Community Brag Posts

Started these wishing wells as only having fun and for family it seems now that it is going to be a little more than I thought now taking orders from family friends

We built this fireplace where nothing existed before. The instructional video was very helpful. We are so proud of how it turned out.

I needed a large box to use at the base of my stairs for shoe storage, so this is it! I made 2 compartments, and put handles on the side for easy moving. Being solid wood, this thing is heavy and a lot larger than it looks.

I wanted to do Bri-wax as a test on a smaller project before possibly messing up a larger one. Bri-wax advised me to wait a week to let the stain 'cure' prior to using the product. The stain was beautiful prior to using Bri-wax, but didn't look nearly as good when the wax took off some of the stain and kind of changed the color. I love the look of the Bri-wax finish, but probably won't be using it again (unless the finish has been cured for a long time). Bri-wax also told me not to use it over varnish or poly, as it would damage that surface. I would be interested in hearing from you guys who have used it successfully on top of other finishes.

I have been wanting to build a workbench but just hadn't decided on a plan. I stumbled across one here and decided to go for it. It was easy to build, easy to follow the plans. I had fun building it and I'm super happy with out well it came out. This is my first big project and it's only my 3rd thing I've made.

The only deviation from the plan that I did was that I used 3/4" plywood for both shelves instead of just one. And I only did this so that I wouldn't have to buy a second piece of plywood. And I used 3" screws on the whole thing.
Also... I cut 3" off the height so that I could add wheels and it be the same height.

$18 - 2"x4"s
$ 7 - screws
$24 - Plywood
So about $49

The wheels... well... if you go to Lowes... I spent $30 including the bolts. Then I went to Harbor Freight and got some different ones for under $20. So I'd shop around on that. Or... you don't need them if you don't want them.

We have been sleeping on a inexpensive platform bed for the last 7 years and after falling in love with this website (thank you Ana, I am constantly bragging and showing your website to others) I decided to build us a farmhouse bed as my first project. I started this project back in October 2011....yes it took much longer than expected, but I have 2 kids a husband (so make that 3), a full time career in the military and a house to maintain. That and we got the news I am pregnant back in Nov!!! The head board and foot board did not take long and luckily we had a very mild winter here in NC (boo to no snow though). I decided to save some work and money by reusing the slats and hardware from my old bed to avoid buying more wood or having to get a box spring for our mattress. Unfortunately, that was my huge delay, I cut and stained my sideboards, bought what I thought would be great bed brackets and found myself with a space that was to wide for the slats and on top of that my husband managed to loose one of my brackets. Needless to say, months of sleeping on a mattress on the floor with my head board and foot board on either wall mocking us every night due to my overwhelming frustration and fear of having a colossal headboard fall on me while trying to work. I called upon the assistance of a good friend of mine (Christie you are amazing!!) to come over while my husband was out of town in May (I figured this would be a good time to surprise him, plus keep his opinions from making things take longer). So lots of how the heck are we going to do this and finding out the bed frame brackets I purchased were not as strong as they appeared (they broke!!). We got some new wood for the sides and some long bolts to get everything together and worked a whole Saturday to get it complete. Added a few L brackets to get rid of the wobble and its sturdy as a rock! It may have its flaws, but I love it and don't regret any of the time and stress it took to build it. I now have a beautiful comfortable bed to sleep in every night to patiently wait for my third little girl to arrive. It should last us for a very long time especially since I made sure that it could come apart and go back together for any future moves the military may take us.

I cannot wait to start my next project.....and hopefully it wont take as long this time ;).

We built this bookshelf/toybox for our cousin's daughter - as a 1st birthday present. Overall, the project only took a weekend (including staining and waxing), and the cuts and assembly are pretty straight forward.

We wanted it to be larger than the one in the plans, so it took some time to figure out the dimensions before we started cutting. There was a bit of, "What do you think of this height?" and, "Is this too wide?"

My husband and I have built quite a few projects together so this one was fairly low on the difficulty scale. As long as you are comfortable with a mitre saw, you can do it. The kreg jig made it easier to drill pocket holes, but even with only different-sized drill bits and a steady hand you can make them.

This is one of my favourite builds - maybe because it was a gift for the sweetest little girl. Plus others have shown interest in it, so I might just have to start a side business!

More details on what we did can be found at:
http://turtlesandtails.blogspot.ca/2014/05/child-sized-bookshelf-toybox…

I turned some old oak shelves that I got from an estate sale into a 3' wide Scandinavian slat bench.

I built this project by myself.  My husband helped move the large pieces when I connected them, so one person really can tackle this project!   I had a combination of scrap wood from new home construction on hand and store bought lumber.  Most of my time was spent sanding, sanding, and more sanding, especially with the construciton grade lumber.  Yes, it was worth it!   I used tongue and groove wood for  upper level flooring and bridge.  It really made it easier to put the floors together.  I connected all the tongue and groove pieces with a snug fit and used my brad nailer to secure it down on the perimeter of the floor.   Therefore, not every peice had to be screwed down.

Why an octagon shape? I wanted a round table and my husband wanted square, so we met in the middle and built this! Very easy and fun to build!

My wife and I wanted a nice TV stand for our new living room. Like always, we did not want to spend tons of money and I thought about building something anyways. My wife found the Benchwright series at Pottery Barn and loved it, but for almost $1,000 that was not in our budget. Of course I came straight here and found these plans! I had a great time building this. The measuring and cutting took only an afternoon, and the staining took a long time as this was my first real staining project. I also wanted to get nice glossy coats of clear coat, which took time.Overall we are thrilled with how it turned out! The biggest headache was the euro hinges. I followed the directions that came with them and they did not turn out right at all. It was trial and error to finally get this placed correctly.

I built this bench for a Christmas present. She loves to work in her garden and I thought this would be the perfect touch. The plans were easy to follow. I made a few minor adjustments to fit the lumber I had on hand. The center bench is only 4 foot wide so I could conserve on the amount of 2x4 I had to buy. I thought the bench turned out great!

This was the first piece of furniture that I ever built!  Plans were very helpful and easy to follow.  If I had it to do overagain, I would have painted instead of staining (less sanding required).

Liked the Griffen Reclaimed look Media console, but not the $1099 price tag that came with it!  LOL

So with $100 and 3 hours of work, BAM! 

70L x 15W x 30H

Used Minwax stain in Dark Walnut and Coastal Gray chalk paint from Rustoleum