Community Brag Posts

These shelves were easy and easy to customize the size according to your needs.  They are fun to decorate and add a rustic flair to my living room.  

I built this A-Frame Chicken Coop using the Ana White plans. It turned out adorable, strong, and I am very pleased. Final cost was $250, and it took me 4 days (in real time, as a mom of 3). One Saturday at Lowes shopping, one Sunday afternoon cutting, and two days of assembly. Then a 5th for painting. Give or take a dozen extra runs to the hardware store! My brother-in-law helped cut the angles on his miter saw, and my uncle helped with assembly. I kinda doubt this could be done for $100 - maybe if you have a bunch of scrap materials and spare paint. We even have 7 or 8 hens in there! I only intended 3 to live in it, but my uncle added the extras and they all get along happily. I found the roof cap at Home Depot (didn't find at Lowes).

I would also like to point out that I was very afraid to do carpentry - I was afraid to even buy the lumber. But I asked for a lot of help from a lot of Lowe's and Home Depot people, and resisted the naysayers, and just got brave and did it. And it came out beautifully! If you are new to using power tools, get someone to assist, and you would need help anyway with holding things up while another drills.

Built this with the help of my Dad! Learned about threads as I've never used them before. Because of all the controversy surrounding having pressure treated wood touch the veggies and because I could not afford or find cedar 4x4's I decided to use the left over cedar to build a little cover around the 4x4's so my soil and veggies will never come into contact with it. Love it and the veggies are growing great!

Using your shed plans, modified to use the 2x4s I already had on hand, I designed this 4'x8'x7' shed to match my house.  I replaced the ceder fence boards with a hardiboard, but the construction was pretty much the same.  My husband and I are so happy with this shed,which looks very similar to the $4000+ sheds we have seen, and it cost us less than $400 to make and matches our house perfectly.  Your instructions were great, and I know you saved me a lot of time and trouble.  Can't wait to load it up with our snow and gardening equipment!  Thank you!

Used repurposed lumber for most of the project. Only thing I bought was the cedar pickets. This project cost less than $9

I also chose to cut the tops off and add mitered boards on top.

I had worked on this project a while ago, but did not had time to add my brag post. I actually modified the dimensions to fit my needs. I enjoyed making this pedestal along with my son.

When I first saw the outdoor sectional plans from Ana I had to build this! The sectionals at potterybarn cost at least $1500 and that is without the cushions. I chose cedar for the lumber because I wanted a high end stained wood look that would stand up to the pacific northwest weather. I purchased most of the lumber from Orange and some of the smaller boards from a local lumber yard. Every board was cut first then sanded and stained before assembly. This made it look a lot more professional and no drips! There are just too many tight areas to do this after it is assembled. I made 2 Weatherly outdoor sofas and used the plans from the Weatherly loveseat to leave the end off of one of the sofas to make an L-shaped sectional. This fit perfectly for my narrow deck which is the beauty of DIY and Ana's easy to modify plans. I  followed the suggestion of another brag post to attach the 2 sofas together with carriage bolts and nuts. It is important to be very accurate with all of the cuts because they have to fit together perfectly for the final product to look straight and measure correctly. Because there a about a million repetitive cuts in these plans I took the idea of another brag post and youtube and created a stop out of leftover lumber which really helped me keep my cuts accurate and saved me a lot of time. I really enjoyed using my new Kreg K5 pocket hole jig on this project which saved me time and my new Ryobi brad nailer that I convinced my husband I needed. I plan on using it on several projects which "require" a brad nailer! I bought six 25" cushions in turquoise from Pier 1 in mid-July which were on major sale and several pillows to match the color. I am somewhat of a beginner so I didn't adjust te plans to fit six 25" cushions so I had to have one cut down to 22" by a local upholstery shop (I could have purchased a 22" cushion but of course they were all sold out). I suggest at least a 3-4" depth cushion that is fairly firm, which Pier 1 cushion were.

I love the outdoor coffee table with built in beer cooler idea that another brag post had suggested.It uses a planter box as the cooler.  I used the same stain which worked well and adequately waterproofed the table. It also has a cover for the cooler when it is not in use. I thought it was a nice addition.

I loved this project and how it turned out! Thanks for the plans and inspiration!!!

Nice, fun project!

I got all the wood from the dump. The best way to get a good glue up for the table top is joint the sides flat, and then hand plane the top for a smooth surface. Gorgeous table for nothing.

My nephew and his wife are expecting a new baby. This is my e-husband's nephew and we wanted to do something different than I have ever done so the former in-laws wouldn't  recognize the work. I sent them several pictures and this is the one that they choose. I drew up simple plans and put one together. I didn't like the first one so I built this and I absolutely love it. It took me 1 full Saturday, a week of breaks (I come home at breaks from work to work in my garage), an hour each night and a few hours the second Saturday. The hardest part was making the holes for the slats. I used a 1/2" auger bit to make 3 holes and then used a carving tool to make them the right size. It felt like it took forever. Lots of router work but I think this is the best thing I have made thus far. 

This was my first furniture build.  Wanted something a little more detailed, so did solid panels, and inset molding into the panels for depth.  I also wanted a taller footboard, so the panel is 18" high instead of the 15" that the plan showed.  Ended up adding some crown molding as well, but mostly to cover up my mistakes.  Also dressed up the side rails by covering them in a matching molding as well.  Didn't want to use box springs, so moved the slats up to the top of the rail, and spaced them with 2" gaps between slats to give maximum support to the mattress.  Since we have a small dog that I tend to trip over in the dark, I ran a 24' rope light along the interior side panels and footboard, and plugged into a wireless switch that I mounted to side of headboard, which I can turn on and off from bed.  Stained it with General Finishes Mahogany Brown and then two coats of poly.  Really happy with the way this turned out!  Can't wait to do some more building, thanks to Ana! :-)