Community Brag Posts

My mom was looking for a new outdoor table, and asked me to come up with something. I found the link for these plans (http://www.thedesignconfidential.com/2011/04/free-diy-furniture-plans-t…) to knock off Restoration Hardware's $4000 Provence Beam outdoor table. Overall I liked the plan, with the chunkier look of the 4x4's. But there were a lot of errors in the diagrams, and the finished height is 34" which is ridiculously tall for a table. So we took it apart and cut the legs back down to change the finished height to 30". We chose rough-cut cedar for it's look and outdoor properties, not wanting to use treated lumber for a dining table. We couldn't find 2x10's like the plan, so we substituted seven 2x6's just like Ana's plan, but left a 1/2" gap in between so water can drain and not pool on top and rot the wood. Also, since we were working with 4x4's for the legs, we chose heavy duty lag bolts instead of screws to join them together. I love the finished look they give. Overall it's a sturdy, yet lightweight table that my mom loves and has already used for entertaining!

I started my son's bedroom set back at the beginning of January and have finally finished! I began by building the matching dresser (http://ana-white.com/2014/02/rustic-dresser-and-bedroom-set) and then started the bed only a week ago. The night table was taken from http://ana-white.com/2011/06/mini-farmhouse-bedside-table-0 - I had built it over the summer, but I couldn't get my pocket holes on the inside of the table because my drill wouldn't fit, so I wasn't going to use it.. until I realized it was the perfect little bedside table for a two year old who might destroy it anyways!

Back to the bed... I just had this vision of what I wanted my son's room to look like after seeing the rustic rolling dresser plan, and I stumbled on the Emme Twin bed plan. It was kind of perfect, but I didn't like the whole "window" look on the headboard. I still may add a divider on the foot board, but haven't decided yet. Regardless, so I envisioned something else with the same concept of the Emme twin bed. Building it exactly the same way without the dividers, I ordered the clearance shams from pottery barn that matched his new quilt and bought another piece of half inch plywood. I cut it in half and left about a quarter inch on each side of each piece of plywood to accommodate the fabric in between the 2 by 4s. I added one inch of foam and a couple layers of batting, matched up the two shams side by side, folded them each around the batting and foam, and stapled them. They fit perfectly into the headboard with some 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch screws (There is a gap from the fabric on the back, so your screw needs to account for that. You could put like a 1x4 onto each panel to screw through, but I placed the back plywoood attached to the 2x4s too far in, so it would have made the panels "float" and I wanted the fabric of the panels flush to the back plywood) holding them to the back plywood attached to the 2x4s. I wanted the padding on the back of the headboard because I always hear my son slam his head into the wall when he's sleeping and i just wanted to make sure he wasn't hitting the dividers that were on the EMME twin bed.

The bed was so easy to build, stain and finish. It turned out exactly how I had envisioned it. I had to lower the side rail 2x4s because I bought a ten inch memory foam mattress (You can see the foam mattress and pillow rising in the picture!) and didn't want it coming above the headboard, but now I don't think I'll need a guard rail since he is so close to the floor! The 2x4s sit 5.5 inches up from the bottom of each leg. I also added quite a bit of length to the foot board legs because I wanted the footboard to come above the mattress. I wish I had realized that there was much nicer plywood at Lowes, but when I asked, they told me "this is all of the plywood we have" and I got stuck with the ugly stuff.. I will fix the footboard with some nicer looking plywood, but it's good enough for now!

This was a really fun project and super easy to make. I shaved just an inch of my sides for my bottom to fit better. My fence boards were 3rds. 

Made this one with shelf edges/trim just on the sides. Somehow my top shelf didn't span the width so had to add a little shim on each side but it all worked out! We had all the pallets and used 1x3s for the frame because some of my pallet wood was heavy hardwood. It was not without frustration because I was working with uneven/warped pallet wood but it hits the rustic look.  I am happy with how it turned out. 

I couldn't believe how much twin beds cost in stores and couldn't find anything I liked for my son under $350. I have already made a few other things from Ana White, so I was excited to see this "knock-off!" I followed the plans exactly and didn't want his bed to be too high, so there is so box spring.

I have recently discovered how much fun it is to make things, so I couldn't wait to build my son his "big boy bed!" He loves it! He's happy so this momma's happy, too!

I used 1 x 10s to make the bookcase a little shallower, and left the back open. Thanks for the great plan.

Built in 2017 for our ducks! They use the ramp just fine! I am now working on editing this coop plan to make a coop for 4 chickens we just brought home. I'm going to leave out the planting area, since it's going inside their open run.