In our first client projects post we showed jewellery boxes, scent balls, flag stands and game pegs. Our clients have kept building since then. This time we look at how makers turn our unfinished birch wood balls, half balls, cylinders and pegs into furniture knobs, Montessori toys, table flag stands and party games, plus projects our customers shared in their reviews. Mostly in pictures.
Our Picked Top 8 Client Uses List
- Painted Ball Legs for Sofas and IKEA Furniture, Namii
- Colourful Cabinet Knobs from Balls, Half Balls and Cylinders, Namii
- Unpainted DIY Knobs and Feet, Namii
- Montessori Geoboard Pegs, leg&go
- Wooden Baby Gym Toys, leg&go
- Double and Triple Table Flag Stands, AKA Baltic
- Party and Outdoor Games, Margas Miškas
- What Our Customers Made, from Their Reviews
- More Ideas for Inspiration
1. Painted Ball Legs for Sofas and IKEA Furniture, Namii
Referenced products:
50 mm Sanded Birch Wood Ball
60 mm Sanded Birch Wood Ball
Namii is a Lithuanian brand of colourful cabinet knobs, handles and furniture legs for kids' rooms, bold interiors and IKEA hacks. A sanded birch ball takes paint evenly and is strong enough to carry a sofa or a sideboard.
How the client finishes the part
- Drilled and fitted with an M8 bolt or a mounting plate
- Painted in a wide colour range, from pastels to anthracite
- Sold as ready to fit legs for sofas, sideboards and IKEA Besta or Ivar
Why it works: four legs under one cabinet must be identical, so every ball in a batch needs the same diameter. Consistent turning lets Namii offer one leg in many colours and reorder it again and again.
2. Colourful Cabinet Knobs from Balls, Half Balls and Cylinders, Namii
Round knobs, made from a sanded ball:
30 mm, 40 mm and 50 mm Sanded Birch Wood Ball
Flat knobs, made from a half ball:
30 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm and 60 mm Birch Wood Split Ball
Small cylinder knobs:
20 x 28 mm Birch Wood Cylinder
20 x 28 mm Oak Wood Cylinder
Natural oak knob:
23 mm Oak Wood Round Ball Cabinet Knob
A ball becomes a round knob, a half ball becomes a flat modern knob, and a short cylinder becomes a minimal one. Namii paints them in 20 matte colours, from white and black to fuchsia, turquoise and dark green.
Popular uses
- Kids' room dressers and wardrobes
- IKEA Kallax, Besta and Malm makeovers
- Kitchen cabinets, mixing two or three colours
3. Unpainted DIY Knobs and Feet, Namii
Namii also sells the same shapes unpainted, so customers can paint, stain or oil them at home. The same ball or half ball can be a finished designer knob or a weekend DIY project.
See it in action
Namii, Ball furniture leg
Namii, Round cabinet knobs BALANCE
Namii, Flat round knobs BALANCE
Namii, Small knobs
Namii, Wooden ball feet, unpainted
4. Montessori Geoboard Pegs, leg&go
Referenced product:
6 x 30 mm Birch Wood Mushroom Axle Peg
leg&go is best known for its transformable balance bike, and it also makes wooden toys and kids' furniture. Their Montessori geoboard is a 32 x 32 cm birch board filled with small turned pegs. Children stretch coloured bands between the pegs to build shapes, patterns and their first geometry.
Why the peg shape matters
- The rounded cap on top keeps rubber bands from slipping off
- Smooth sanded surfaces are safe for small hands
- Identical pegs keep the grid even, so shapes come out straight
5. Wooden Baby Gym Toys, leg&go
Referenced products:
20 mm Birch Wood Beads
45 mm Birch Wood Craft Round Ring
The hanging toys on their wooden baby gym are strings of beads and rings, in black and white, blue or pink. Simple turned shapes give a newborn something to look at, reach for and grab.
See it in action
leg&go, Montessori Geoboard
leg&go, Wooden Baby Gym
6. Double and Triple Table Flag Stands, AKA Baltic
Referenced product:
33 cm Birch Wood Table Flag Stand with Sphere Base
AKA Baltic, a Lithuanian flag and flagpole supplier, uses our turned base drilled for two or three flags. The angled holes fan the flags out neatly on a meeting table.
Where they are used
- International meetings with national and EU flags side by side
- Municipal offices showing city and state flags together
- Conferences and signing ceremonies
7. Party and Outdoor Games, Margas Miškas
Margas Miškas makes and rents handmade wooden games for weddings, company events and children's parties. Beyond the Šoklys puzzle from our first post, our parts show up in their party and outdoor games too.
Paukščio lizdas (Bird's Nest)
Referenced products:
35 mm and 40 mm Sanded Birch Wood Ball
A team game where players hold a round tray full of painted wooden balls above a net, the "nest", and work together to guide the balls. Smooth, evenly sized balls roll predictably, which keeps the game fair and fun.
Žiedų dvikova (Ring Duel)
Referenced product:
33 mm Birch Wood Peg Knob, Long Turned Style
Two players swing a ring on a string and try to hook it first. The score is kept by moving a turned wooden peg from hole to hole along the base board.
Outdoor event games
At outdoor events, ladder golf bolas made from two wooden balls on a cord are thrown at a ladder. Solid turned balls survive hundreds of throws a day.
8. What Our Customers Made, from Their Reviews
Not every project comes from a brand. Some of our favourite photos arrive with customer reviews. Here are a few recent ones.
An upcycled dresser with oak knobs
"What an amazing company. Beautiful doorknobs with an excellent shipping timing. I used it for an upcycled closet. 10/10, Would strongly recommend!" Gilles W.
Product: 23 mm Oak Wood Round Ball Cabinet Knob
A Montessori style sensory board
Rows of stained half balls fixed to a board make a simple tactile toy: small hands can trace, count and tap the smooth bumps. Boards like this are a popular Montessori style sensory activity, and they only work when every dome is the same size and finish.
"All the wooden half-spheres were perfectly even, identical in size and nicely sanded. Everything was consistent and well-made." Olga V.
Product: 50 mm Birch Wood Split Ball
Macramé godparent dolls with bead heads
A framed macramé family, asking "Will you be my godparents?". Each doll's head is a wooden bead.
"Rekomenduoju!" (I recommend!) Dovilė N.
Product: 25 mm Birch Wood Beads
More Ideas for Inspiration
Turned shapes can go much further. These handmade games by Margas Miškas use custom turned pieces. They are not made from our standard parts, but you can build similar games from the parts below, or ask us to turn custom pieces.
Judantys tigrai (Moving Tigers): a two in one strategy board game with round wooden pieces moving along the lines of the board.
Make your own: round dowel caps have a flat base, so they stand steady on a board, and two colours of paint turn them into two teams. Sanded balls work too if the board has small hollows to hold them.
18 mm, 20 mm and 23 mm Birch Wood Round Dowel Cap
15 mm and 20 mm Sanded Birch Wood Ball
Hanojaus bokštas (Tower of Hanoi): the classic puzzle of moving a stack of turned discs from one dowel to another, never placing a larger disc on a smaller one.
Make your own: graduated craft rings stack straight into a tower, from the largest at the bottom to the smallest on top. Flat cylinders drilled through the centre and threaded on a dowel give the classic disc look.
45 mm, 50 mm, 60 mm and 70 mm Birch Wood Craft Round Ring
20 x 11 mm, 40 x 30 mm and 60 x 25 mm Birch Wood Cylinder, with a 6 mm Birch Wood Dowel Rod
What these projects have in common
None of these makers use our parts as they are. They start with an unfinished, precisely sized birch component and add their own value on top: paint and bolts, rubber bands and a board, flags and a drilled base, a game and its rules.
- Pick the right size and shape from the shop, most parts are sold from 10 pieces
- Order samples and test your finish and assembly
- Scale up, custom turned parts are available from about 500 to 1,000 pieces
Parts used in this post: wooden balls, split balls, cylinders, knobs and pulls, pegs, beads, craft rings and flag stands.
Working on a product of your own? Browse our full catalogue or send us your idea through the custom order form. And if you have made something with our parts, leave a review with a photo, we would love to feature it next time.
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