Community Brag Posts

My daughter is 3 and though her room isn't terribly small, I thought this project would be awesome all the same. I wanted to do the doll house bed, but I figured this bed would grow with her more and I liked the platform at the end so I just added a curtain and called it good.

The book shelf is by and large my favorite part of the project. I just added some more 2x4's, a sheet of 1x10 and some left over bead board paneling that I had and used left over paint from her play kitchen that I had previously repurposed from an old entertainment stand. I added an inexpensive, small fluorescent light to the book shelf, out of sight, and found this great, inexpensive paper lantern.

I also added a support beam down the middle of the mattress area and used some 1 in MDF board that I had from another bed and wrapped it in fabric (which ended up being a little pricey, but she loves her ceiling)

Because she is so young, I pushed the bottom of the bed against the wall instead of building a railing off the platform because I was afraid she would fall as she still gets up in the middle of the night. This worked out because the space that was left at the head of the board fit her TV stand and laundry basket without leaving a foot print on the actual area under her bed. With the curtain up (and almost always closed, as insisted on by the primary tenant) it really is like a clubhouse under there. I can't even begin to go into the hours she spends under there with her books; who doesn't love that?!

This was my first "from scratch" projects and I learned a few things. 1. Don't strip screws inside of pocket holes. 2. Sand more than you think you need to, especially if you plan to paint. 3. Staining might be a faster way to go, 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint takes a lot of time if you want to avoid runs. I would say painting took twice or three times longer than the building! 4. I may avoid lumber from the big box stores from now on, or be much much more careful in picking it out, but I had a 3 year old running circles around me as I was picking it out, so I guess I can cut myself a little break.

Finally, price wise I would say I spent more than I thought I would at first. Lumber was more expensive than a lot of posters mentioned, which is strange, because I thought NC was supposed to have cheap wood. But just for the lumber, I would say I was at or a little over $100. I would say all together I spent between $150 and $200, but I added a good bit, and honestly, fabric isn't cheap either, and I bought about 9 yards all together. With that being said, I think this bed was well worth the investment. I couldn't have gotten something like this for anywhere near that price in a store.

Oh, and I built the entire thing completely alone as my husband was out of town when I got the bug to do this. It didn't come out perfect, but every project I do is an improvement from the last and it's for a kids room! As long as it is sturdy and safe, and it definitely is, and is still attractive, then that's all that matters. My daughter loves it!

My daughter needed a loft bed to give her more floor and storage space in her bedroom. I modified the original plans to fit her twin XL bed, which is 5 inches longer than a regular bed. I also added an extra 2x6 across the back two posts for extra support.

Cutting and assembly was relatively easy; I glued every joint and used pocket holes per the instructions. I sanded using 80, 120 and 220 grit. The finish is a Minwax "parchment" water-based stain, with 3 coats of Polycrylic. All pocket holes were pre-drilled prior to finishing.

I assembled the platform and footboard in the garage and brought it into the house as a single unit; same with the headboard. I brought in the rails separately. To assemble, I marked 1 1/4 inches from the outside post edges, and used wood scraps/clamps to align and hold the rails while securing them with pocket hole screws.

My daughter's mattress is very high; it rises only about an inch below the top of the top rail. So I build a bed-length shelf which also had the added benefit of providing a little more height/protection against her rolling out of bed in the middle of the night (see pics).

In all, I was surprised at how long this took me. Probably because I'm a novice and this was only my 2nd project. The totals are:
- Cut and assembly: 14 hours
- Sanding: 25 hours
- Finishing: 2 days

After finishing, I left all pieces in the garage for 5 days to air-out before bringing into the house.

Total cost the lumber was $125, 1 qt stain @ $13, 1/2 gal Polycrylic @ $50 per gal, and $20 hardware for a total of just over $200.

My husband built this in his spare time and I stained it, makes a great addition to my foyer!

I was so excited when I saw the plan for this! I love making crates out of wood. It was quick and easy and I already had a cedar fence post! It was less than 30 minutes start to finish! For more pictures check out my blog post. Thanks Ana!

Hello Everyone! This is my FIRST brag post here on Ana-White.com - but not the first project that we've built from her awesome plans. :) 

We have an unfinished basement that desperately needed some shelving because 1. It's our workshop in the Winter and 2. We don't have an official 'storage' room in the basement of our split level home. When I saw these plans I immediately thought they could be modified to fit our space and get my stuff off the floor! 

I modified the plans just enough to fit our space. After reading through them completely, I realized for an 8 ft wide space (beside the stairs) I only needed three supports for the shelves. Easy! The only trick was fitting the shelf into the space AFTER installing the shelves. Because I had walls on two sides (unlike the tutorial) I couldn't do the shelves as the last step. 

I LOVE how these turned out! They are a strong as a ladder (we tested them... :)) and they hold everything I need them to, and a little bit more. It's a definite improvement on my previously messy, cluttered, saw-dust covered space ... :) 

 A local South Floridian found me through Pine+Main. She needed two beds for her older kids. Client hired me to build two queen size storage beds based on the Sumatra Storage Beds from Pottery Barn. These beds took over eight weeks to build. My first time making drawers boy was that a challenge. I installed full extension drawer glides to access all the content in the drawers. Bed comes together in 3 pieces. It is stained Varathane's Dark Walnut. And the top coat is the Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Polyurethane in a matte finish. Built with Purebond plywood. These beds are super heavy and super strong.  

This is a rabbit hutch I created for my kids 5 rabbits. The thing that makes this hutch really nice is if you have a large lawn you can just move the hutch a little bit every day and the lawn gets mowed, fertilized and you don't have to worry about cleaning up all the rabbit droppings. I also mounted a rabbit feeder on the inside of the house door to keep the food dry, which has worked really well.

Here is a short blog of all the steps in its construction:
http://design.medeek.com/gallery/RH3080_COPALIS_2013/RH3080_COPALIS_201…

This was a pretty easy build. This was my first project and this looked like a pretty straightforward plan. I read over it several times before deciding what to do. I didn't like that it was held together using only screws. I anticipated that these beds will be moved several times over their lifetime and I did want to hassle with the screws stripping out the wood. Instead I used a 3/8 bolt and washer/nut set up so I could take the bed apart without worrying about stripping out the wood with screws. This necessitated drilling several large unsightly holes at the connection points. To help disguise this I trimmed it out using door casing and finished it out by staining the whole bed. The result was a classic look that will last my daughter's lifetime.

I will note that I changed a few parameters. I routed and the edges including the slats with a rounded corner edge. I used a 2x6 for the top cap of the head/footboards. With the addition of the trim work and bolt hardware, this did change the overall cost of the project. Total cost was probably close to $200. Had I stuck strictly to the plans I would have been closer to $100.

My wife liked the PB Larking High/Low table, but I didn't like the price. Took about 3 weeks of evenings and weekends.

Used 3/4" MDF Panels for sides, bottom, and top
used 3/4" select Pine for face frame
used 3/4" smooth plywood for drawer faces.
cut additional pine strips at 15/16" and then routed one edge for trim work around drawer face.
same process for right side door, but added 1 1/2" pine to trim along sides and bottom
Attached 2x4's to bottom of table and then covered with MDF panel for skirt.
Skirt is an 1/8" raised from floor to give space for carpet and not cause stress on skirt
used a jig saw on front of skirt for cutout
used decorative molding for under the table top lip, you'll need to figure out your overhang for whatever molding you use.
Used MDF for the changing pad holder. about 3 inches tall and then cut to dimensions of pad.
Topper on the right is just a miniature of the full table, from a contraction perspective.

My dimensions are slightly customized from the below.

Changing Table
Overall: 55" wide x 21" deep x 44" high
Dresser Cabinet: 15" wide x 19" deep x 23" high
Dresser Drawer (3): 31" wide x 18" deep x 7" high
Small Top Drawer (1): 11.5" wide x 15" deep x 5" high

Topper
Overall: 34" wide x 17.5" deep x 3" high
Topper drawer inside small cabinet: 16.5" wide x 11.5" deep x 5" high

Made these chairs from plans found on the Kerig Jig website. I added the cup holders for convenience and lowered the seats by 2 inches to account for our short legs. Chairs were stained with an outdoor fence treatment that was tinted with a light grey color.

I've been building Ana White American Girl doll furniture for my two daughters for the last three years, culminating with my biggest build of all - a modified version of Ana's dollhouse.

My wife kept telling me it would end up being huge, and she was right.  The great news is that it doubles as storage when the girls aren't playing!  2 Bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathroom, and upstairs bonus room for dance and gymnastics.  78" tall x 76" wide, mounted to the wall studs for safety.   Lots of joy in our home on Christmas day.  Thanks Ana!

I combined the features I liked from both of these. I was able to snag some wood table tops at auction ($5.00 ea) that I painted to look like stone.

Modified the plans slightly to make a bigger bench, especially on one end. Added rope lights underneath for a cool effect.