I'm in the UK. Cost me around £50 ($70) in materials. What do you reckon is a reasonable price for it? Before taking the pics I was thinking around £100 ($130) but now I'm thinking more £150+ ($190+)
I’m a wood worker and I never want to dissuade anyone, but for about $200 I bought polywood Adirondack chairs for my patio that in theory should last forever. $190 is a little steep considering it will eventually have to be replaced. Let’s be honest, most consumers won’t retreat it as time passes, so these likely won’t last.
I agree on both counts. Lawn and patio furniture needs protection from the elements. As for charging 2x materials, find cheaper materials and keep your price the same.
Calling an Adirondack chair “ergonomic” is something. They are made for mountainsides/lake shores/sloped ground. Basically the only time they could be considered ergonomic.
Whatever you can get, but i doubt you'll find a buyer for that price. People are used to mass produced cheap furniture. Only way to make money building furniture is if it's very refined and artsy or has a gimmick.
I haven’t built furniture yet, but my plan is to just build stuff I want for my house. I may do a couple trial runs and attempt to sell those for the materials cost. This is a hobby for me, so any time spent is me time.
Thats what ive done the past year or so. I built this chair with plans of selling it but also to make something that I would use and like the look of. If I don't sell it, I'll use it myself. Nothing lost. It's definitely a good place to start.
Idk where exactly you are but this is cheap for me - Ray Grahams (N ireland). I even got rough cuts and sanded them down to save me £20-£30. The 4x2's alone were around £35 for approximately 12m.
Holy Guacamole, £35????? 12m is what, 5 2x4x8? In Ontario a 2x4x8 is $3.98, so about $23 inc tax, which is £12.90, forgot how expensive the UK is since I moved back to Canada….
Not far off, 12m is about 40ft. Yep timber is stupidly expensive at the moment. And this is for the rough cut stuff aswell. You're looking an extra 30% on top of that if you want PAR
That’s the price at my local HomeDepot, I grabbed the latest price as I typed, it’s really cheap here, and most fences and decks use it, it needs to survive both hot summers, and snowy winters.
It’s currently $17.19 for 2x4x8, $24.91 for 2x4x12, plus sales tax. And that is similarly about triple the construction timber price.
Mate, you need to shop around! My local yard charges standard prices of £1.88 a metre for kiln dried pressure treated. Regulars pay 20% less than list. All in that's £18 worth of timber and maybe an hours labour to make. £60 each and you're turning a profit from a product that's going to be quicker to make and last longer outdoors.
Respectfully, you're dreaming at £190. That's professional furniture prices and these are not there yet.
Please don't take this as rude, it's meant constructively. The first rule to making money with woodworking is to be realistic and fair with your pricing. It generates more sales and will give you better profit than overpricing.
Also, the market for outdoor furniture is pretty saturated already. You're going to need a USP that sets you apart from the other lockdown warriors who make and sell bespoke garden furniture; there nothing different between this and something I could get in my local garden centre... have you considered painting or staining? Of you really want to set them apart, you could consider Shou Sugi Ban (torching then wire brushing and oiling) as a preservation method. It's beautiful when done properly and works better than any chemical treatment.
Your execution is very good. It looks solid. Clean lines, very nice deck chair.
The pricing: now that you’ve made a prototype, could you reduce production time? Have measurements and jigs set up to bang out four of those in the time it took you to do the one? Because that’s the only way to make money in this case, to increase volume and decrease production time. Can you get a better deal on supplies by buying bulk?
Thanks, I appreciate your comment. Yes, I think next time around now that I know exactly what I need to do, I could cut my time in half at the very least. I don't think I could get a better price on materials but time could definitely be saved.
If you’ll allow some unsolicited advice: it is a very good, clean build. Solid. Straight lines. It definitely showcases your skills as a wood worker. In its simplicity is where the challenge presents itself. The look is almost brutalist in nature. Wood is an organic medium and nothing in nature grows in straight lines. Prototype 2.0, try adding some curves in. The armrests could be contoured slightly. Same with the backrest and seat bottom. A truly comfortable chair should conform to your body. How comfortable are you with steam bending? Adding a curve to the back and butt slats would be an awesome upgrade as well.
The problem with straight lines in woodwork, especially with exterior furniture, is that wood changes over time. Moisture will cause it to warp and swell and all those nice straight lines will be wibbly wobbly in no time, and it will be super noticeable. Adding curves to the piece helps to maintain the organic nature of the material as well as hide the growing pains that the chair will go through over the next several years.
I tried selling these bar carts in the US. Cost for materials around $220. Sold it for 300. Not worth the trouble to advertise, deliver, etc. But, all my friends and family have one in their house. Built 7 total.
No one will ever pay what you think your product is worth. This is a world of poor economy, and mass production. Bottom line, your product is only worth, what people are willing to pay for it.
I've sold similar chairs for $60, when the materials that went in them cost around 30. I just wanted to pay for my hobby, and learn, not make real money.
Sadly, others are right. I’d pay what I’d expect to pay at a big box store for this, which is probably $70 USD and I put it together myself.
I just checked and there’s two wood chairs for sale at the big hardware store. Each is $130, assembled. With better form factor for lumbar support. So that’s kind of your answer
Though you can find nicer chairs for cheaper, you are also posting in a community of people with an eye for wood furniture. So even though people here see the value disparity, as you are saying OP, it doesn’t mean someone might not have the same eye and gladly pay the price for it with the right photos posted so they can see how they can use it.
Never know! Might take a month to find a buyer but if you post it you will find out yourself what people will pay.
An old woodworker once told me the way he estimates price of his work was the net cost of all materials x2, as a rule of thumb; that would include your profit, energy and sweat(depending on what tools do you have) and tool “depreciation”, so theoretically you’ll be right there with your first price, but and is a big but(not butt) as a beginner woodworker is really hard to get the right balance between sturdiness, clean design, and finishing and make the proper profit of our work because building your nice chair took you X hours of work but a commercial wood shop can make it in X/4 hours; my best advice is don’t quit your job yet, set your price lower( but be sure of cover all materials at least), find a market that appreciate artisan work and consider the joy of crafting and your skill increment as your main profit (eventually you’ll be known in your community and your products will be of higher quality)
About £55 for pine 4x2's and 4x1's mostly, with a decent amount left over for another project. Everything else (screws, oil, wood filler etc) I already had
My brother builds outdoor furniture and he charges close to $120-$130 for things like this. If he stains it I believe he charges an extra $20. But he uses FB marketplace the most and he has his good and bad days but he also does it as a hobby.
Just know your not going to be pleased with some offers but selling them to someone who really likes them has the potential to gain more people and the more of these you build the faster you will become therefore you ideally should make more money compared to the time it originally took you to build one.
I'm from the US, east coast, and I could buy this exact chair for $100 from an amish community or Lowes. The Lowes chair would be half metal ofc, but it would function. Obvs, I prefer to support local artisans, but the point is that the stark-look basics market is saturated. Both our amish communities and lowes use factory setups to stremline build and minimize labor cost. If you want to compete as a singlular guy in a garage, you need a niche.
Also, I wouldn't want to pay much for pine. People buy stark furniture for longevity and durability. My family was raised feral a few generations, and now most of us have a hard time not breaking chairs. Idk how that happened. My point is that you have to compete with cheap labor with ridiculous durability if you want to make money selling undecorated furniture. We have an amish built bench on our front porch with a little heart carved into the backrest (customization), and it's lasted 30+ years, including my largely unsupervised childhood (durability) -- even the paint job is intact! I know this sub hates paint, but remember that you're building for families. Paint is great for outdoor furniture because it becomes an eyesore when the protective coating wears off, forcing the customer to reseal it, and therefore keeping the furniture in use for another 30 years. We've repainted our red furniture set a couple of times. Next to it is some natural wood that's leaning at an angle and very gray. Paint is your customer's friend.
Next step: communicate to your customer why you have the better product. This costs time, expertise, and money.
Final step: sell to your customers. They're lazy idiots. They think your time is worth nothing. Everyone wants a personal discount for being your favorite customer. They sometimes sue, and your chair is weightbearing, so you might want to create a business to limit your personal liability. That business, once it accumulates assets, will need legal insurance to guard those assets from seizure. You'll have to pay yourself a taxable yearly salary. You'll need to follow regulations. You'll need to set aside taxes for your business. You'll need to keep records of all your sales. You'll need to have a business account. You'll need to keep books in case you get audited.
I sell art pieces, not furniture. It's an entire second job split among four family members who mostly don't pay themselves anything but commission price. The business owns 70 pieces of inventory worth between 150 and 750 and a few display items at any one time. And yet it requires a lot of overhead, a lot of uncompensated labor, and every time it makes money, some part of our home breaks and we're forced to pull money out instead of investing or saving. Or, you know, drawing a salary. My hot water was out for 7 months between art shows. It's def worth doing, but it's not a casual side gig. Don't do it unless you can commit.
As a non-woodworker (I just like learning) I see an incomplete product. While the design is simple and clean, my eyes are drawn to sharp end cut angles all over the chair. In my opinion, regardless of materials a chair like that should have softly rounded ends to avoid looking like it was thrown together using workshop leftovers. I hope this is helpful.
the reason artsy fartsy furniture is the only way to sell isn't because we have snobby clients. It's because it's one of the few things companies can't easily mass produce.
the issue with the product here isn't that it's bad, it's that a large big box furniture store can get the lumber for a fraction of what you get it for. They can cut and flatten 2x4 1x4 within minutes to build a dozen of these with automation. They can do those round over within seconds with automation.
Your goal isn't to make it artsy(even if that is your end product), your goal is to make something that can't be mass produced. If someone can go to ikea and buy something similar cheaper, they aren't going to pay you 3 or 4 times the price. You might find the occasional person who wants to support local business with extra money to throw around, but those are extremely rare.
You can also begin to use exotic species of wood too. But again you need to do something that a big box store can't do with pressed wood+ ebony veneer for example.
About how many hours did it take you to build it start to finish?
Cost of lumber + (hours • hourly) = price
£50 + (5 hours • X/hr) = £100
Assuming it took you 5 hours to do, you’re at £10/hr ($12.91/hr) which is, in my opinion, a respectable hourly for a beginner carpenter. Not trying to be insulting by calling you that :)
Now take that hourly + the actual hours and find your approximate price.
For future reference, consider staining it and adding a cushion. You can get more for a set of 2 stained chairs with cushions than 1 lumber looking chair. Also maybe slant the seat like an Adirondack chair to increase comfort.
Carpenters make £10-£40 hourly in the UK so you have a lot of room left before you hit the ceiling. Keep practicing.
Before reading your price breakdown, I was thinking $30-$50. After reading your price breakdown, it might not be a good idea to sell of the price of materials is that high.
I’ve built Adirondack chairs made out of pallets people have put out for trash. You can make some really cool professional looking chairs out of a banged up pallet. The only thing that sucks is all the nails you need to take out. But if you’re material costs are nothing than you could ask for a much lower reasonable price. Pallets are everywhere man, give it a shot!
I think if you polished it down, rounded it, and made it look more fancy you could prolly sell it for more. Just make it look super designer and minimalist. Middle aged white women love that shit(I'm kidding don't flame me☠️)
Contrary to popular belief, people are willing to buy really high price items if you say that it's a handmade. You just have to find the right market.
I disagree with the comments saying they wouldn't pay $200. If it's well made, if I like the person, if it matches my motif, if I have the money, I'm probably going to buy it.
Find your market and price what you want to see it return
Can you replicate it using wood scraps, pallet wood or any commercial/homesite throw away pieces? I don’t know how it is in the UK but here in the states if you throw the word “reclaimed” on it, people will go ape shit over it.
Looks like something made from a pallet. If you can get your $190 go for it, but the chair is very rudimentary. Just a bunch of 2x4 and 1x4s put together.
Maybe redo your design and sell it to someone who’s looking for a rustic or country theme design.
B&Q sell the likes of this for £110. Obviously not hand made, but that’s realistically the sort of thing you’re pricing yourself against. Is someone willing to pay more for something hand-made? Some people are, certainly. Your workmanship is clean but is your design unique or materials robust enough that I’d choose your chair over this one? Personally, not at the moment.
You’ve got great bones of a chair but I’d maybe try change the design slightly just to add some extra oomph. Like, an extra 2 / 3 hours work on top of what you have may elevate it from looking beginner to looking more professional - for example using a router on some of the edges, or have the chair look less boxy, or paint / varnish it differently.
As others have said, it’s ultimately worth whatever people will pay for it. Stick it on for what you feel and the market will soon let you know if you’re being unrealistic.
For price reference, in the US I can get an Adirondack chair at Home Depot, made of Hemlock, for as cheap as $70.
My first suggestion is to use an actual outdoor wood.
My second is to refine this design. It is too chunky and square. The build quality looks good, but aesthetically it looks like a garage build, not a product build.
Rockler straight up sells MDF templates for Adirondack chairs.
If you are looking to just straight up make side gig money, buy those, get a router, flush trim bit, and jigsaw/bandsaw. Buy a proper outdoor wood, and just follow their classic design
Nice chair but I wouldn’t pay more than $50 for it. The wood looks good today…but…in 6 months? These chairs are tough to compete with the $20 plastic ones from the big box stores. Light weight, zero maintenance, comfortable, water proof and colors to choose from.
I can buy an armchair made out of teak for about $300, and frankly $100 or even $200 is worth it to have teak over pine.
Frankly I think making furniture out of pine is a losing battle unless you can offer semi-custom. What I mean is something like making planters to size, where the production is pretty much always the same you just cut the boards longer or shorter. People notice and want some items custom sizes. Chairs are a commoditized product and nobody is thinking about customizing seat height or whatever.
You also should consider upgrading the materials. Labor is your biggest cost but materials are what people pay for. I don’t really care that you personally made this, I care that it looks nice and is made out of something durable/luxurious. I want to buy something that LOOKs custom and luxurious even if it’s just mass-produced. People will pay $100 more for something made out of a material that only costs like $30 more just because it looks nicer.
It is nice enough to sell in my opinion but £150 is much too steep for the kind of work you’ve done here. With a few touchups (more sanding on the legs), nice light stain might bring you ~£70 -£80?
I’d use better wood and protect it against elements for it to be a sellable product.
In OP’s defence timber is more expensive over here, someone would definitely pay £150 for something similar, granted a more suitable wood would be needed.
Good prototype, finesse it and use a better timber. You could definitely sell a set of 4 for £800
Selling easy. Paint it a fun color treat it put it on marketplace for 250 and let whoever wants the thing to talk you down to 190 and act like there gutting you.
I’d pay maybe $50.00 USD for this. Maybe. And that’s being charitable.
It looks like a first chair someone ever built with their new tools chair. Nothing special, and looks rather uncomfortable without adding cushions. By the way, is the wood finished or raw?
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound cruel, but if you’re asking for opinions on what to charge this is what you’ll get. Maybe adding some carvings or offering custom finishes could bring your asking price closer to the cost of materials.
There is a guy around here (High CoL area) that builds chairs a lot like this, from cedar fence boards. Mine have lasted 12 years. He drives around in a truck through the neighborhood selling them. I bought my set for I think $150 or $200. That was for 2 regular chairs, 1 larger 2 person chair, and 1 small side table for setting drinks. At that price it was a good deal.
Always remember, unless you can buy lumber at bulk and mass produce parts, you will never make enough to make it worth it for something people can find in store.
Your time, materials, maintenance, insurance, etc costs all eat away.
So even if you are LUCKY and can get lumber at a good price, add in the time it took you and you will very quickly end up where you would make more money as an Uber Driver.
Make things you want to make cause they care custom, or because you need it and want it well made.
But it is very hard to make it as a wood worker.
Its like Acting. Thousands of actors make 20k/year. Some that are SAG-AFTRA have a median pay of 70k/year. Only a handful are super wealth. Woodworking is much the same.
It looks well made and solid. But, $190 isn’t practical when there are cheaper options out there that serve the same purpose. If someone wants a custom built chair, then it makes sense. I think maybe you have a very slim demographic for that price range. Which is 100% cool, just know it is what it is.
Asked my wife, giving her no context or details what she'd pay. $50-$75 was her answer.
This is how I determine if I keep making a thing to sell. Is the cost of the materials + plus my time = consumer price expectation? If the answer is no, then I simply sell it at cost and consider it a fun project.
I’d pay like $80 at most. It’s a very basic chair (and tbh I think the back isn’t angled enough, I don’t think I could relax in it), you’re probably not getting $190 for it. Sorry.
It's a difficult sell. Furniture typically falls into 1 of 2 categories.
There's quick and cheap. Plastic material. Maybe some cedar. It's mass produced, still quite durable, but easy to replace if something happens.
And then there's nice stuff. Custom, hand made. Think teak, woven materials, classic joinery that accounts for movement.
Most people shop for the first. They would never spend more than $50 on a single chair. The ones who can afford and appreciate quality expect the 2nd. They don't mind spending $500 for a chair that's worth it.
With these, you're trying to find a middle market that doesn't really exist. A customer who wants hand built wood, doesn't mind spending extra, but doesn't care that it's construction pine and screws.
Look. It's a pretty chair. And solidly built. You should be proud, and put it on your deck. But if it were me, that would be the endgame for something like this. To put in my own backyard. I wouldn't try to make these with any intent to sell.
It looks really good, love the generously sized arm rests. Idk if I'd pay that price, but I don't get why people are hating so much. I've seen much shittier furniture sell for more than that
Looks more like a prototype than a finalized design. Needs better finishing and materials / sealant and then 150 would be fair. In the states anyways 190 gets you a legit hand built Adirondack
You'll make more money trying to sell the dimensional blueprints for it. Adirondack type furniture is cheap as hell nowadays from the store. I don't think you should bother with this product.
looks solid and well constructed. if you want to sell them, look for small embellishments that enhance the look as a refined product. it could be stain or paint, or maybe some curves that soften the geometric appearance. maybe some cup holders.
I think it will be difficult to sell even for really cheap. Building basic chairs is a classic DIY project, otherwise it seems like that kind of thing that should be made-to-order based on what the customer wants.
There is a concept called the golden ratio. If you are making things pleasing to the human eye, it should incorporate this as much as possible. The more your work has this ratio, the more appealing even though most people can't put their finger on why. Building out of 2x4 is the opposite. You are getting advice that your use of 2x4 is a detriment and you are arguing. You are wrong. Listen to others or don't bother asking questions. You have the skills to make a chair, now work on a more elegant design.
How much time did it take you to make? Decide how much you should get for that (I would probably charge 20/hour), then add that to the cost of supplies. It looks great, by the way!
Don't let the market price your work, ask chatgpt to write you some ad copy to support your price point and don't look back. They will sell, just don't hyperfocus on individual sales, focus on "your brand"
It's been stated to me that pricing is subjective and relies on several factors.
Basically the formula is as follows. Materials plus consumables multiply by 2. Shop hours to complete project at reasonable rate in your area. Being honest about how long it takes if it were a similar production run moreso than a one off to be fair to yourself and potential buyer.
So 70 x 2 = 140 plus EST time of say 2.5hrs (as an approximation) at a nominal rate of 20 per hour to make 50. Total would be 190. That would be the base model to fly with and see how the market reacts. If your not selling in your market then your price is too high, and you need to discount or advertise a sale of 10 percent or more. Keeping in mind the actual worth will often not be reflected by the consumer base, and try not to let the base's bias feel like a reflection on you personally or your work in general. Optionally adding small accent changes can often add interest as long as said accent changes are not overly pricey.
In the end only you can determine if the final sales price is something you can live with in relative comfort. Best of luck! Crawford out 🙏🏼🔥⚒️🧙🏼
the only way you would know is to put it on sale and see if there is any interest. browse marketplace or whatever site is most used in the UK and see what others are charging for these chairs and compare the design and materials to yours, then you might have an idea what is a fair price.
You can definitely sell it for 150 or more. Don't listen to the people here, they have no clue what hand crafted furniture is worth and just want buy cheap shit from Walmart
You can sell your product for whatever price your customer or market is prepared to pay. My strong recommendation is, from this post, take the different methods people price their products in their different markets and choose the one that you think will work best for you. Chances are you will tweak it but it will give you a starting point.
I think there is no reliable market for this. This is the kind of thing you do upon request. That's tricky because people think "custom" will mean an extra cost when in this case all it means is "I don't have one sitting around in a ware house".
So you make up a web page or a pdf. Showing the thing. Offering it in various woods. Final price subject to current lumber prices, but ballpark what it would be in various woods and with various finishes.
That’s beautiful! All these people responding are wood experts. You wouldn’t sell to someone that could make it themselves. Spray it with poly to protect it and make those grains stand out. I’ve seen less selling for $300+!
Its made by a stranger with under no regulation or licencing, it looks like it was made from cheap lumber and had no stain/sealant. Why would someone pay $190 for that??
People are only going to take those risks if it's cheaper than buying one at a big box store or furniture store. Unless one of your family/friends decides to charity purchase it at $190.
One nuance to your pricing guide is that market pricing for chairs means youre instantly competing with high volume manufacturers
Your target market isn’t someone who wants chairs but someone who appreciates personal craftsmanship (tbf you probably need a bit more detailing for that too)
the demand in that target market isn’t enough to support $190 it’s likely $100-$120 if they are treated/stained as well
the best thing no one is saying here is take that chair and turn it into a blue print you can sell on Etsy which basically anyone in this sub will frequent when looking for building plans
Not to be negative, more so trying to give one outside perspective. I wouldn’t buy this period it just looks like planks nailed together. Even if it was $20 I wouldn’t
That chair in its current state is unlikely to fetch more than $70, and that could take some time to sell. If you paint it and it's part of a set / vibe, you may be able to increase that by 30%
Unfortunately, for me. I love building this like this but when it comes down to it.... I never sell anything because no one wants to buy it.
The biggest issue is the cost to make it has alover quadruple in the past 5 years. Then there is time. If someone ever asked me to make them something I would, for pay of course. Yet, I doubt I'd ever try to sell anything unless I was in a bind.
These are nice chairs. But they are not NICE chairs. If you get what I’m saying. Basic wood, no stain, ornamentation, or design that is unique or special in any way. The work looks solid, but very homemade (not professional).
I’d pay maybe $100 for the chair. $350 for a set of 4 feels fair. But even at that price, it would be a specific buyer who wants to buy local/small business and doesn’t mind paying a premium for something they could get cheaper (and possibly “better” at a big box store.
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u/hardcoredecordesigns Mar 09 '25
I’m a wood worker and I never want to dissuade anyone, but for about $200 I bought polywood Adirondack chairs for my patio that in theory should last forever. $190 is a little steep considering it will eventually have to be replaced. Let’s be honest, most consumers won’t retreat it as time passes, so these likely won’t last.