Kiersten: I grew up in Ohio watching my parents do lots of home improvement projects themselves—turning an attic into a master bedroom suite, fixing roofing tiles, painting the house, building furniture, etc. Naturally, it rubbed off on me. My father's influence definitely gave me the confidence to design and build.

Kiersten: My husband and I have been doing our own home improvement since 1996—painting, building fireplace mantels, tiling, putting down new floors—the list goes on. We put up a faux front on an existing fireplace to make it mod rather than traditional and built a new fireplace mantel. I created the faux front out of BC plywood, tiled the entire board with blue glass tiles, and attached it to the existing tile front. We attached trim work to finish it off and slid the new mantel on top of the old mantel to give it a modern, sleek design.

Other projects include faux finishing a laminate kitchen counter where we created a granite look, laid numerous wood and tile floors, and built several indoor stages. We are currently turning our dated kitchen with pickled oak cabinets into a more modern kitchen by painting the cabinets, installing a new floating floor, and painting the dated 1980s light blue tile counter top with black oil-based paint and applying multiple coats of polyurethane on top to create a scratch-proof finish.

Kiersten: As for the furniture, it started in 2004 for my husband's birthday. A friend of mine and I built a tiki bar, a stage, and luau tables for a backyard party for his 34th birthday. From there I built several toy bins for our kids' rooms and started selling them to friends, family, and Craigslisters.

Kiersten: I have a couple favorite projects including a wood playhouse for my daughter's preschool (see picture), a Lego Table I created for my son, and a mid-century themed toy box that kicked off my mod, mid-century furniture business.

Kiersten: I operate out of my garage workshop complete with table saw, miter saw, and loads of other fun power tools. I've combined a love for building with my love for design and made it work for my family. As a former TV network executive, I knew I wanted something for myself in addition to staying at home taking care of the kids and this fits the bill perfectly. I can create and build while my kids are at school (or while they watch hours of Sponge Bob and eat pixie sticks) and still have time to take care of my Mom responsibilities.

Kiersten: I've had so many mishaps I don't know where to start. For the most part, because I feel like I'll always be learning, I'll try and turn mistakes into something usable. The challenge of it is very fun for me.

Kiersten: I love finishing a piece of furniture—it's so fun to see it come together. I'll take a small break from my garage workshop and do something that has nothing to do with wood. Like drinking a margarita and watching Tivo'd Entourage episodes.

Kiersten: Shop the lumberyards where you get help loading the wood into your car (even if you're strong enough to do it yourself.) You'll have to unload it all when you get home and why do twice the work? Also, sometimes it's best to have the lumberyard cut your wood to the dimensions you need rather than cutting it at home on the table saw. It will truly save you time and you can get to work building right away.

Kiersten: Lots of new and some of the same furniture is being built in my garage as I write this. I'm working on a mod changing table that is a storage cubby unit on locking castors with removable changing tray. It will still be useful after the diaper stage is over.

Kiersten: I was a bit scared to build the playhouse because I hadn't built a wall-bearing structure.

Kiersten: For home improvement, I operate on the "it can be fixed if it doesn't work" principle. It takes some of the scariness out of home improvement. The same goes for furniture building. And I also realized that having a husband who fully supports your crazy woodworking ways is a tremendous help.

Kiersten: My company, Mod Mom Furniture, started because I needed a few toy bins for our kid's rooms and didn't want to pay retail. So I pulled out the circular saw and hand jigsaw and went to town. My father built quite a bit of furniture when I was a kid and I must have absorbed more than I thought I did.

Kiersten: If you think you can do it, you can. Do a good amount of research on the front end to give you the confidence you need when you're in the thick of it. And use wood glue like crazy. It's amazing stuff!