Community Brag Posts

Made my wife a Ana White DIY porch bench for our 10 year wedding anniversary. Had a custom plaque made: Sarah’s Bench.

Looks beauty on our front porch.

Jesse Micak, Ontario, Canada 

July 2016: We recently moved and the corner cupboard we purchased several years was too tall for the new house. I needed a new storage solution for our kid's arts & crafts, games, and funny business materials. Of course, Ana and her corner cupboard saved the day! Thank you! The kids have a great place to store their business and mom and dad can finally recycle all of the cardboard boxes stacked dangerously in the corner. 

Our corner cupboard was adapted from Ana's Corner Cupboard plan. The height was increased to 84", adjusted the dimensions for increase heights including the shelf spacing, doors on top and bottom to hide messes, used 1x12 for spine of the cupboard and shelves.

Thank you Ana! 

These chairs followed the simple white outdoor chair instructions. There were a few adaptations. I used 2x3s instead of 2x2s for the legs, like in the simple white outdoor loveseat instructions. I purchased my cushions from Target, and their dimensions are different than the cushions used in the instructions, so I changed some of the chair dimensions. I created the pattern for the ottomans, but it is very much based on the simple white outdoor chair instructions.

Fun project and happy with the results. Staining instead of painting probably made the project take twice as long.

This was built off Ana's Outdoor Couch plans.  I just made some additional things to it and made it larger.

I added the vertical back supports so the cushions don't slip out the back.  I raised the seat height to 17". 

Built in May of 2020, made some modifications to install a fan unit. Has raised beds left and right.

Moltzvt

Custom cedar raised gardens installed for a deck railing

Urban Wood Solutions

I built this book shelf for my daughter.

I made both the top and the bottom shelves an angled.
I used a finishing nail punch to emboss the name.

I mixed 3 different color stains to match the other furniture.

Used 2" caster wheels from Home Depot.

This is a century old red oak fireplace mantel I bought off of Craigslist. It came out of a home in Louisville, KY. It was in bad shape as you can see in the photos. I stripped it and replaced the veneer that needed it. I had to modify it a bit to install it to my mother-in-laws brick fireplace. The mirror is mercury glass and beveled. I did add some red oak rope trim which I beveled to give a more formal look. I countersunk some holes along the sides that I covered with some red oak trim. This allowed me to attach studs to the brick and then attach the mantel to the studs. The very top shelf was rotted so I found some beautiful spalted red oak and rebuilt this. The former onlay on the front was beyond repair and I found the current salvaged onlay on Ebay for around $10. I am really happy with how it turned out.

I made it a little deeper to accomodate my tuner (59" wide x 21" deep x 35" tall).

I liked the look of the long, top shelf that others makers had built, it's perfect for my 3 front speakers!

These sliding door rollers worked great for the door hardware:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DPH8M9Q

I used  1" x 0.125" flat bar (hot rolled steel) for the rails and door mounting stips (6" x 4).  It's fairly soft, so is easy to drill the holes for the screws.

Total cost was about $250, but $80 of that was for the thick cedar top. I used cedar, as I like the colour it goes when ebonized with vinegar/steel wool solution. The door are also cedar. I finished the top and doors with wipe-on polyurethane. The paint was grey eggshell latex.
 

We really wanted to give our 2 year old a play kitchen for Christmas. We also didn't want to spend the money on the likes of the Pottery Barn set, and weweren't sold on the lesser-expensive options. Fortunately, a quick internet search led me to Ana White's website and plans for this play kitchen. As someone who has never built anything before, the plans seemed very doable. All of the brag posts were also inspirational and sold me on starting this project. I worked on this an hour or so after work for a couple of weeks, and then a few longer nights running up to Christmas Eve (always a bit of a procrastinator!). As neither my wife or I know how to sew, we decided to turn the space underneath the sink into a cabinet. The paint color was left over from painting our kitchen and family room, and we decided to stain the stove and counter tops. Overall, we are very pleased and proud with how this turned out, and our 2 year old loves playing with the set!

Well this was definitely the most challenging so far because we decided to modify the kitchen island plans to incoporate the tilt out trash bin. Very pleased with the results. Extended the back of the island to accomodate a 11" deep trash bin. Slim trash cans fit perfect. Found a gift wrapping bin for half price after Christmas and it is a perfect fit and 13 gallon bags fit great.

The x's were definitely a challenge because it changed the angles and it would have been best to just mark it with the board before finishing the whole box. 

Now we just need to paint the cabinets and change the countertops and paint the kitchen walls. Not happening anytime soon, but at least the island is done.