Community Brag Posts

I made these three farmhouse doll beds for my daughters. Initially, I made two beds following the plan as written but started feeling like they would take up too much space. My girls are close in age (4 and 2 yo twins) so waiting for one to outgrow something and passing it on isn't an option.

I gave the first two regular sized beds away as gifts and made three narrow versions that I saw on another blog http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com/2011/02/b-is-for-bed-5.html Her bedding is still the gold standard in my eyes. LOVE IT!

On two of my beds, I left off one 1x2 slat, and on the other I used 3-1x3's. The width of the 3 beds are slightly different. Heck, I think I am incapable of making two things exactly the same. lol The girls love them so that's all that matters. For the bed that used 3-1x3s, I didn't write down the width of the top boards. I measured and cut as I assembled.

I put an extra 1x2 mattress support in the middle because I knew they would sit on them and used masonite to hold the mattress. Seems strong enough so far.

Before painting, I used lots of wood filler and caulk to hide some flaws. By the way, I feel like painting the beds is the hardest part. So many little grooves, nooks, and crannies. I recently bought a Graco 3900 HVLP paint sprayer. Painted a half wall and 6 long pieces of trim in 30 minutes today---love it! If I make another bed (or anything for that matter), I'm totally going to spray it.

Oh and I have to confess that after the first two beds, I got too impatient to use just screws so I used the nailer, glue, and used a few screws at key points. It made things go so much quicker, and the beds still feel quite sturdy. If my kids manage to break them, I'll make them new ones. :-)

I used 1" foam and muslin for the mattress & cover and fabric that I obsessively buy and hoard for everything else. The middle quilt is an actual quilt. I cut the squares and all---first time for that too. The other two are made of pre-made patchwork fabric from Joann's.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your creations, and thank you, Ana, for the plans. I am so inspired!

Well after a successful first project building a Wine Console for my sis-in-law it was time to tackle a project for my own home. We have a huge back wall in our living room that used to be covered by a cheap set of "DVD/CD Organizer" shelves. I hated them from the day I bought them, but they were cheap and they did what we needed. So for my next project I wanted to replace them with something classier.

The basic concept is based off the same workbench console that I used to build the wine table but with some major modifications. First off, it's 9 and a half feet long to better fit the size of the wall. I also wanted to add some shelves for more display space. The wife likes non-symmetrical design styles so I offset the shelves with one hanging from the bottom of the tabletop and the other resting on the bottom shelf.

I just finished it and moved it in so we're still trying to figure out what to put on it. Personally I like a more minimalist approach while my wife loves picture frames so I made a deal. You can see a guest appearance of the first of two $10 gallery shelves that I plan on putting the rest of our pictures on. Stained the same color as the table it looks great on the wall right above it.

It's all made from good ol' Home Depot pine and finished with 3 coats of Varathane's Kona Stain-Poly applied with a brush.

My daughter wanted to remodel her room with a peacock farm theme. These plans worked perfectly. I decided to just enclose the bottom, add 3 drawers and a barn door to give it functionality and add to the "farm" theme. Enclosing the bottom mad for way more storage in her room. I'm going to add a cubby on the head board side. It's going to mimic a "lean to" shead to further add to the rustic farm look.

We built this dollhouse bookcase pretty much to plan. We did add "shingles" to the top.
View more on our blog: http://www.bearrabbitbear.com/2012/02/dollhouse-bookcase.html

This was mine and my husbands first build! Considering we had absolutely zero knowledge and experience with tools, I think they turned out ok. Definitely need to find better board next time, and we know a few things to better/differently for the next build! :)

Great plans for a platform bed. My son loves it!

Combination of Entryway Bench and Storage Shelf with Hooks and simple changing table. I did make the table a little taller as my wife and i are pretty tall. I also had to add about an inch to the overall length of the table as well to fit the baskets. Mostly straight forward.

A farm table modified slightly from the Farmhouse Table plans. Six feet in length, pine wood, Ipswich Pine stain (minwax) with gloss polyurethane coating (3 coats). Woodburning tool used to distress tabletop and legs. Great plans made this build easy and fun, thanks Ana!!

I built this bookshelf over the summer and finally decided on paint over the weekend. I LOVE how it turned out! I followed the plans for general directions, but my dimensions are taller and wider than the plans. I used 8' 1x6's for the sides and the shelves are about 14". I also added bun thingy's (or whatever they're called!) to the base so that the unit would fit completely flat against the wall. Otherwise you'd have to either cut out your existing wall trim or notch the shelf trim around your wall trim. This was my first time using the Kreg pocket hole jig. It took a little getting used to, so I'd suggest practicing with some scrap parts first to make sure you don't end up drilling the pocket hole completely through the board.

I made this using leftover pallet wood, sanded plywood backer, leftover sliced pebbles from my bathroom remodel and plain old sticks and stones from my backyard. Took all of 2-3 hours or so to cut, sand and glue. The longest part was finding the perfect stones for the family and the layout of the trees. In case you're wondering, that's my wife and me and my three young daughters. This was the perfect piece to finish off our newly remodeled bathroom. This would be a great project for a family of all ages.

Handmade by Frank. He saw a pic on CL and figured it out without any plans.

Aiden's Clubhouse.

I can't even believe I was able to build this! Everyone thought I was crazy for undertaking such a huge project. I made it a queen size because my son would always sleep in my bed anyways... so I just gave it to him. The bed took 4 weeks because I could only work on it on Saturday afternoons. The first week, I made a frame with cleats on the wall. The second week I built the house and stairs. The third week I built the slide and did some of the painting. Today, I finished painting and trim.

I did modify the plans and merged the plan for the slide into my plan, which was a last minute addition. As such, I had to "measure-and-cut-as-you-go" build this bed. I would highly recommend to anyone considering such a task, don't do that. Make a plan, cut all your wood, paint before assembly, and stick to the plan. My stairs all lift up, and under the top landing there is also a cut out inside Aiden's clubhouse-you can see it behind him in the picture below. Also under the slide is a cut out for storage. I have not done anything with the inside of the clubhouse yet. Someday...

I designed the bed specifically so that I could take it apart if we ever move... we live in an apartment. The stairs/stairwell are only connected to the rest of the bed with a single screw. The other wall is a bit more difficult to remove, but not impossible.

I learned a few things doing this, that I want to share with you all..
1. The Kreg-Jig is the best thing ever.
2. I LOVE LOVE LOVE power tools.
3. 4x4 sheets of MDF are difficult to carry upstairs by myself.
4. I can do anything.

I hope you all like it. This was my son's 4th birthday present and he really loves it.

It isn't finished yet though. The far wall in the room is about 2 ft away from the bed, and I haven't decided what to do with that side of the bed, so it's still plain. I would love some ideas! What do you think?

With all our changes and renovations, we no longer had a place to put up Christmas stockings. When I saw the idea for a fake mantle I knew this would be a good solution. The wall area I had was only 30 inches wide, but we made it work! The mantle itself was made almost entirely out of wood scraps. We also painted a thin piece of wood with chalkboard paint and used metallic Sharpies to create the grate and logs. That attached to the back of the mantle to serve as the "inside" of the fireplace. The kids added their own version of flames with some colored chalk on Christmas Eve night. Best part is I can store it in the attic until next year!

This was our first attempt at making a woodworking project but knew it had to be done to save our plants from our son digging in them. It took us all weekend (mostly because of the staining) but we completed the project in 2 days. We went a little bigger (made a 6 x 6 box) to give our son some room and allow for friends. I loved putting the project together and look forward to many years of use from this box. Thank you for such simple plans!