Jenn L.: Hey guys! I’m Jenn from House One, and today I’m here with a very dear friend of mine, Jen Woodhouse from House of Wood. Jen, thank you so much for being here.
Jen W.: Oh, thanks for having me!
Jenn L.: So, I thought we could just start by you telling everybody about a little bit about House of Wood and what they could expect to see there?
Jen W.: I design and build furniture and do home decor and home renovation stuff. On my website you’ll be able to find plans so that you can build it yourself. So, if you can read a recipe and follow a recipe, then you can build a table.
How do you get started?
Jen W.: I got started when I was pregnant with my first child. She’s 7 now, and I just got this nesting instinct where I just wanted to organize all the things and get the baby room ready, and I just decided I wanted to start building things. And so I YouTube’d and I watched YouTube videos and followed Ana White’s plans and just started building.
Jenn L.: Just started building. That’s amazing. So, that fearless, really ready the nest and build things—You just dove right in?
Jen W.: Yeah. There’s always intimidation and fear. You just have to like get over and just do it. The starting is the hardest for me. I’ll sit on a project for months and months and just think about it and try to design it or figure out ways to do it best when really, I should just jump in and get started.
What are you best known for?
Jen W.: I think both of my kids’ beds were really popular. I built my son a cabin bed, and then my daughter has this- it looks kind of like a reclaimed wood bed. I’ve seen a lot of readers reproduce it for themselves, and for their own homes which is really cool. Plus it’s just the sentimental factor where my kids are sleeping in there. I sing to them every night, staring at the beautiful headboard and- [laughs].
Jenn L.: And I think that’s something that a lot of people have said, it’s amazing to build things that you do keep in your own home because you get to look at them every day and sort of be inspired by them over and over.
Jenn L.: Oh yeah. I mean, it’s a tangible added value to your life. Yeah.
Where do you find inspiration?
Jen W.: There’s a whole community of makers that are just inspiring. Ana White is one of them and she’s the major one where she writes her plans in such a way that I can understand it and it’s not intimidating. So, she’s definitely the one who got me started building. I love your stuff on Build Basic. You know, just the beauty of it and you taking the intimidation factor out of it. It just kind of inspires me to say, “You know what, I think I can do that.” And then when I do it, it’s like “Wow! That’s easier than I thought. Let’s do it again.”
What is your best advice for new DIY’ers?
Jen W.: Just get started. That’s the thing. Just get over the fear factor and then just do it because you’ll find that it is easier. And then you’ll also find that there may be some problem solving that you need to do, but for me, I love the problem solving part. I love it when I have a problem and I have to figure it out and I have to kind of work around it and getting over that hump, then like, “Oh my god, I’m a genius [laughs].
Jenn L.: Embrace the struggle as part of the process.
Jen W.: Yeah, and also with our plans, with your plans, with Ana’s plans, we don’t use a lot of fancy tools. It’s your basic drill, saw and that’s it. And you can get started.
What does your workspace look like?
Jen W.: It’s a two-car garage.
Jenn L.: Okay. So, and the things you’re making there are amazing so it just goes to show that you can do it in your home and if you don’t have a ton of space.
Jen W.: Oh yeah, absolutely. You just move the Harley out, and then set up shop right there!
Jenn L.: Step one…
Jen W.: Yeah.
Jenn L.: Well, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. And if you guys wanna see more of Jen’s work, you can go to www.jenwoodhouse.com and you can also follow House of Wood on Instagram @jenwoodhouse.