Check Out the 75-Year-Old Family Handyman Project That Inspired Our Plywood Challenge

When we published our first issue in 1951, a postwar suburban boom was reshaping American homeownership. Home centers as we know them didn’t exist, online tutorials and home improvement networks were still decades away, and the very idea of a DIY magazine was new. As our first editor, Paul de Fur, wrote in his inaugural letter to readers, “Here, for the first time, is a magazine devoted exclusively to do-it-yourself home repair, maintenance and improvement.”

Seventy-five years later, a lot has changed. Materials cost more, tools are smarter, houses are larger and inspiration is constantly at our fingertips. But savvy homeowners still turn to DIY to save money, learn new skills, become more self-sufficient and enjoy the satisfaction of building or fixing something themselves. They still need the same advice that filled Family Handyman’s early pages, from plumbing tips to tool recommendations and rewarding weekend builds.

One project from that first issue still feels surprisingly modern: a compact storage console built from a single sheet of plywood. It checked all the boxes of a great DIY shop project: affordable materials, manageable scope, practical function and a finished piece you could feel proud of. The single-sheet constraint also encouraged the kind of creative problem-solving that builds lifelong shop skills. That console got us thinking: What could today’s builders create under the same conditions? So, in celebration of our 75th anniversary, we issued the One-Sheet Plywood Challenge to our editors and our audience.

Plywood has stayed popular among DIYers for good reason. Made by layering thin sheets of wood veneer with alternating grain directions, it’s strong, stable and resistant to warping, shrinking and splitting. It holds screws well, comes in a wide range of thicknesses and grades, and is available at virtually every home center. A standard 4 x 8-ft. sheet can become furniture, shelving, cabinetry, decor or countless other projects. That versatility made plywood a DIY staple in the ’50s, and it’s why we think it still deserves a place in the shop spotlight today.

Getting the most out of a single sheet starts with careful planning. Sketch your design on graph paper, or use a 3D modeling program such as SketchUp or a cut-optimizer app to nest pieces efficiently. When you lay out cuts, you have to account for the blade kerf— the roughly 1/8 in. of material the saw blade removes. Cut the largest pieces first, and properly support the sheet while you cut to prevent flexing, binding and splintering. If you need a thicker or stronger panel, layer and glue portions of the sheet together.

Don’t toss offcuts, either. Even small scraps find new life as edge banding, cleats, shims, push sticks, garden-bed edging and drawer dividers. One sheet goes a lot further than you think—here’s the proof!

The post Check Out the 75-Year-Old Family Handyman Project That Inspired Our Plywood Challenge appeared first on Family Handyman.

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