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What's better than an Ana White play kitchen? 2 Ana White play kitchens back-to-back!

Slightly modified, we made 2 play kitchens, turning one into a garage workbench and laundry. We managed to just get the kitchen & garage done for Christmas morning (minus a latch & plexi for the microwave). We later added a window view above the sink, and a table and 3 storage stools to join the two units on one end. In a long mixed-use playroom with little wall-space available, they jut out from the wall, dividing the TV side of the room from the toy storage side.

Dad was excited to help put the garage-side together and bought his little girl some peg-board to hang her tools on, and installed garage lighting. As pull-out drawers cut into the storage space, her "tool cabinet" doors just fold-down. Grandpa sent her a full tool-set with power drill for her new workbench. Big brother helped piece the gas burners together and chose paint colors.

Little miss finger-painted in the garage next to me while I worked on this first woodworking venture, but she was not a bit interested in the contraption until we added the stickers! A local sign vendor we use was so tickled to be involved, he had the stickers printed in under an hour and for just $25 (which saved hours and hours of detail painting)!

Next up: the ana white dream dollhouse (which perhaps we should've started with).

This was my first DIY build. Having been inspired by my good friend, the brilliant Jen Woodhouse of The House of Wood, I decided surely I could do this too. So I picked something that looked like a challenge, but that we also needed. We have an old piano we bought from Craigslist that has heretofore been benchless. So I used the Flip Top Storage Bench plans, headed to Home Depot, collected the wood (and let them cut it - but made a few of my own cuts, too), and got to work.

I had a little trouble at first, simply because, after assembling the sides and aprons, the unit did NOT square up. I took a few pieces apart and realized it wasn't user error (what?), but warped wood. That's right: one of my 1x3s was warped and bendy. So I rebuilt that side with some of my leftovers, and made sure to square up after each step, and lo and behold it came together!

It's not perfect - one of my legs is a bit off, so it wobbles when no one's sitting on it, but there's no issue when it bears weight - but for my first build, I'm quite pleased! And now that I know I can do this...well, this is just the beginning!

Total time it took me was probably around 15 hours, which includes practicing using my circular saw and kreg jig (both of which were straight out of the box when I started), along with my rebuilding the side.

I used Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner after sanding, followed by two coats of Rustoleum spray stain in Kona. I sanded with 400 grit sand paper after each coat of stain, and finished with one coat of semi-gloss polyurethane. I considered a few more coats of stain, but so fell in love with the weathered look that evolved from the staining and sanding that I just left it!

I also spray painted the hinges - that was a bit of an accident (I didn't know how NOT to cover them in stain...), but turned out to my liking!

My estimated cost is about $100, which covers the wood (including the extra 1x3s and an extra 1x2 I needed for a screw-up), nails, screws, three cans of spray stain, polyurethane, wood conditioner, paint brushes, two packs of sandpaper, and my hand sander. All but the wood will be used in my next few projects too, so that cost covers QUITE a bit!

Aloha!
I was inspired by what I saw on Ana's website. My daughter was obsessed with the PB Teen version of the loft bed, so I tweaked the plans here to make it more like the $2500 bed from the catalog!!!!! Yikes and don't even get me started on what the shipping to Hawaii would be....It was well worth the effort! My daughter loves her new loft bed...Now if I can just figure out a way to get the dog to love the high bed!!!
Cheers, Tina

The Plans for this project made it relatively easy for a first time builder. Always wanting to build some furniture for my wife, I decided to start with this and it turned out way better than I ever expected. I used red oak and oak purebond plywood. I took a slightly different approach, using a 3/4" thick board of plywood for the back vice the 1/2 inch, which really gave the back a nice solid feel. I also assembled the lattice backing directly onto the backing plywood board and then attached the completed back to the finished Bench section (I know I didn't explain that well, the pictures show it better). Lastly I left off the arms for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that I still need some work on cutting curves. Finished with one coat of Cabot Dark Mahogany and 2 coats of Rust-O-Leum satin polyurethane.

I used these plans and modified the height to create functional countertop and shelving in my garage. I added a little face framing too. Thank you for the inspiration Ana!

I needed a bunk bed that was a little shorter than average because there is a ceiling fan in my daughters' bedroom. I was originally going to make the fort bed, but decent 2x2's are very hard to come by at the Lowe's in my town. I ended up using the plan for the "Classic Bunk Beds", but I just left off the legs, making it only 55" tall. This made the bottom bunk directly on the ground, which is nice because I don't have to worry about my 2 year old rolling out of bed. I did still put slats on the bottom bunk though just to be on the safe side about all the mold issues that I keep hearing about when you put mattresses directly on the ground. My girls LOVE their new bunk bed and I can't wait to start building more matching furniture for their room!

This is our first original design! We had a request for a custom bar/retail counter for my mother in law's children's re-sale store and this is what we came up with! After we found a ridiculously awesome deal on 3/4 inch hardwood plywood (the only down side was that it was already cut into 2ft by 4ft pieces) we quickly got to work. Using our trusty Kreg Jig we turned 4 pieces of plywood into one large piece to create the front of the bar. From there we attached 1x3s and 1x2s to cover any seams that were caused by the different plywood pieces.

The finish was kind of a struggle but I love how it turned out in the end. It looks like the piece was made 100 years ago and definitely has a lot of soul. I started with Early American but it made the wood too red. So from there, I layered on Kona stain, lime wax, and dark wax and this is how it turned out! Which was not exactly what I was going for, but I LOVE it!

We are so happy with how it turned out. It is being picked up by its new owner tonight and I'm soooo sorry to see it go. We're happy that the piece will be functioning beautifully in the store with TONS of storage in the back. We're very proud of this one.

oh and it cost us about $130 for all lumber and finish materials.

I wanted to build a structure for the kids to play in and on. I used the playhouse deck design and made it 8 feet by 8 feet. The "roof" is removable to provide shade when it's sunny. It's just 2x2 and a tarp - pretty simple, but it does the job. I used treated posts, dog eared fence boards andlots of screws. I stained and built the walls in my garage before assembling it. Once all of the wood at been stained, it came together pretty quickly with the grandkids help...Lol

This project took a week to build.  Working during my boys' nap time and late nights, I was able to complete everything in about 7 days.  I used cedar, and sealed with Cabots Bleaching Oil.  The cost of wood for the beds and stairs and drawers came to about $700.  The extra cost came from the additional side rails on the top bunk and the stairs and drawers.  Still comes in about $500 less than if bought commercially.  The famiy loves the bed and as my kids are 2 and 3, I expect to get many years out of the bunk bed.  Side note:  I had to add quite a few brackets and angle joists to secure and minimize wobble due to the additional weight of the top bunk.  (2 2x4s from the 4x4 to the side of the cleat and side rail of the bottom bunk, on the back side only, made a world of difference)

It's an awful eye sore builder's always seem to put in the most obvious places even when there's an attached garage, or a basement, or even a large closet somewhere.

Solution: Build a frame out of 2x2's around the panel. Build a smaller frame out of trim (or whatever you like as a picture frame). Attach the smaller frame to the frame on the wall with self closing hinges (ok, maybe paint everything first, lol) and insert a photo or painting of your choice.

Unfortunately you can't do anything about placement, hello 1 inch from my countertop and cabinets (also preventing me from building more upper cabinets on that wall)
But, it's better than staring at that ugly gray box :)