Community Brag Posts

I always wanted a cabin-type cat tree where my cats could crawl in and feel safe, but still have a great view of the birds out of a window. I tried to draw my vision on paper, but that had a hideous result. Learning Google SketchUp (at least the basics) was an absolute necessity. I could never have built this without drawing it in 3D first, and seeing how the boards would connect, etc.

For the scratch pad, I built a frame out of 2x4s on top of plywood, covered it with carpet, and dropped the standard size scratch pad in place. This is the cat's favorite feature. I put barn doors on the window with tiny hinges so that I can close for added privacy. The tree sits against a window so that the back side is totally open. I made cozy zippered cushions for the platforms (that can be taken off and washed). I covered the carpeted areas with spare carpeting.

I built this A-Frame Chicken Coop using the Ana White plans. It turned out adorable, strong, and I am very pleased. Final cost was $250, and it took me 4 days (in real time, as a mom of 3). One Saturday at Lowes shopping, one Sunday afternoon cutting, and two days of assembly. Then a 5th for painting. Give or take a dozen extra runs to the hardware store! My brother-in-law helped cut the angles on his miter saw, and my uncle helped with assembly. I kinda doubt this could be done for $100 - maybe if you have a bunch of scrap materials and spare paint. We even have 7 or 8 hens in there! I only intended 3 to live in it, but my uncle added the extras and they all get along happily. I found the roof cap at Home Depot (didn't find at Lowes).

I would also like to point out that I was very afraid to do carpentry - I was afraid to even buy the lumber. But I asked for a lot of help from a lot of Lowe's and Home Depot people, and resisted the naysayers, and just got brave and did it. And it came out beautifully! If you are new to using power tools, get someone to assist, and you would need help anyway with holding things up while another drills.

Shared on Facebook by Jenna Schultz 

My husband built your Rustic bathroom vanities into 3 drawer dressers to hide our children's toys on each side of the fireplace. They turned out amazing!!!

My husband and I just bought our first house, and we realized that our daughter's full sized bed just wasn't going to fit in her 11x10 bedroom (neither was a twin bed--not with the rest of her furniture). So I enlisted my father-in-law, who I've learned is quite handy, to build this loft bed. It is so perfect in my girl's new room, and I know she's going to have it for years to come! Underneath is the perfect spot for her desk, and the shelves house all of her books perfectly (and she has A LOT!). I'm so excited that my ideas and dreams for her room have come to life!

Thanks for the plans Ana!

I stuck to the design but changed the dimensions to suit the space and the boxes we intend to store. This made the shelves 7.5 feet high by 8.5 feet wide. The timber was supplied in 17’ lengths so this also meant very little wastage. The frame is composed of 2x4’s, the shelves are 4.5 x 1.5’s  - as I wanted the shelves slightly shallower this meant I could get away with three boards for each shelf instead of 4 as on the plans. 

For the short cross pieces I used woodglue and screws – to attach the long shelf pieces I just used screws. I predrilled holes in the first piece for each of the screws, but I didn’t drill a pilot hole in the next piece, the screws were self-tapping and didn’t need one.

The back wall is concrete block and I screwed each upright to the wall using wall plugs and screws. I’ve 2 young children and as the shelves are quite high I was afraid they might climb on them and tip them over otherwise. The attachment to the wall definitely makes the whole thing feel much sturdier – the structure is completely rigid.

The only real issue I encountered was that some of the boards were slightly twisted or warped – and I had to apply some force to keep everything square when I was gluing up. Overall I’m very happy with the end product, and found it reasonably easy to put together. Now its time to put the shelves to good use and start tidying up the garage!

This is a shelf based on the fighter planes from the pre-WWII era. I built it for my son's nursery. I stumbled onto Ana White's plan "Plane Old Shelf", got inspired, and it evolved into what it is. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Easy project and fun to do!

I decided to make beds for my kids after looking at ones to purchase that all had bad reviews about the sturdiness.
Thank you for providing such comprehensive plans here. I have never built anything from scratch before, and this project was a lot of fun. I'll be starting a second one this week.

This was a super easy build - the only thing that took forever was getting all the angles perfect. 

This was one heck of a project LOL! But I am so pleased with the results!!

We started using the plans from the site while modifying some dimensions to best fit our space. To reduce the guesswork in aligning the drawers and drilling the dowel holes, we routered a slot in the side of the drawer (shown in the pictures) then drilled a 1/2'' hole in the inside of the frame to insert the dowel. Doing this allows us to easily insert and remove the drawers for adjustment or cleaning.

We attached nylon straps to the bottom of the bin to hide them and used some hardwood plywood to completely cover the back.

I had to do a 3ftx3ft square table since our eating area in the apartment isn't big enough for a dining table, but I really like how it turned out :) I also added breadboard ends because I can't stand how the cut ends look. I got the legs from osborne wood

My wood scraps were definitely getting out of control, and I needed something to store the wood vertically. I had some spare wood (free from Craigslist), so I put together a wood storage bin. All in all, the project cost me the price of some Kreg screws.

This sand box was very easy to build and it works great. The only thing I would change is cutting the "arm rests" at 7 1/2" instead of 6 1/2". I did that for the second set of arm rests (when I downloaded the plans many weeks ago the cut list was wrong). It made putting that section together a lot easier.

I easily spent more on the hinges (at $5 per hinge x 8 hinges) than I did on the wood itself.

My 1 and 1/2 year old loves playing in it and now I need to build a toy box for him to put all of his sand toys in!

Like just about every woman, I have LOTS of shoes! Well I couldn’t find an attractive enough shoe rack to fit in with our “Closet” furniture. We use an entire bedroom that our bedroom is connected to because the closet in that bedroom is minuscule. Anyway the closest I came was a simple design from the particleboard stacking closet unit line, you all know what I’m talking about. Well the problem was that they were $10 each & I would have needed like 6 of them & they didn’t come in black, which I tend to like because it doesn’t show dirt & that way all the furniture in the house is interchangeable if I feel like moving things around. I had plywood left over from my bed project so I just copied the design but made it a bigger single unit.