Community Brag Posts

With Father's Day rolling in, my sons and I needed a gift, stat! My husband thinks that Table Tennis is the quintessential father-son activity, so that was an obvious choice.
We needed something easy to make, easy to store, and budget friendly. With a 6, 4, and 2 year old helping out, I made a foldable mdf ping pong table that could easily be placed on our picnic table outside.
We had home depot cut the mdf in half, primed it, taped off some lines, spray painted it with chalkboard paint (bonus, you can keep score!), and screwed 4 small hinges to attach the 2 halves. We added a removable table tennis net, some paddles and balls, and have played nearly every day!

The charming Mantel Moulding Headboard with a unique accent feature where the "fire" would normally be. We created a tufted cushion for this open space to create a unique twist.

My wife and I completed this project over 4 days, but still under 20 hours not including wait time for wood filler and paint to dry.

My wife and I needed space in our kitchen to store various items. This cabinet works perfectly for that purpose.

2x4 patio furniture with coffee table

This table was a birthday gift for my 3-year old cousin. It was fun to brainstorm ideas to get it exactly the way we wanted it instead of buying one pre-made. Once we had our plans it was an easy build, done over a weekend. A full list of materials as well as step-by-step instructions can be found in the blog post linked. The top is a 20x36 pine shelf board with a 1x2 pine apron attached underneath. There are vertical support boards to hold a raised tray for supplies, and to hold the paper roll under the table. Note that the table legs are inset at one end to accommodate the paper roll. We added two magnets to the face of the table and tied two knobs (with metal washers glued on) to the underside. The paper can then be sandwiched between the magnet and the metal and won't move around while the artist is at work. It's our favorite feature! There are also magnets glued to the inside bottom of the tray to hold the buckets in place and keep them from being knocked over easily. This project was so much fun! I love having the chance to share it with you all!

Golf bag stand
Can’t remember if found this plan here or not but get most my plans here. Fun and easy build.

I made this for my sister the day before her house warming party. It was a pretty easy build. I used wood glue and 2" nails. Using a nail gun, this came together pretty quickly. I do wish that I had wide enough clamps to hold everything in place while it dried, because there were a few gaps due to some imperfect boards. I used 104" stud length boards, so I only need to purchase 7 instead of 9. this was enough to make the cuts for the top and both leg pieces from each board. the price was the same and we had limited space in our van for boards, so this was a better option for us. I used a sprayer hooked up to an air compressor to apply the stain and was able to get in between the slats fine with this method, brushing over it as I sprayed. Luckily I chose the same color as her deck not knowing, so it matches great. Now I need to make one for myself! :)

I was looking for a way to give our house some better curb appeal and decided our stree numbers could use a facelift.  The majority of money spent on this project was for the numbers since I had enough spare cedar laying around.

With another baby boy arriving in August, my one and three year olds are moving to a "big boy" room. My oldest decided he wanted a bunk bed and as they both are obsessed with tractors, when I saw the "John Deere Tractor Bunk Bed" plan, I was sold.

We would be needing a twin sized bunk bed though not a toddler. I used the classic bunk bed plans and simply modified them to suit our needs. I moved the ladder to the front, added a rail on the bottom bunk and added a small ladder to the side for my one year old to climb into the bottom bunk.

Once the the frame of the bed was complete, I added the tractor accessories. A couple of storage cubby shelves with fabric baskets for toy tractors which act as stairs up to the ladder and make the tractor bucket at the front. Also, the wheels which are made from joined 1x6s as I find plywood hard to sand and paint to the quality of finish I like. A cab & roof from 1x4s framed together. A side mirror that I decoupaged a picture of another tractor on. I used push lights for the headlights as well as a reading light above each bed (they're on timers so they'll turn themselves off). A steering wheel (play equipment access from toys r us). Also, I built and mounted by the head of both beds a "flat wall book holder" so they would have somewhere to store a few books.

My boys and I are fairly new to building so I spent a lot of time planning and measuring to ensure it would all come together in the end. It paid off because it all went smoothly (even with "help" from my boys). It's not perfect but they're very happy with the result. We also built a John Deere themed "Just my size closet" and even finished with over a month to spare before the new baby arrives! :)

Just want to say a quick thank you to Ana both for the amazing plans and also the inspiration to take on these projects. The time spent with my boys building as well as the resulting treasures are priceless and I would have never realized what we were capable of had I not stumbled upon your website and been so inspired by you and everything you've accomplished. Thank you!