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I am a computer programmer by trade, a husband/father/cook/baker by avocation. I can read and write music. I am new to woodworking, and look forward to building with Ana's excellent plans.

Bristol Outdoor Lounge Chair

Friends,

This is my first woodworking project in a long time. When I found the plans from OPD at Ana's site, I thought, I can do that! It turns out I was both right and wrong.

I bought the wood; I ordered a Kreg Jig from amazon; I searched for inexpensive pillows. My wife is a terrific seamstress, and we looked for fabric and foam. Yikes, is foam expensive!

Anyhow, I measured everything twice, made my cuts and figured out how to cut the 15º angled cuts. Then I drilled all of the pocket holes - what a chore.

My good friend has a complete wood shop. He has more power tools than Sears. Me, I've got a hollow-core door on two plastic sawhorses, a jig saw, chop saw, power drill and screw gun. I wanted to do this myself, so I did not use any specialty tools.

I built the chair without glue. Since this is a prototype, I wanted to be able to dismantle it. I built it to the specs provided, and discovered three things:

1. Attaching the back as a separate piece at a 15º angle is weak. "Weak as water," someone has said.
2. Butt joinery is an imprecise science when soft wodd is used.
3. The chair was too dang big!

So I took it apart. I changed the width of the front and back panels to 20 1/2", and re-used the arm supports.

I cut one end of each side panel to 75º.

The two back supports are a single piece of 1" x 4", 32" in length. This, coupled with the angled cut on the side panels, eliminates the weak joint at the back.

I shortened the depth (from front to back) by about 3", but the box for the bottom cushion is still too big. Next time the box will be 25" square.

In using butt joinery, I found that the back supports and side rails and the front apron all went together well. Perhaps I set the depth gauge incorrectly on the Kreg drill bit, because the 90º joints are not as clean as the flat joints. Then again, the more I do this, the better at it I will get.

I know that some of the joint holes are too deep, and this let the screw penetrate through the joint. Careful measurement before drilling all of the holes is crucial, and demands one's attention. I found myself checking the stop ring on the drill bit several times as I progressed, to make sure it was still set properly.

Using the Kreg Jig is not hard; it takes a bit more effort than they lead you to believe. I found myself wishing for three hands when joing 90º joints.

When the chair was assembled, I rounded the edges with a 3/8" router bit, followed by a thorough sanding. We found very inexpensive 4" foam pillows at Wal-Mart, and you can see the result.

I think the chair looks good, it is really comfy, and there will be more projects before the leaves fall this autumn.

Restoration hardware style coffee table.  We saw a coffee table we liked but didn't want to spend $2000 on.  Designed my own and managed to build for $200.  Main expense was the $130 for the legs from Osbornewood.com.

Followed the plan until we decided on a bottom shelf.  Where there's a will there's a way. Made it a little bit harder but well worth it 

Built this guitar stand basically by using on-hand materials left over from another project.  Used 1x12's; 18" tall fir for sides and back braces (cut at 5 degrees on each side).  Added felt strips to protect the instrument.

This is my first furniture build! I modified the Farmhouse Table mainly by removing the stretcher, so that someone could sit comfortably at the ends of the table. I used all pocket-hole construction, so the top is one piece, made out of alternating 2x8s and 2x10s. Overall size of this table was 78" long x 40" wide, to comfortably accommodate 8 people.

I bought my daughter an American Girl doll for Christmas and was very excited to make a few items to go with her. My first project was a kitchen with a sink and a stove. I plan to make her a fridge too, but haven’t had time yet. I looked around online at plans for a child’s play kitchen and kinda got ideas for the doll kitchen.  Most of my inspiration came from this play kitchen from Ana White.

I fell in love with the loft bed but thought the stairs stuck out too far for my daughter's room so I revampd the plan just a bit to add three 'stairs' in the platform rather than the standard stairs in the plan.

I got started on the project on a Friday night, got my cuts made, my pocket holes drilled and pieces sanded for an early start Saturday morning, everything went together like a dream - though it would have gone MUCH faster if I had had a second set of hands; I had to balance all of the long peices on other peices to try and get them attached and it took much longer than it had too! 

It was all together, the holes filled and first coat of primer on by Saturday afternoon - I used Zinsser primer so the knot's did not bleed through. Sunday morning I was painting and it was in place and decorated by Sunday night!

Great, easy to follow plans (as always) Ana - thank you, I have one VERY happy daughter!

This was one of my first DIY projects - while the "perfectionist" in my is not overjoyed by the final product, I think it's pretty good for a newbie.  It's a gift, so I'm sure my brother-in-law will like it.  Plus, I learned a lot about what do do in the future!

One main change I made was with the drain.  I had a hard time getting a good seal with the plans provided.  So instead, I got a smaller hose (1/2-inch OUTER DIAMETER) and put it through the cooler drain instead of on the outside.  This still caused a seal issue, but I used rubber/putty cement around the inside of the cooler drain & hose, as well as where the hose entered the wood cooler on the inside.  This only allowed the water to exit the drain or stay in the cooler until it passed through the drain.

I skipped the side shelf, but added the little steel bucket to catch bottle caps.  And while I live in Texas, I had to give a shoutout to my Wisconsin roots (notice the bottle opener says "Drink Wisconsinbly".

All in all, I think it was a fairly good project for a DIY newcomer.  Looking forward to figuring out what my next project will be! 

This was my first build and I had a blast! Let me say at the outset that if I can build this table with limited tools and expertise, then so can you! What I lack in know-how, I made up for by not being afraid to try something new. If you do the same, you can sure build this table. This table combines Ana's Triple Pedestal Dining Room Table (pedestals from this plan) and her Farmhouse Table (tabletop modified from this plan). Because Ana's plans are so great and thorough, I will only make note of a few key areas where I either tried something different or where I recommend paying extra close attention. First, on the tabletop, I reduced the length to 90 inches to accommodate our space, and therefore eliminated the center pedestal. As you can see, I alternated 2x10's and 2x8's. I also eliminated the breadboards simply because my wife and I preferred the rustic plank style. I also moved the pedestals in to allow a full 15 inches for a chair to slide underneath. When constructing the tabletop, I used both glue (clamped) and pocket holes on the underside. Don't overdo the glue, as it will tend to drip down (which is the top of the table...I had some drip issues). I also strongly recommend buying/borrowing clamps to keep the top flush or making them from 2x4's as I did. I worked hard on this part, and I'm glad that I did. It was still hard to keep it flush. On the pedestals, I used slightly bulkier decorative pieces (I started the arcs 1.25" from the edge on both ends of the arc). I also attached the top plank directly to the underside of the tabletop rather than to the top of the pedestal in order to both bolster the tabletop and to more easily attach the pedestals precisely where I wanted them. Finally, I drilled shallow flat-bottom holes and used wood bolts to fasten both the pedestals and the crossbeam. This created a nice-looking, low-profile fastener that still enables disassembly should we ever need to move the table (it is HEAVY fully assembled!). The finish is two coats of Minwax Ebony Wood Finish (pre-treated with Minwax Wood Conditioner) and three coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane (two coats on pedestals). Thank you, Ana, for the inspiration! Our family has a new table because of it! Thanks to all of you for sharing in our excitement, and I'm happy to share dimensions/details/etc should it be helpful to anyone.

Great project! I'm new to wood working and have been looking for simple but challenging builds. Needless to say this fit the bill... This grill cart was a great starter build and ultimately became a Father's Day gift!  My Pops loved it! 

I did add a couple of custom pieces: a foldable table top extension and towel bar... things Dad will undoubtedly need as he's an outdoorsman who loves to BBQ!

Thanks for the idea/design plans! 

I built these side tables with a friend. We under estimated the time it would take by a long shot! We estimated that with the both of us it took 15+ hours to complete. We spent $120 on all the wood, paint and hardware for both. It was a lot of work and the most time consuming part was the finish (sanding, painting, sanding, painting, clear coat, sanding, clear coat, sanding, clear coat). In the end, it was worth it! They turned out so cute!