Furniture Plans - Step by Step from Inspiration to Reality - Part 7 of 8

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• Filed under: Modern Furniture Plans

Publish

The purpose of going through this step really depends on what you intend to do with your furniture plans.  If you’re planning on distributing them (since they do make a great gift), this will allow others to easily build furniture without having to try to interpret random drawings.  The quality of the plans also depends on what you’re intending on doing with them, and what your own standards are.

For the purpose of this post, we’ll go through the process that Plan Canvas goes through to publish a plan.  Here are the basic steps:

1. Go over again the way the pieces are cut out
2. Go over again on how the parts are going to be assembled
3. Get overall dimensions of the project
4. Make a materials list
5. Figure out the best way to tell the story
6. Add in any tips you may have

Step 1)  You’ve already done this (2 times I think?), but it never hurts to go over it again before actually cutting wood.  There’s always a Doh! if you cut wood wrong and end up wasting materials.

Step 2)  If you design something you can’t build, then it doesn’t do any good.  So make sure that it can be assembled once again (prototype if necessary).

Step 3)  If someone else is building this, they may want to see how it will fit with the room and the rest of their furniture.  Also, if you’ve made your piece larger or smaller than a standard piece, people should know.

Step 4)  This is really important since people rarely want to go to the store more than once, or they may need to budget out what to buy when.  List out the tools needed too - or alternative tools if there’s another way to do the same task with a different tool.  People always want to buy tools - their cool - but if you’re only going to use it once, it doesn’t make sense to buy it.

Step 5)  Think of your audience.  Will a master carpenter be building the piece, a hobby woodworker, or a college student who used a jig saw once in wood class back in junior high.  If its the latter, be sure to really explain each step.  Don’t assume that the user will know exactly what to do for each step.

Step 6)  This part is totally optional, but if you have anything to add from your own experience, add it in.  As people begin to work with building things, the more tips they have, the more comfortable they will be building projects in the future.

So as a very special example, the Plan Canvas Chair 00004 furniture plan will be free for you to use to understand where we are to this point.