Community Brag Posts

Tall Loft Bed

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/09/2024 - 07:27

My husband, Daughter and I built this loft bunkbed for our seven-year-old granddaughter‘s birthday. It turned out wonderful and she squealed when she saw it! Thanks so much for your online plans.

Jan Ott

Sand Box

We adjusted the plan and created a 4x7 sand box with toy box and canopy. We are in love with the way this has turned out!

Estimated Cost
300
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Channing Bookcase

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/13/2016 - 09:47

Stained with Minwax Jacobean. Thank you for the plans!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$200 per bookcase
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax Jacobean and Semi-gloss Poly
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Chick Brooding Cabinet for Quail

My family has started raising quail recently and I built their first home while they were still in the incubator. I have never done any wood work before, so this turned out much nicer than I expected! I followed the suggestion of having the brooder part on the top instead of the bottom and omitted the extra shelf. Two 5-gallon buckets fit nicely below the chicks. Since the quail are so small when they hatch, I used 1/4 inch hardware cloth for the "floor" but it wasn't long before that was too small so we had to change it to 1/2 inch. I am going to make a tray with each size of hardware cloth on it to make it easier to change out for next time, because they really do need both sizes.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$75
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Fancy Mug Tree

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/15/2024 - 10:40

Love making these. Dressed it up a bit using an ogee router bit to give the bases and top a different look.

Built from Plan(s)

Make Beachy Style Picture Frames From Fence Wood

Submitted by ananda on Wed, 06/18/2014 - 23:32

These picture frames are inspired by furniture and frames made from
reclaimed boat wood which came from fishing villages in many parts of
the world. The frames here are made from readily available materials – the humble fence wood boards, some stores call it lathe. An 8' long piece only cost $1-$2. The complete detailed tutorial is here- http://www.apieceofrainbow.com/diy-make-beachy-style-picture-frames-from-fence-wood/

Estimated Cost
$5
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
paint
I chose a palette of subdued blues, greens, a little yellow and white. I like acrylic paints because they are non-toxic. Mixing colors becomes a lot easier with the guidance of the fan deck.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Kitchen island

Submitted by deadspuds on Tue, 06/30/2020 - 20:36

Built this island off your coffee table plans...love this sight thank you.

Estimated Cost
200
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Floor to Ceiling Canned Food Storage

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/19/2024 - 13:56

Loved these plans. Top unit was built exactly to specs. Bottom unit was built to accommodate one column of cans. I have also built one for my sis-in-law and will be building one more for this pantry. Love this project!

Leah

Built from Plan(s)

Camp loft with side stair

Submitted by Theresa W on Mon, 08/27/2012 - 16:15

I finally decided I was going to make the fort bed for my daughter and was about to print off the materials list to take to the lumber yard and the junior height camp loft was front and center on the webpage. Though significantly more bed, it looked perfect my little girl. We really wanted her bed high enough to avoid the only heating vent in the room and didn't want to lose the floor space for play, this seemed to be an ideal fit. When I finally put the bed together I realized that keeping the staircase as in the original plans resulted in a bowling alley sort of space left over. It was awkward and really shrunk the room as the 'alley' wasn't usable for much of anything. I played around a little bit and my husband and I decided that we would put it on the side. It fit perfectly to the wall and was much more space efficient for the room. I am a little nervous about the new openness of the deck portion, but both kids have found it a fun place to read and pretend fish. It was my first project of this size and I did everything until the final assembly by myself and I am so glad to have done it. It took more time than I imagined, but again I am a true novice.

I really wanted it stained so that it would camouflage the wear a little better, but I had a great deal of trouble finding a low VOC stain in my town. I used the lowest I could find and a low VOC water based poly. It matches her dressers and trim nearly perfectly. Her older brother likes the bed so much that nearly everyday he tries to convince her that she wants to switch beds with him.

Estimated Cost
$100-$120
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Zar UltraMax low VOC stain in Golden Oak
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Triple Pedestal Farm House with Bench

Submitted by hoosierary on Sun, 06/22/2014 - 15:01

So I finally broke down and decided to make the table that my wife had been asking for sometime. This after our last table was damaged by mold in our last move. I have completed a few woodworking projects before this so from a skill level on this project it was not too hard. The problem was that I wanted the table to be perfect but my wife wanted the dings and dents that came along with a farm table, so we compromised somewhat.

I did run into one significant issue that will be a life long lesson. The Douglas Fir wood that I bought had a very high moisture content and during the course of the project most of the wood began to shrink up to a half an inch in some parts as the wood dried out. I was talking to a construction friend in the area when I was finishing up the table and he confirmed that he had the same issue with this wood locally. Would have been nice to know this from the beginning.

Anyways, we followed the Triple Pedestal Table and Bench with the following adjustments. We used all 2x6 boards for the table top in order to provide additional thickness for durability, we also removed the center divider and just opted to use the full length of the 8 foot boards. We then framed the table with 2x6 and then added another lip of 2x6 below the table top. The purpose of this was to create a large enough area to notch the boards for a resting areas of the leg tops. We also rounded all of the 2x6 edges on the top with a router as we didn't want to have any sharp corners for the kids to run into.

On the legs, we opted to use 4x6 posts for the leg bases and tops, as well as the leg post. We (meaning me) wanted to have a nice clean look rather than the layers of 2x6 and 2x4's in the original design. I used the router to create the hole in the post for the runner beam, and used a 2x8 beam rather than the 2x6 beam. Finally I did not have the patience to cut out all of the arches for both the table and the bench and my jig-saw was not working properly, so we just decided to improvise with the design as shown in the pictures.

Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Rustoleum Kona Stain, one coat and wiped dry with towel after 5 minutes. Rustoleum Satin water based polyurethene, 3 coats on legs and 4 coats on bench and table top, sanded after each coat.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Fold down laptop desk

Submitted by Taa-daa on Wed, 09/21/2016 - 21:42

Inspired by Ana's Flip down wall art desk. It has different dimentions since wall space was limited. I used a magnet as a lock, added upholstered back, dowel for storage and extended the bottom part to add some strength. It is very handy!

 

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
30$
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
spray paint and home made chalk paint
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Surfboard bench

Modified the sofa design and created a surfboard bench

Estimated Cost
£30
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Dark Oak woodstain

Cedar Planters made from Reclaimed Fence Pickets

I built Ana's under $20 cedar planters for free. Or, almost free! I had to buy some more wood glue, but I had some of the wood on hand and took some from a friend's pile of old fence wood. It took me about five hours to build both planters from start to finish. See the blog link below for more info.

 

Pin For Later!

Cedar Planters made from Reclaimed Fence Pickets

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
Free
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Oxidized the new cedar 2x4s with steel wool/vinegar (http://thefriendlyhome.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-oxidize-wood.html). Other than that, no finish.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Seasonal And Holiday

Farmhouse Open Shelves

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 09/24/2016 - 17:08

We used Ana's plans for her Tiny House shelves and the only real difference was that we decided to use slightly thicker wood. We stained the wood espresso and painted the brackets Albaster by Sherwin Williams. 

 

The longest part of this process was the staining because the sealer took quite a bit of time to dry before being handled, but this was overall a very simple project with not a lot of effort. It just requires patience! 

 

We couldn't be happier and it was MUCH cheaper than the custom shelves we had quoted! 

 

Thanks Ana! 

Finish Used
Espresso Stain and Albaster by Sherwin Williams
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Open Shelf Nightstands

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/30/2024 - 11:29

I built these for my daughter's birthday, after she showed me a set of night stands that resembled these from the site. I used cedar with a steel wool and viniger stain to give them a aged look. With 4 coats of a water based urathane as a finish. Your plans were accurate and simple to follow. Thanks

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