April Wilkerson is the creative mind behind her eponymous YouTube channel, well-known for her pragmatic approach to DIY projects. She has over time developed into being a key participant in the metalworking and woodworking niches, with her platform becoming a significant trove of creative ideas covering simple house repairs to complex projects. She’s garnered a considerable following through the years, thanks in great part to her fresh, unique content, and practical advice duly provided. Combining ingenuity, determination, and a readiness to meet any challenge, Wilkerson’s channel has attained desirable recognition in the DIY movement.
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What gets all the attention?
There’s almost no replacement for April’s YouTube presence in the minds of most woodworking aficionados, from zero to hero. The channel is run almost chaotically, but with her varied initiatives serving to showcase adaptability and originality. From erecting a 3,000-square-foot store to a library loft, April’s ideas are constantly refined to remain as fresh as possible, combined with a general focus on utility and effectiveness that inspires her to undertake a meticulous approach to everything she does for the public. The channel is easy to spot thanks to the range of materials and methods she keeps shifting through, from upload to upload. Her creations combine construction, metallurgy and woodworking more than most of her competitors, among whom she has no trouble standing out due to significant content variety. In her video on creating a library loft, for instance, April shows how readily and precisely she can handle major restorations, displaying the skill to harmonize several materials and processes to have the project flawlessly realized.
The channel is also focused on self-sufficiency beyond just mastery over the tools, as April is well-known for always striving to create whatever she needs rather than order it online or pay for it to get done. For example, she took on the challenge of turning undeveloped terrain into an office space for her business, showing great capacity for numerous facets of her channel’s niches, which she then combined into another well-executed endeavor. Aside from this, videos tracking her development on long-term initiatives are also popular. For example, the series on building a trail system on her land gives the viewers a thorough inside look into the construction process, showing the intimidating scale of effort required for such seemingly simple projects.
Apart from her major efforts, April also offers smaller, more controllable works ideal for all kinds of DIY aficionados, encompassing a massive range of pieces that serve varying purposes. Videos showing her capacity to produce useful and attractive works with few resources usually contain thorough instructions and advice that make them accessible to a large audience.
Her greatest YouTube success
Entitled “How To Build a Large Outdoor Staircase | DIY Stairs Stringers Risers Railing”, April’s most popular upload begins with her talking about the deplorable state of a staircase which the former owner erected, whose shaky construction and untreated timber force the YouTube star to completely dismatle it and fully reconstruct it. Originally intending to utilize a chainsaw for cutting it apart, she changes to a sawzall because of a dull chain. The process lasts seven days and runs around $700, with Home Depot being her go-to for material supplies. Though physically demanding, Wilkerson finds great efficiency and enjoyment in using a high lift jack to remove the concrete-set posts.
She starts building the new staircase platform after the demolition is complete, placing the plumb-oriented poles in position and drilling extra support braces into the current concrete slab. After fastening the header boards with carriage bolts, she builds cross-bracing elements for extra stability, thereafter laying down the decking, and screwing and using construction glue to fasten the boards. The procedure calls for exact measurements and tweaks to guarantee everything lines up, as is painfully demonstrated in the footage.
Lastly, April concentrates on the handrails and stringers of the stairs, marking the treads and fastening the posts with lag bolts. She uses a jig for the spindles to guarantee precise alignment and spacing, attaching the risers and treads and putting a top cap to the railings as the very last finishing touch. The star ends up happy with the result even though the assignment proved challenging. Once the treated wood dries, she intends to paint the framework and add extra support posts.
Who really is April Wilkerson?
April was born under the sign of Libra, on 3 October 1987, in Texas. Unlike most of her colleagues, Wilkerson didn’t take to any kind of crafting early on, but instead spent the better part of her youth focusing on other endeavors in hopes of sustaining herself. Her love of building and creating began going in the right direction around 2013, when she grabbed her first power tool – an electric drill. Though at the time she had never done metallurgy or woodworking, her curiosity and determination got the better of her and made her start experimenting. Apparently, the main driving force was her desire to relieve at least the burden of financing home renovation, because companies tended to overprice their services.
She started building up experience through DIY projects by working on small chores around the house, and creating some of her first, minor pieces of furniture. She eventually got to logging her adventures and uploading them oto YouTube, though without expecting anything in return for it. Her definitions were simple and practical, especially more so at the time of the early days, when she had little knowledge about producing more complex works. After a few years, seeing that her living space improvement and everyday problem solutions were gaining steam on the platform, she finally found the confidence to evolve and try out more complex projects.
Her channel started to gain traction on the platform in 2014, thereby soon growing into a loyal following that remains with April to this very day. Viewers effortlessly relate to her approach, accentuated by the clarity and honesty of a talented woodworker who isn’t afraid to talk about her own mistakes. It eventually ended up as the go-to archive of most woodworking aficionados, boosting the YouTuber to never-before-seen success that she’s still surprised by, and grateful for in every upload.
April is married to Cody Wilkerson, who is also her greatest motivator and supporter, as well as cherished colleague and manager. Often lending itself to maximum usefulness during projects, Cody’s invaluable metalworking expertise improves April’s woodworking skills, letting them perfectly complement one another, so it’s actually somewhat rare for an upload on her channel not to feature at least something made (whole or in part) by Cody.
What’s her net worth?
The most reputable sources have estimated April Wilkerson’s total accumulated wealth at more than $250,000, which she’s earned thanks to diversified income streams. According to Social Blade, she earns up to $40,000 every year just from ad revenue, but there are also sponsorships and affiliate marketing to consider, especially ones we don’t know about, for example the YouTuber suddenly opting to use a brand-new sawblade.
April also owns a dedicated business website offering a massive array of products, ranging from plans and templates for building her numerous creations to general products such as a mallet hand-crafted by April and a multitude of branded merchandise, licluding t-shirts, caps, stickers, pint glasses, golf balls, pins, mugs, and much more.
