First of many outdoor projects. This collection from Ana is awesome.
Full Tutorial with a LOT more photos on the Blog HERE
We had measured the garden space so we could build this frame to fit the space. The deck frame was made to be the correct height for the slide that we would attach later.
Once all the boards were put onto the frame I added some rails for safety of course. Then stained everything....
PS This IS a beginner project! I promise!!!! I am a beginner and I built it, it's still standing so you can do it too! I promise!
Great plan. Easy to follow.
My daughter has a small walk-in closet, so I wanted to make some storage bases. I had a full sheet and half sheet of plywood each ripped into 4 pieces, with each piece 11 3/4" wide. I then built the sides and corner shelves separately and connected them with connector bolts. I have since added doors to the shelf on the left.
In reply to Wow! by Lady Goats
Fri, 03/08/2013 - 14:53
Good catch Gina - it's actually a sheet and a half of 3/4" ply, with some to spare. I forgot that I had to make another trip to get the extra half sheet (I made this a month ago). The corner unit also has 1/2" ply for the back, and since I was painting it, I bought the cheapest plywood I could. The vertical dividers are also made with scrap pieces of 1x pine I had lying around.
I just built this table over the weekend. I started building this on a Saturday afternoon and finished it on Sunday afternoon. On Monday I put a coat of Minwax Honey on it. On Tuesday, I put a second coat of stain on it. On Thursday, I put a coat of semi-gloss poly on it and on Friday, I put a second coat of poly on it. All in all, I'd say I put in about 15 - 20 hours on it. Well worth the time and effort and cash savings!
I used a Kreg pocket-hole jig instead of nails which caused me to have to think a little bit about where and how I wanted to join the wood together. I also spent a little more on some nice wood (pine) as this was going in our front living room and I wanted it to look as nice as possible.
This is really only the second piece of furniture I've ever built. I built a beam mantle last month just in time for Christmas. I think both of them turned out really nice! Let me know if you have any questions.
Tue, 01/27/2015 - 15:18
This is a beautiful project! Thanks for sharing!
I really liked the Large Wooden Dog crate but wanted the sides to be lower and wanted to make sure there was no easy chew escape. Not sure if you can see from the photo but the cats have taken over... Will need to make a larger one for the dog!
I followed the plan pretty much other than lowering the panel on the side and replacing the wooden bars with rebar. The rebar was a bit of a learning curve getting the holes lined up perfectly but I figured it out and I think it came out pretty good!
Used all pine 1x3 and 1x2s. Picked up a pine panel for the top and the bottom is a 3/4 plywood. Made our own chalk paint for the finish and sealed it with wax.
Oh, forgot, added tongue and groove pine for the back and finished it and the top with Antiguing wax.
Lots of fun and I think I will make a double one next!
I was inspired by the custom closets on this site and decided to have a go at it. My daughter is in high school, so I wanted something functional with a bit of teenage flair.
Of all the designs I researched, I loved Kristen's design (from Pink Toes & Power Tools here: http://ana-white.com/2012/02/closet-organizer) the most, but wanted to add a substantial shoe section and not lose any rod space in the process. I also needed one rod section to be longer than the other two to hang her dresses.
All in all a fun project where I used just about every tool I own:
Circular saw to rough out the plywood shelves and supports.
Table saw with a cross-cut sled (http://wnwoodworkingschool.com/5-cuts-to-a-perfect-cross-cut-sled/) to make the plywood pieces all perfectly square & an extra long rip fence.
Router (with jig) for the dovetail joints, detailing on the drawer fronts and rounding the leading edges of the shelves.
Power drill for mounting the drawers, drawer fronts and handles
Compound Miter saw for the various face framing pieces and the shoe moulding
Pipe cuter to cut the rods (also made a jig to both hold the rods in place while I mounted the supports and set it at the correct height and distance from the wall--used a planer in making this)
Orbital sander
Brad nailer during assembly (also made a jig here to set the plywood pieces on during the tower assembly to keep the back square while I used 90 deg clamps on the fronts).
Airless paint sprayer (I have learned that my wife does not like brush marks!)
Washers for spacing the drawer fronts (found this trick online and it works like a charm!)
Lots of clamps!!!
Sat, 09/12/2015 - 02:44
what are the specs? I like yr layout and I need to re-do my over eager 1st diy attempt in my ip. this looks like the perfect layout. thanks
Our old picnic table was falling apart so I made a new one with it
Great bench
Enjoyed this project although with the price of lumber it was a little expensive to build. The only modification I made was to put a cross brace in the centre of the table top. That allowed me to attach the top boards a little more securely as some of them were a little bowed. I'll add a better photograph once I get it out of my garage and on to the back deck. It is a little heavy.
As our very first project we decided to go big or go home as the expression goes lol and it turned out great.
Let's start first with the list of mods that we did.
1. We wanted the bed to be higher. A lot higher. Gives more room for storage under the bed also. Plus we like high beds and it serves to keep 2 out of our 3 dogs off completely since they can't reach anymore \o/
2. We raised the footboard up 12" in height. So everything on the footboard height we just added 12" to which was really simple to do.
3. We added side rails, and despite the fact I thought wife was crazy she wanted 2 x 12 used for this. 12" wide so that it would look a lot better plus cover the the box spring and help hold mattress into place. We couldn't find a reasonable sized board that wasn't pressure treated so ended up getting a 2x12 that was 16 feet long, and just had it cut down to 7' long pieces at the store.
4. We swapped out the paneled look on the headboard and footboard with sheets of hardwood plywood. If your not adjusting the footboard as much as we did you could get away with a single sheet but we went so much higher that we had to use 2 sheet and have a lot of leftover wood.
5. We did slats to support the mattress and boxspring and added small legs to them also. We just added furring strips ($1.82ish) to both side rails on the very bottom so they would be flush. Used wood glue and 3" screws to hold them onto the side rail using clamps and made sure they were thoroughly secured. From there, we just measured across and cut 2x4's to fit and slide them into place. We used the extra parts of the 2x4's to make legs that we put into the center of the boards also to help give a bit of extra support. Plus, to ensure stuff doesn't move around at all, we added an extra furring strip cut into pieces that we used to help hold the 2x4 supports into place. Only took 1 of those to do that and works out great.
Some tips:
Now, we had issues locating 4x4's at the local big box retail hardware stores. The only options there were pressure treated (ok for our usage) but if your wanting to stain the bed would need to use an actual lumber store which could get them, but the cost was approx $3 more each and had to wait for them to come in. We opted to use pressure treated since they were already available, we were planning to paint so the look difference wouldn't matter, plus we have 2 male dogs who are being difficult about marking so the pressure treated aspect helps protect against them. -.-
As for the side rails. We looked through tons of posts and saw very little about this. What we did was attach the side rails onto the insides of the 4x4's. For the footboard end there is just under 2" of space or so that you can connect to, and of course on the headboard side you have the entire area to work with. Worked out great. We initially attached them using 2 3" screws to get them into place and make sure everything was level and squared and after that was all done added in some beefy 4" bolts that we predrilled holes for a bit to make it easier to get them in.
While we were building the bed, we went ahead and did the canopy at the same time. So we just added on a few screws, 4 corner brackets, 4 hanger bolts and then the 4 2x4's. Was approximately an extra $25 or so to do and was really quick. We were planning to do the canopy to start with anyways so bought 4 of the 4x4's and ended up with very little scrap after it was all over and done with.
Total costs all said and done including the paint was just around $300 or so. However, again if your not wanting to completely change the height of your footboard could be cut by approx $50 (cost of extra sheet of hardwood plywood).
We added a pic to show how we did the pocket holes for the hardwood plywood on the sides. Since the directions themselves call for just the 1x8's to be used figured this might help some. The kreg mounted to the workbench helps loads for the top, but not so much for the sides since we were building on our covered deck and couldn't just turn it straight up on it's side.
Final piece of advice, we debated for a long time between the Harbor Freight pocket hole jig and the Kreg version. Ended up going with the Kreg Master Kit and got a great deal on it ($111 or so plus tax) so saved a bundle there which helped. HF sends out 20% off 1 item coupons all the time, we took that to Lowe's and used it for the Kreg jig set without any problems. So would definitely recommend this if your considering and trying to decide which to buy. Cost differences between them is huge, and if your scraping it can be a great way to get the costs a lot lower.
Also, seriously, seriously, seriously, get a nail gun and air compressor. Don't nail stuff in yourself. It saves a huge amount of time. We picked up an air compressor for $150 that works awesome and has great CFM and found some great air tools off CraigsList that cut the costs for a nailer down to just $10 and gives tools to use on plenty of other projects so was a really great investment for the time it saves. Definitely beats nailing by hand with a normal hammer.
Final advice, if your painting check the weather. We had problems with the primer drying to start with since we had primed the pieces outside and left them on the deck to dry and it started pouring something awful. So the pieces had to be brought inside to finish priming and fix the parts that were messed up by the rain coming in on them. Without this complication a single coat of primer might have worked but not sure. Overall still looks great though and quite happy with the results.
As for the paint, took less than 1/2 a gallon to do all 3 coats and still have enough left over to repaint the rest of the bedroom furniture to match. Hopefully this gives enough information to help anyone looking to change things up. We were really nervous about it to start with since we were shifting so much from the original plans but it came out great and my wife loves it so I'm definitely a happy guy.
We brought all of the wood home by carefully packing it all into our lil 4 door Saturn. Yes it was a super tight fit, but it was possible. We didn't have access to a truck, and none of our local stores had a truck that was available to rent. So you shouldn't stress out if you can't get your hands on a truck it's still possible to get everything home you need to do this project. Just get as many of the huge pieces cut as possible at the store.
For our guest room redesign, Brian and I made the Farmhouse headboard in pine. It took less than an hour to cut all the boards and begin assembly. We stained the headboard in a dark walnut. For less than $100, I got EXACTLY what I wanted!
Necklace Armoire - a mother's day gift for Mom. I made this to go with the Fancy Jewelry box that I did for her for Christmas. Based on the Wall Jewelry Cabinet plan. This piece is made to stand like a narrow tower, and it opens up like a book. There are hooks inside, on both sides. I placed the hinges on the left, because Mom is left-handed. Dimensions are 6 1/2" wide, 14 1/2" tall, and 6 1/2" deep. Top & bottom are 1x6, box and door sides are 1x3, and door front and back are 1/4" birch plywood. The inside is lined with felt. The wood, stain and paint were already on hand, I just needed the felt and hardware. The build was very easy. The finishing took longest because it has both stain and paint, with added felt and hardware. On the right side I used some hooks re-purposed from an old jewelry box, and on the left side are 3/4" brass shoulder hooks from Lowes. Hooks are attached to some 3/8" craft board, which was stained and glued in place. I got to use my newest tool (23 gage headless pin nailer) for attaching the trim (very neat - it really was just a pin-size hole to fill). The front closes with a brass hook and eye. I sure hope she likes it! :) Happy Mother's Day!
Wed, 07/10/2013 - 02:27
Thanks so much for the nice comment! Just finished another project, for Mom's birthday this Friday. :)
After seeing the patio table with beer/wine cooler, I wanted to build this for my brother and wife who recently bought a house. I asked them if they were interested and of course they said yes. I modified the original plans by adding a 2x4 on each side of the cooler to make the table wider. I also made the legs out of 4x4 vs the 2x4s that were originally called for. I used redwood and then stained it and used a varnish for the final coating. I probably wouldn't use the varnish again for an outdoor table, because it looks like it should be an indoor table vs outdoor. Overall, I'm pleased with the results and the best part about it, I get to enjoy it every time I go over for a BBQ.
Wed, 07/03/2013 - 13:04
Awesome table, do you happen to have the measurements you used. I'd like to make the same table but I need the lumber yard to make the cuts.
I built this bed for my daughter and we decided to build a farmhouse bed but it didn’t stop there.. We added a barn door feel complete with handles and then we bought some vintage wall sconces and turned them into lights for the headboard.
Hi friends!
Jen Woodhouse here, sharing this adorable summer project with you! I'm in the mood for all things outdoor, so I thought I'd share this build I created last year. This Kids Outdoor Double Lounge Chair made my kiddos so happy. They spend a ton of time at the pool and this Lounge Chair offers them a little bit of shade, and cup holders too for their drinks!
Be sure to tag me @jenwoodhouse if you share photos of your build on social media.
You can get all the details and the plans for this build on JenWoodhouse.com!
The Vintage Step Stool in green. I made this for my 2 year old so she can climb into her big girl bed :-) The color is the same as her walls and her name sign above the bed.
So thankful for the plans to build the closet shelves. They were key to our building out our new walk-in closet. Love it and this site! Onward to the next project!
Hello everyone, today I’m sharing details on something I built recently: a Bailey Chair for dogs suffering from Megaesophagus.
Dogs with megaesophagus have an enlarged esophagus. This makes swallowing food difficult. Eating while in an upright position helps and the task of keeping the dog vertical is easier when the dog is sitting in a Bailey chair.
This blog post is less of a detailed how to and more of showing in progress photos. Adam, over at Lazy Guy DIY, has put together a great tutorial on how to build the Bailey Dog Chair. I followed his instructions with very few modifications.
I love working from these plans!
I added storage to the bottom of the simple outdoor loveseat by creating one big board from 2 2x6 boards for each of the front, back, and side aprons using my KregJig. Then I added cleats around the bottom for a sheet of plywood, extra cleats around the top edge for the seat, and put the hinge on the original seat support board.
