Community Brag Posts

Just wanted to do something a little more original.

I loved the Idea of new closet doors and hated the idea of bi-folds. My house is crooked it seems. The doors don't sit straight and bi-folds always fall off their tracks. When I came upon the plans for Bypass Doors from Old Paint Designs I was hooked! I made 4 doors for the hallway in 1 day, oiled it with Danish Oil in Dark Walnut, hung it the next day and what a difference!! Glass is rather expensive in Hawaii and so is plexi-glass so I opted for Bead Board which gave it a more "country" feel instead of a more modern feel. I wish I could have used glass but the $150 price tag just wasn't fitting into my budget very well. My hubby loved the bypass doors so much he asked me to build them for our open closet. 2 days of work, 8 doors, 2 closets done!

It was pretty straight forward with your plans. I've built others from your great posts. I used a dark walnut stain after sanding and dusting real well.

Tom Lucas

We were going to rent 5 farmhouse tables but the cost of renting was more than double the cost of building them myself plus by building them myself I could finish them the color that I wanted. We were then able to sell 4 of the 5. I kept one for my self. I also was able to build a smaller size one to custom fit my son and daughter in-law new house. Nothing like the satisfaction of building something for something so special.

I thought I'd wait and take these glorious after photos once I was done - but nevermind that idea.  Here are some pictures of progress, start to finish.  I still plan to build some shoe cubbies for the towers so that my wife has a little more shoe-room.

We have a 5th bedroom directly off the master with a double door entrance where the 5th bedroom's closet would have been.  The room had been an office for the previous owner and my wife decided it would be a perfect closet for her.  I followed the plans quite closely for the towers.  I wish I had considered my 8+ foot ceilings and just built the towers taller because 1) storing stuff on top will look messy, and 2) The hanger rods aren't spaced quite well enough for longer clothing.  Because of this, I had to build her another hanger on the other side of the wall, which increased the complexity of the project (corner shelves, more wood, more staining, more finishing, etc).  In the end, I think it turned out great.  I will walk through the process very quickly.

• Bought premium birch plywood, had them cut it down in the store.  They did a good job.  If I were doing it again, I would buy Aspen or Pine in precut boards, and I estimated it would have cost less than $100 more with a much higher quality and more workability, especially considering I stained instead of painted.
• Built Towers - used my kreg pocket hole jig a TON on this project.  For boards across the top, I put the pocket holes on top, where they will be out of site.  For bottoms, I was able to use finishing brads to nail down my boards to the frame.
• Stained wood.  I used an oil stain.  After letting it dry 24hours+, I used finishing wax to turn make the plywood very smooth.  I painted on the wax real heavy and then buffed with an electric polishing wheel.  *tip* no matter what you are thinking, stain your wood before cutting and assembling.  It will save you hours.
• Built 2x4 bases for the frame of the system.  I used my bases as a template for cutting back the carpet.  I then fastened the bases into the wall studs and sub flooring.
• Installed towers, played with spacing until it felt right and then fastened them into the walls and into the base.
• Cut wood down to size for the top and bottom pieces and installed and nailed down.
• Cut down scraps into strips to support the corner shelves and nailed them into the wall.
• Cut down scraps into corner shelves.  I used 2 pieces of wood for each shelf and added supports on the underside so that they can bear decent weight.  I should have just done more pocket holes.  It would have been stronger and cleaner.
• Installed mini crown molding along top border.  Installed 1/4 inch trim on all facing edges (rather than mess with laminating strips). Installed baseboard trip to cover frame and clean up border of frame and carpet.
• Built drawers using scrap plywood from the project (via the drawer plans on this site).  I didn't mess around, just cut my wood down to the right size and brad nailed the heck out of it.  They are very sturdy.  A thinner bottom and back would have decreased their weight, but I don't see any issues the way they are built.  I opted for the 1/2 inch gap around the border of the drawers.

That is pretty much it.  I think I have about $500-600 in it. Probably 60-70 hours.  If I did it all over again, I could do it better and faster and on the same budget.  As noted in the plans, SQUARE is the most important thing.  I had to fix all the tower shelves once I had them mounted to the wall because they just were not level/square enough.  

I needed a bigger kid play room table because my girls have outgrown our play table and chairs from IKEA. We have a window seat, and it seems the consensus is that pedestal tables are the best for window seats, but they're not really my style. I let the big kid pick one, and she chose the triple pedestal farmhouse table! I obviously couldn't follow the plans for that, so I more used them for inspiration, and lessened the size of everything. **UPDATE** I posted plans for this modification here.

Thank you for the plans! They were easy to follow and my girlfriend and I are very happy how the pergola turned out. I used the 2x6's and 2x4's due to being in Nebraska with heavy snow and high winds often to give it more durability. I can't wait to start on the sectional. Total cost was about 350 dollars...so cheap in comparison to what they sell for.

The toy room needed some attractive storage for the books and puzzles instead of the floor! Enter this plan. I shortened the shelves to 36" and fastened the shelves to 1x2 stretchers that I fastened to the inside of the sides. I hid them by nailing a face frame to it made of 1x2s. I used beadboard for the back, which I painted before attaching it.
I had a hiccup when I forgot to use my square and had to backtrack some, which made this project longer than I anticipated.

Using some of your different picnic table plans, I have been building, casually, picnic tables that are made using handpicked wood of similar grain orientation, same species, etc, creating a unique piece every time. I'm turning into a real wood nerd! They are all sanded and sealed for greater weather resistance and to accentuate the natural look of the wood.

I am working on figuring out sketchup to write plans for this, but I came up with this idea for storing stuffed animals that were taking over my daughter's bedroom. It works great and she can get the animal at the bottom out without all the other animals falling out! It took a few 2x4s, screws, bungee cords, eye screws and paint! I'll post more whenever I figure out this program, or if anyone wants to create their own plans from it that other people can use, I'd be happy to share what I did!

My granddaughter and I made this using the super simple Hailey plank designs.