodworkers create high quality and yet affordable furniture and cabinets by using hardwood boards rather than actual hard wood.
Not only are hardwood boards easier to work with, they also bring the cost of the project down dramatically, without causing a serious compromise in the durability of the wood craft.
A lot of people will opt for the better quality custom built wood furniture and cabinets over the cheaper and poor quality mass manufactured particleboard products which are notorious for being unreliable and having a short life.
We still highly recommend choosing to build some popular but simple wood crafts. Small and popular wood crafts can also be sold conveniently online, which really expands your customer and market reach. So definitely consider including these crafts in your woodworking inventory.
