clubhouse loft
This is just a loft I made for my kids. I didn't want to spend over $1500 at PBK for a twin bed size bunk bed. the size is 4x8 enough for them to have fun.
This is just a loft I made for my kids. I didn't want to spend over $1500 at PBK for a twin bed size bunk bed. the size is 4x8 enough for them to have fun.
I built this table out of really rough old lumber from our family farm. Lots of sanding and a real rustic look. Thanks for the plans! I love it!
Such an easy build with a little woodworking experience. I am in love with this project and am so excited to have done it myself!
Amy
2 - 2x12x8
2 - 2x3x8
2 - 4x4x8 (cedar, fur is cheaper and will work fine also)
16 - 5/16x4 lag screws
16 - 5/16 washers
3x10 feet 1/4 hardware wire
20 - 3inch wood screws (outdoor rated, deck screws or the like)
you will have left overs if you buy extra lags you can make some other boxes depending on how high you want these, or set them on ground without legs. and use the wood screws
We needed extra storage in the living room and I didn’t want to pay mega bucks for our cabinet guy to make something I thought I could do.
Its four ft tall, 3 ft long and 16 inches deep. I added 1x3’s to the sides and 1x4’s to the bottom.
I bought the Kreg shelf pin jig and it was super easy to use. Plan to use it again on a bigger project.
Next is a fireplace and TV surround.
Thanks Ana for the easy to follow plans!
My daughter desperately needed a new loft bed for her small bedroom as she became a teenager. After looking a long time, I finally decided to take the plunge and make something custom after we couldn’t find a bed that met her needs (she’s VERY tall for her age). Thank you for posting the loft bed and bookshelf plans to this site, as they were great to work from and customize! This is my first woodworking project of any kind, and it came out great with these plans.
We followed the Loft Bed and Loft Bed Bookshelf plans pretty closely, but we did make some changes as we went...
First, we tweaked the guard rail design to make it removable by adding back vertical posts. This way, the front and back posts slide over the front rail and it no longer needs to be screwed in place. This is a nice tight grip for safety, but it’s much easier to make the bed by removing the guard rail and dealing with the mattress. If you do this, just make sure the back vertical posts are shorter than the front ones to make room for the cleats and slats on the inside of the rail! This also means the top of the rail is made with a 1x3 instead of the 1x2 in the instructions.
We also decided to use a vertical ladder design rather than an angled ladder. We did this for space considerations in the room; it’s a bit harder to get up the ladder, but not that much. This also helped avoid any weird angle cuts with my basic tools. We also made the ladder about 3” wider than the one called for in the plans.
One of my favorite features was adding a 3/4” plywood “ceiling” above the desk. We did this by moving the long side cleats upward by 3/4” of an inch in the plans, and using pocket holes roughly every 10 inches around the perimeter of the plywood. We used this to hide the bottom of the mattress and all the bedding from view when sitting at the desk. It also provides for LED strip lighting above the desk, which is installed by routing out a pathway in the board and installing the lights within an aluminum channel for heat dissipation and to allow installation of a plastic diffuser over the lights. The wiring for the lights lives in the ~1.5” gap between the board and the slats thanks to the 1 x 2 cleats.
In the shelving, we made the upper shelf in the wide bookcase adjustable with the help of a Kreg shelf pin jig. We also ordered a 3/8” tempered glass shelf for this area to let more of the LED light strip we installed in the top of this shelf shine down as well. Again, this was installed in a routed-out pathway that holds an aluminum channel, and the wiring goes up through both the bookcase top and the plywood bed “ceiling” panel to join into the power. We got the strip lights, aluminum channel with diffusers, power supply, and controller from Amazon.
To get power to the LED lights, I routed out a channel for 5-conductor wire in the middle board of a rear leg assembly. Before gluing up the leg, I coated the wire with silicone spray to avoid the glue adhering to it so I could slide the wire around as needed. With a little bit of chiseling, this wire is able to come out of the slide-in joints for the upper and lower wide rails on the back of the bed. On the top, these wires go into a splitter and then to the two sets of LED light strips. On the bottom, the wires to into the LED controller which is mounted to a scrap board along with the power supply that stands on end in the 3/4” gap between the back side wall of the bookshelf and the bottom bed rail.
We created a custom-designed file drawer unit as the pedestal for the desk opposite the wide bookshelf. This was modeled roughly after Ikea Alex drawers with three narrow drawers and one file drawer. The carcass is about 14 1/2” wide by 21 3/4” deep by 29 1/4” tall and made of 3/4” plywood. The drawer boxes are approximately 12” wide by 20” long made of 1/2” plywood with 3/4” plywood fronts. We used full-extension soft-close drawer slides and positioned the cabinet so they have nearly full extension behind the ladder. Four wooden dowels are used on the top corners to align and secure this end of the desk surface.
Speaking of the desk, it is a piece of 3/4” plywood approximately 24” deep by 64” long. One end rests on the file drawer cabinet, and the other end is flush with the middle shelf of the bookcase and attached using two 6” by 5” 14-gauge galvanized T-straps usually used in framing applications. These are screwed upwards into the bottom of the desk and shelf from below, and are holding up quite well. This avoids the need for desk legs by the bookshelf.
We then adapted the techniques used for the wide bookshelf to build a narrow bookcase (79” tall, 14 1/2” wide) out of two more 10-foot long 1x12 boards. This bookcase sits between the end of the bed and the corner of the room to finish out the look and provide more storage. The top, middle, and bottom shelves are fixed and there are a total of four adjustable shelves (two in the top half, two in the bottom half). We also cut a door and installed it using a pair of full-overlay euro hinges. With these dimensions, the tall bookcase is also capable of working with 11” x 11” x 11” storage cubes just like the wide bookshelf.
The finishing touch was to create a shelf that attaches to the guard rail and provides a place for my daughter’s alarm clock to sit and be within easy reach. This shelf is made around a piece of the scrap 3/4” plywood that is approximately 21” long and 9” deep. I used leftover 1x3 pine that I glued and nailed to the outside perimeter of the plywood flush with the bottom to hide the layers in the plywood while providing walls around the shelf. I also glued and screwed another 1x3 piece to the front of the plywood, this time flush with the top, as the first piece of a U-shaped grip to slide over the top of the guard rail. Another 1x3 scrap was then positioned, glued, and brad nailed to this front piece to finish the grip. I then cut a triangular piece of wood from a 1x6 to provide additional support under the shelf against one of the vertical pieces of the guard rail. This piece is held in place with counter-sunk screws that go through the top of the plywood shelf down into E-Z Lok threaded inserts in the top of the triangular wood support. The whole shelf assembly is only attached to the guard rail so that I can still easily remove the rail to change bedding on the mattress.
The whole project is constructed out of Home Depot select pine boards and birch plywood. Throughout construction, I used a 3/16” round-over bit in a router to eliminate sharp corners pretty much everywhere on the bed itself (legs, rails, ladder, etc.). I didn’t use this on the bookshelves, the file drawers, or the desk. Edge banding was used to hide any exposed plywood edges. I used 200-grit sanding discs and an orbital sander to sand the various pieces during construction and before finishing. The entire thing is finished with two or three coats of Minwax Polycrylic water-based polyurethane, sanding between coats, which gives this a nice smooth finish and lets the richness of the wood grain come through.
Hopefully the pictures I’ve posted can help understand the write-up on modifications to the project. I enjoyed building this a lot, and my daughter really loves what this did to her room to make it much more usable! That was worth all the effort and time right there.
Ana, thanks a million for the plans!!
I made this table for a friend of mine. I'm a Realtor and he used me to help purchase his home. Instead of a boring house warming gift, I made him this table instead!
Ana White inspired chaise lounge......
This was made using Ana's "Garage Shelf" plans. I modified it for a corner spot between two exiting cabinets, so it took a bit of thought, but the Ana's technique for the build made it so easy.
AND I used up scrap wood that I'd been hording in the garage for the build.
Thank you Ana!
Loved all your tables!! I was inspired by the tweaked plans of Modified Simple Outdoor Patio Table and made mine out of pallets :-) (Only the top slats, not the frame and supports)
This project took a while. Stained everything before assembly which made it easier. Plans are easy to follow. Thank you for making them available. Our property is starting to look a lot like your website.
Mon, 08/02/2021 - 08:35
Looks amazing! What method did you use (pocket holes, dowels, deck screws, etc) to join the visible portions like the arms?
This was really my first build and it stemmed from not being able to find the kind of beds I wanted for my girls. My brother helped me cut the wood and assemble the first one and my husband and I did the second together. It was so rewarding to make them and I love how they turned out! You can store so much and they are sturdy pieces. My girls love them too. (bedding is from Pottery Barn) I would stay this is a beginner's project. You don't need any specialized tools. it was a lot of fun and now I'm it itching to buy a Kreg Jig so I can complete many more projects!
This is s porch swing I made to go in my front sitting room. I re-purposed my sons old crib mattress. It definitely gives the front room the "wow" factor.
Wed, 08/13/2014 - 08:34
You did a fantastic job with the build. You picture could be in a magazine.
Fri, 08/15/2014 - 16:09
I love it! I had never thought of re-using a crib mattress, might have to give this a try :)
I built this wall to give us a little privacy when our family wants to lay out and go swimming. Also, to hide our neighbor’s ugly fence! The length for all pieces are 8’ long for no cutting and the widths are 1x2, 1x6, 4x4 with 3/4” spacing and about 100 or so deck screws. I modified the pattern from a photo of a fence I seen on HomeDepots YouTube.
Time to get organized in 2017....and what better way than with some custom shelving. This was not too bad of a project to complete. It only took about 6-8 hours to cut, frame, and assemble everything together (thanks to an interruption or two). 'Twas nice to have a project for once that I didn't have to care about finishing the project with wood filler, sanding, painting. I am sure my wife thanks me more as I would have been another week getting things just right!
A few changes that I made from the original plans:
- used 2x8 for the shelving runs as I only was dealing with a 10ft run and was a few bucks cheaper to buy 8 boards vs 16 boards. Plus less cuts!!!
-installed adjustable furniture feet in the supports to deal with sloping basement floor. Unexpected side effect was it was easier to slide the unit around in the basement as I assembled it.
Outside of those changes I remained faithful to the original design. I didn't bother filling the screw holes as we will be hiding the shelving unit with a curtain once we turn the room into a TV/Office area.
Also as it wasn't 100% clear from the original plans, but the height measurements for the shelf supports are to center... not sure why it didn't register with me right away... but just in case anyone else didn't realize that as well.
I made a few modifications from the original plans as I wanted to have some visibility into the cabinets. I used natural pine and finished with a tea, vinegar/steel wool solution to give it the reclaimed wood look.
Wed, 08/17/2016 - 23:42
Would you have plans available for the modifications that you made? This is beautiful!!
Mon, 07/22/2019 - 10:52
Do you have plans for the modifications you made on the doors? Thank you
My wife and I were wanting a large outdoor farmhouse table that looked stylish, and like it could have been bought at Pottery Barn or another high-end furniture store. We found this plan that Ana white had made "Small Old English Style Farmhouse Dining Table". We often host groups from our church and will have 15-20 people on our patio or around our pool area, so we needed a bigger table... I just made some modifications to make it longer (7ft) in length to better fit our space and allow for more people to sit.
To make this plan longer, I simply adjusted the cut-list on the long 1x2s, 1x4s, and 1x6; and added a crossbar to prevent the longer tabletop from sagging. I also added the diagonal corner struts to make the table a little sturdier.
Adjusted Shopping List:
4 - 1x2 @ 8ft
5 - 1x4 @ 8 ft
6 - 1x6 @ 8ft
Waterproof 1 1/4" Kreg screws (for outdoor use)
Minwax Weathered Oak
Minwax Vintage Grey
Adjusted Cut-List
• 2 - 1x2 @ 26.5"
• 2 - 1x2 @ 76.5"
• 2 - 1x2 @ ~33.25"
• 2 - 1x4 @ 26.5"
• 2 - 1x4 @ 76.5"
• 4 - 1x4 @ 7.25" w/ 45º miter (diagonal corner supports)
• 1 - 1x4 @ ~28" (Crossbar - I forget the exact measurement)
• 6 - 1x6 @ 82"
For seating we just bought some inexpensive farmhouse weather resistant chairs from Walmart:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Yaheetech-Metal-Dinning-Chairs-Stackable-Cof…
Tue, 03/02/2021 - 08:46
Love the to see the increased length on this plan. thanks for sharing!
I built these shelves in an afternoon and they were really simple. I'm fairly new to building and using powertools so these are quite an accomplishement!
Mon, 01/19/2015 - 17:13
Gorgeous! I love the stain! This is a beautiful project!
In reply to Gorgeous! I love the stain! by Ana White
Wed, 01/21/2015 - 06:04
Thanks so much! The hard part is picking the next project!
A couple more passes of finish and this will have a new lease on life. Beginning as a mixture of reclaimed wood and some shelving that Brian Carla Baker Smith had in their garage, it will soon be sporting a television as life begins anew for our friends. The most gnarly pieces turned out to provide the most character. I think that is a wonderful observation of life. Great plan from Ana White!
In reply to Wonderful details! by Ana White Admin
Fri, 07/16/2021 - 17:02
Thank you for the great plan Ana. Your plans, the details, and equipment required for the project have gotten me into woodworking. I appreciate all the work you put into your project posts.
This reclaimed console was not build from one of Ana's plan but I did want to share it to inspire others to work with reclaimed wood. I used reclaimed pallet wood for this build, except for the drawer, I used MDF. For the finish I used an oil based poly.
In reply to Love it! by tracygator
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 15:43
Hi Tracy. Everywhere there is a joint or seam, I cut each reclaimed plank on a 45 degree angle to hide the exposed raw wood after being cut.
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 19:38
It looks just like west elm. Did you lay the boards on plywood first? It looks like there are a few pieces per row on the side if that makes sense. Seriously I love this
In reply to Thank you! by tracygator
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 21:11
You are correct, I build a plywood box basically with a face frame. I rip down all the reclaimed pallet to 1/2" thickness and then nail it to the plywood. The pallet wood is basically a veneer.
This was what I built for my daughter during quarantine! I had never used a Kreg Jig before and now I love using it!