Every aspiring woodworker dreams of transforming wood into a thing of usefulness and beauty. But, learning woodworking skills doesn’t happen in a short time. It takes months and years of practice to be well versed in the craft. One needs to practice the skills learned on various wood shop projects. There are a number of such projects one can take up – the one thing that one should keep in mind is that they should pick projects that are right for their skill level. Once you are able to execute beginner woodshop projects flawlessly, you will be ready to take up more challenging projects with ease.
Here are 5 varied wood shop projects that you can consider taking up.
- Wooden Mailbox:
This is a small wood shop project but a good one for a beginner woodworker. One will get to learn a number of techniques while executing this project, plus one will not really need a number of tools and equipment to make this one. In fact, basic tools and some scrap wood is enough to get started. For the details of the project, check out the link below.
http://www.westhillswood.com/wood-mailbox.html

- Stacking Shelf
Shelves add more space to a home. If you have storage issues, then you should definitely consider having more shelves in the house. The project we are talking about here is a simple one but the end product is very versatile. It is a shelving unit with removable shelves. So, if you do not need that, you can do away with the shelves and when you need them, you can use them. Does that idea interest you? Check the details here.
http://www.woodstore.net/stsh.html
- Sliding Book Rack
If you are game for a slightly more challenging project, then this one should fit the bill. It is always a please to create something functional out of wood. As the name says, it is a sliding book rack. It has a slide on the top with two rails which you can slide over and hold any number of books. This is a unique idea and can win you great compliments from people. Click the link below for the details of this project.
http://www.americanwoodworker.com/blogs/projects/archive/2011/05/24/ws-sliding-bookrack.aspx
- Children’s Table:
One of the beginner’s wood shop projects that is quite popular among woodworkers is making table. The project we are talking here is a kid’ table, so it is relatively smaller in size. But, the techniques you learn while building it can be applied to build a larger one too. Check out the link below for the project plan and step by step instructions.
http://woodgears.ca/table/kids/index.html
- Toy Box
A toy box is another very useful piece of furniture you can make for your kids. It is a great means of keeping your kids room tidy. All you have to do is dump your kid’s toys into it when they are not being used. The toy box is very simple to make – it uses simple screw joinery so it can be build fast. Here is the link for details.
http://www.woodstore.net/toybochwopl.html
So, these were some interesting projects that novice woodworkers can take up. Happy Woodworking.