Why Many Millennials Are Turning to This Unexpected Hobby
When Carren and Gabrielle Cheng moved to New York City, the 26-year-old twins bought the bulk of their furniture from IKEA. But there are two pieces in the apartment the entrepreneurs made themselves: a pair of side tables the duo handcrafted in a six-week woodworking workshop.
People love customizing virtual furniture on Nintendo’s Animal Crossing and go viral for recreating their college campuses brick for brick in Minecraft. But many millennials are giving DIY furniture a go in the real world as a way to reconnect with their bodies, learn about an overlooked craft, and create custom furniture that fits their specific needs—and lasts a lot longer than the typical big-box store purchase.
The Chengs are both artistic by nature. They’re avid painters and always up for a YouTube tutorial on a new craft. But when Carren decided to give woodworking a go, she knew she’d need to find a dedicated space, with the right tools and teachers. She found Bien Hecho, a professional furniture studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard that also offers beginner workshops, and signed them both up.
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In the six-week course, the students moved together, cut by cut, through the production of their side tables. For Carren, the experience was “like a roller coaster.” Being around the whirring machines and giant blades was certainly an adrenaline rush, but there was another kind of strangeness, too. “I guess I was adjusting to using my hands again,” she says.
People in their 20s and 30s are getting crafty in all kinds of ways, from full-on Etsy shops to personal sourdough starters. John Randall, the founder of Bien Hecho, says his workshops attract tons of students from the tech industry. “It’s a lot of people who are staring at screens all day,” he says. The texture of an unrefined block of wood provides a heady contrast to a long day running social media accounts or programming software. But it’s a tactile experience many people crave.
Cole Laush, 25, is a transportation planner in Seattle. He started building custom speakers in college and eventually graduated to full-blown furniture design and construction. Right now, he’s working on a hardwood couch—and planning to upholster the cushions himself. “There’s definitely a level of fear you have to get over,” he says. Woodworking equipment is intimidating, and so is the threat of failure when you’re spending your time and money on a custom build.
But once you’ve conquered the anxiety, it becomes “a little bit of an addiction,” Laush says. You can turn your imagination into reality. And “you start to see how the world comes together a little bit,” he says. Now, when Laush looks at store-bought furniture, he can usually ID the materials it’s made from, the way it was built, and even judge the quality of the final product.
Sometimes, necessity really is the mother of invention. Jack Koloskus, 26, is a website designer. His first New York City apartment had soaring 10- or 12-foot ceilings, but down on the ground there was barely space for a mattress. His solution was to build his own lofted bed. By maximizing his abundant vertical space, he was able to find room for a desk beneath his mattress. “For all of its ups and (literal) downs, it was fulfilling to build something that you can sleep on every night,” he wrote via Twitter messages.
Every project comes with its own compromises—a few inches lost here, a wonky corner there. But for woodworkers at all levels, the biggest challenge is finding a shop. The Chengs love their side tables. “Looking at the finished project is quite inspirational,” Gabrielle says. “It’s empowering to make furniture and use it for myself.” And they already have their next project in mind: an art easel.
Bespoke furniture production isn’t the easiest or cheapest hobby, but Randall of Bien Hecho says the challenges are part of the fun of building furniture from scratch. “We use the word ‘gratifying’ around here a lot,” he says.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
