My Woodworking Journey, So Far
It has officially been over two years since I launched Keaton Beyer Woodworking.
September 2021 marks my foray into professional woodworking, which really meant I was a hobbyist making a conscious effort to spend more time on my hobby.
But today, I consider myself a part time furniture maker with a splash of YouTuber and an eye on continued growth. To explain what I mean, I need to take you back.
A Starting Point
In late 2015 my wife and I purchased our first home and along with that came responsibility.
It started with small things. Stuff we wanted like an outlet here or a shelf hung there but eventually I had a real job to do. One October day I was on the roof of the shed blowing off leaves when I noticed a slight spring in my step. No, I wasn’t walking on sunshine, I was standing on a rotted sheet of 1/2 plywood.
Replacing that roof allowed me to do two things. Prove to myself that I still had the skills honed during my time as an apprentice window installer.
But the most important thing I got to do was buy my first tools. A drill, a driver and a circular saw. The homeowner special.
It was a gateway leading to more projects, more tools, and a passion.
DIY Stage
After the confidence boosting reroofing I found out my wife was pregnant which meant we were in need of converting our storage room to a nursery. We purchased most of the furniture, some assembled required, but I picked two projects to do myself.
A changing station and floating shelves.
The changing station was MDF screwed together via pocket screws. Heavy enough to stay put and decent enough for my wife to allow it in the house. Was it a great project? No, but it was what we needed and we needed it right away making this quick build perfect for a DIY project.
The floating shelves were different. A mitered plywood box made with a circular saw used to rip boards at a 45 degree angle. This box slid over an interior 1x2 bracket which I screwed to the wall. Deceptively hard to execute well which is why I ripped them down last year, but it was an eye opener to the possible.
Both of these projects were quintessential DIY. They were simple. They went together fast. They used minimal tools. They looked good from 6 feet away. But up close they were lacking in quality due to my skills, experience, and tools.
But they successfully planted the woodworking bug and I wanted more. So I bought a table saw.
Hobbyist Stage
A table saw opened the realm of possibility. No longer did I have to use my circular saw with it’s terrifying rip cut setup. I could make consistent cuts to exact widths or re-saw boards or build my own jigs to do all sorts of new joinery I never could have done before.
So I did what any rational person would do and test my new tool by picking an aggressive project for my limited skills. A tea box.
At the time this was just another project, but looking back I see it was the pivot point. It was a time when I wanted more. But that’s hindsight.
Instead I spent a few years tinkering away. Slowly building my shop by adding a tool here and there. Trying new techniques and slowly building my way through projects.
I watched videos, I read books and scoured online resources, but I treated it like a hobby. If I didn’t feel like being in the shop I found something else to do and I was content.
Until one day I had the bright idea to sell some of my work as a way to pay for the investment I had in tools.
Professional Stage
Which brings me to 2021. The start of Keaton Beyer Woodworking. It’s when my business began, but I wasn’t sure what the business was just yet so I experimented.
I tried selling small items on Etsy, and that didn’t work.
I tried local craft fairs to sell cutting boards and drum up furniture business, and that didn’t work.
I tried selling items off Facebook Marketplace, and that worked a little.
But in that time I did hone in on the types of projects I liked as well as finding why I was doing what I was doing. After all, a way to make money for tools was an excuse, but there was more to it. I did some introspection and began to understand why I wanted to pursue woodworking and turn it into a full time career. To find out more about that, you can read more in my article, Knowing Why.
Fast forward to September, 2022. In 2022 I set a goal for myself to start a YouTube channel. Naturally, I picked a project and did what you were supposed to.
I filmed.
I edited.
I tried.
And I stopped.
Videos are deceptively hard to make. But that’s not what held me back. It was the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with myself. I didn’t like the way I sounded or looked. I didn’t like the way my camera captured the footage. I didn’t like a lot.
But I realized that the problem wasn’t all that. The problem was my confidence. I didn’t feel like I should be telling people how to make stuff out of wood.
While I was now considered a professional I’m not a shop teacher. But I tried nonetheless to teach and share what I’ve learned. But I didn’t like those videos. I realized, what I liked were stories.
It wasn’t about what was happening, but the journey. The struggle. The growth. And sharing that in a way that puts not the project, but the story as the center point of the video.
Every single project I’ve made has had an arc. It has started the same way, with a need and a plan which soon derails into chaos requiring a struggle to overcome and the resolution of the finished piece.
Sometimes that struggle is personal, sometimes it’s the wood. But regardless, it exists and I think it’s worth sharing.
Which brings me to the future. What you’ll see from me in the coming year is a lean in on story. A lean in on creating my designs and doing so in bigger ways than you’ve seen me do before. I’ve start that this year with the display cabinet and live edge dining table and I’m looking to ride that momentum into a bright new year.
Follower Counts 2 Years in
Subscribers: 1,582
Followers: 1,075