this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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The massive wood furniture that lasts two lifetimes is only as cheap as the IKEA counterpart if you do it all by yourself, in your own little woodshop, and only need to pay for glue, nails, hinges, and electricity. And still only of you Include felling and milling the trees on your own.
Some years ago, I wanted one wall of the living room done with a custom-made, wall filling book shelf. Estimated cost by the carpenter: 7000. I paid about 3000 for IKEA furniture and other materials and did two walls of shelves instead of just one, suspended the ceiling, ran a ton of wires and redid the whole living room electrical and communication infrastructure. Yes, all that for half the price quoted by the carpenter. Guess what? None of the furniture has broken down so far. And I don't expect it to.
Carpenters build house frames, cabinetmakers build furniture.
Is it legit $7,000 for a big wall filling bookshelf?
Sounds insane.
Like who would ever buy that service?
My dad is a cabinetmaker. At 34 I can reflect on my life and I have never seen higher quality cabinets than his. Nothing comes close.
I remember he used to complain that people could get cabinets cheaper at Walmart so he lost more and more business.
I think with wage stagnation, people can't afford custom cabinetry anymore. So it seems insane to us to spend that amount. But you can imagine that with the price of lumber and the cost of skilled labor that 7000$ comes quickly.