How did you learn to work with wood?

[Mulvah]

I'm not taking about making a gorgeous showpiece, I'm talking about making something simple (looking) and relatively easy like this.  Have you done it?  Did you teach yourself?  Did you take a class of any kind or just use online tutorials and wing it?  Tell me more, please.

[littlest birds]

I have.  I learned by helping my mother, and also figuring things out when I needed something done.  For our family growing up using tools was a pretty constant thing and after some bad projects you learn the pitfalls to avoid. I think that looks like a very easy project that I could figure out a pattern to make it work in any size easily.

When I was about 12yo I remember I decided to make a toy horse my sisters could sit on of scrap wood.  It was twisty and malformed and moved when weight was put on it, sort of like when I tried to make barbie clothes and didn't know how patterns worked to make three dimensional things.  My mother was always working on building and remodeling projects so I was often called upon to help.  When I wanted something like shelves or a dollhouse for my LO I just found a way to make do because I expected that was the only way to get it. 

Hands-on practice seems ideal, and it's good to have some advice if you are 100% clueless with the skills.  You need to be able to measure and cut precisely, handle a drill that screws (or predrill for hand-screwing) and use finishing nails and a nail set on the trim for that project.  If you use a pattern you don't have to figure out the sizes of everything.  Little things like knowing that the width of your saw blade will affect your precision and getting everything square can be tricky.  If you don't have any experience, I would expect there to be some rough results while you learn.  It probably depends on your learning style how you should approach it.  These days you can probably just watch Youtube videos and be well on your way. 

[Vaske]

Mostly I learned by doing:  measure, cut, and attach.  I did at one point take a metal shop class where I learned more about planning ahead and being methodical--building is often a creative outlet for me, and I tend to jump in swinging and figure things out as I go.  I prefer to use hand tools, for the most part.

The plant stand project looks mostly easy.  I think the hardest part for a beginner would be cutting the chair molding at an angle so the corners are mitered--you'd need a miter box for that, probably.  Other than that, it requires only the most basic tools.

ana-white.com has lots of simple plans, and step-by-step instructions.

[Mulvah]

Thank you both for sharing.

Originally Posted by Vaske 

Mostly I learned by doing:  measure, cut, and attach.  I did at one point take a metal shop class where I learned more about planning ahead and being methodical--building is often a creative outlet for me, and I tend to jump in swinging and figure things out as I go.  I prefer to use hand tools, for the most part.

The plant stand project looks mostly easy.  I think the hardest part for a beginner would be cutting the chair molding at an angle so the corners are mitered--you'd need a miter box for that, probably.  Other than that, it requires only the most basic tools.

ana-white.com has lots of simple plans, and step-by-step instructions.

Yeah, I'm not even sure if I would do the chair molding, but I would have to finish it somehow. 

Thanks for the website; I will definitely have a look at it.