Nowadays you can buy furniture in boxes and all the parts come pre labeled and assembled. Building furniture has never been so easy but it has never been so boring either. Where have all the carpenters and artisans gone? Where are the wood workers and the bookcase makers? They've gone the way of the dodo bird it seems.
The economy isn't great these days and custom wooden furniture is hard to come by. That's why I would suggest constructing your own! If you're looking for a fun new hobby or sitting around an empty looking house with only a bunch of woodworking tools around you, its time to be more productive and make something out of nothing. The best way to start a woodwork hobby is to make a corner bookcase.
Ladder Style Bookcase
Corner bookcases are small pieces of furniture that don't have many pieces and they are fairly easy to put together. They are also pretty simple to decorate most importantly: You can store things in them. Books are the preferable storage item but you can put anything from toy soldiers to miniature gum ball machines in these cute compact pieces of furniture.
The best part is, when you build your own corner bookcase you can guarantee that no one else in the world is going to have a bookcase quite like yours. This is a unique experience today because anyone can buy the prepackaged bookcases, chairs, tables, and whatever else they sell at the local Wal-Mart and they are all the same everywhere in the world. For instance, I bought this desk I'm currently sitting in at Staples. It came prepackaged, was easy to set up, and looks unique enough but I went to a friend's house the other day and wouldn't you know it? He chose the exact same desk model. That can't ever happen to you when you build everything by hand.
You can also decorate your corner bookcase any which way you like when you build it from scratch. Want more shelves? You got more shelves. Want it to be wide? You betcha. The possibilities are endless as long as you're willing to take the time and do the work. Corner bookcases are so small though there is hardly any work involved.
Go to the hardware store. Pick up some wood, some tools, and some wood stain. Start on a new hobby project that is sure to turn some heads and get people interested in what you're up to. Carpentry is fun if you try it and having hand crafted one of a kind furniture in your house is great!