Community Brag Posts

Privacy planter which I made in one day! - Jo Anne Harris McNamara on Facebook Community

I pulled up the ancient green carpet on our patio, gave away our old cheap rusted table and chairs, and built four adult-sized Adirondack chairs from the Home Depot DIH plans and two child-sized ones from the plans in Ana's book. All are painted in Olympic's Schooner. This took forever, but I love the result! A friend dubbed it "the partio." :)

I’ve been separated for 3 years, after a 28 year marriage. One of the things that has gotten me through is learning how to use power tools. They have been so empowering for me. Holidays look very different, as the family I once hosted now doesn’t come around. Kids are grown. So holiday traditions have changed into building days—power tool therapy.

My new house didn’t have outdoor furniture. Instead of spending thousands on furniture, I decided I would try to build my own. So, this year between Easter weekend and the Fourth of July, I have built 2 chairs, 2 side tables, and two ottomans.

Side note: I have rheumatoid arthritis. I’ve had it for 40 years and this is my way of staying active. Thanks Ana for making this achievable! - Cheryl Lynn Facebook Community

I combined my favorite elements from three of Ana's dollhouse plans to make this dollhouse for my kids. My favorite part is the stairs, which I cut from a 2x4 with a miter saw. I made this project from start to finish in one day while the grandparents took the kids, and it was ready for Christmas morning! I made simple furniture for it, too, which you can see in the second picture.

I use the essential wood outdoor chair frame and made it to fit the cushions I bought. The cushions are the $19.98 ones from Walmart and so I resize the chair slightly so they fit well. The frames. Cost about 30 $35 for each chair and the cushions were at right of the $20 mark for each chair. - Randall

I needed a desk that served not only as a space to work, but something that had good storage and didn't take up way to much floor space.I looked and looked and couldn't find anything I loved until I ran across the Parson's Tower Desk plans on Ana-white.com. The depth of the desk was perfect, but I needed more storage, so I decided to play in with sketchup and see if I couldn't make it more of what I needed.

I ended up with a supersized Parson's Tower Desk!

It has four smaller cubbies to the left side and 2 wider shelves to the right side.

You can see a front view and all the pictures at the blog post!

I loved the simplicity and shelving of the Parson Tower desk plans but I really wanted a standing work station. I made it taller (approx. 40 in tall) and I made the desktop longer and wider (approx. 72 x 24in) and I LOVE it! 

This is a variation on the tidy up end table. The dimensions for the tidy up end table were too big for my space, so I made it a little smaller and added an extra shelf to store our laptop computers. This makes it easier to charge our laptops and keep them out of the way. It took me a little longer than it should have because I had a 3 year old and a 5 year old "helping" me.

I used the basic construction of the turned leg coffee table, but used 2x4s screwed together for the legs, added a couple of supports, and made the dimensions larger (38.5" x 62" for a dining table that seats 6). I used pocket holes for all the joints and it came together pretty easily. (One day, though, I am going to build a project without drastically altering the plans. One day.)

I have been needing to create more storage, while organizing my craft/spare bedroom. I had a piece of pegboard, and got some inspiration while pouring over Pinterest.

I decided to venture out and try something really new to me - routing. Bear in mind I only have a Dremel with the cheap router attachment - not the routing table thing. I'm happy to say it came out great! I have more pictures i'll upload soon of the actual routing. I did craft up a jig of sorts to keep my routing line (or whatever its called) straight. I did run into some math errors, which resulting in me having to cut things down a couple times. But now I know how things work when piecing together routed frames.

I had 2 pieces of 1x12x36. To keep the routing lines as even as possible, I did the the routing before I cut the pieces.

I used my Kreg Jig to join the sides. I assembled by attaching the 2 sides and the bottom. Then slide the pegboard in, and attached the top piece. Then since my routing line was a bit wider that the pegboard, I used caulk in the back to fill it in, keeping the pegboard nice and tight.

I plan to add doors to the cabinet at a later date. Right now it definitely fills my needs!