Originally Posted by
Peckish
I wonder if someone asked to purchase a piece of his hand-made furniture, and he quoted a price in the hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars, would that person then gasp and retort that they can get that furniture at Walmart for a fraction of his price?
Interestingly, my husband makes our furniture because it is much less than buying it. Now, we aren't going to get Walmart furniture, but we found a nice storage bed at a furniture store for about $3,000. He is making it for about $200 (one fewer zero!) and two months of weekends. But once labor was added in, selling it would be very difficult; I think people really would balk at the prices. However, one main difference is that furniture, even from Ikea, is fairly expensive, where most people see "blankets" as not too expensive.
We have found though that pen turning is one of the few "craft" areas that can make reasonable money. DH can sell a nicely turned pen for $50-$75, which compensates him well for labor and materials. Anything people make someone will say "you should sell those!" but somehow no one wanted to pay $300 for knitted socks or $500 for a twin quilt. The pens are the only things where this has worked out.