Community Brag Posts

I needed to build a loft bed for a small room that has a nine foot ceiling, I wanted to have ample storage room below, but was concerned about a ladder that would stick out at an angle taking up a little too much precious real estate in the small room.  Using Ana's great Sketch Up plans, I modified the design by incorporating a fifth leg as a permant addition to attach the ladder to.  Part of the appeal of Ana's design was the ability to take apart the bed if it ever needed to be taken out of the room it is installed in, and the ladder became a part of the foot board end, perhaps a little unwieldy, but still able for two people to lift and move.

As a self-taught woodworker, I wanted something a little nicer than standard pine boards, and since we have a nice local hardwood supplier in our town, I was able to buy some nice red oak in a 13/16" thickness.  This project gave me the opportunity to use the planer that I bought some time ago but hadn't really used very much, so I ended up milling all of the wood to bring all to a uniform thickness.  In gluing up the legs, I used a spreader and a lot of clamps so that there are no screws, staples or nails joining the boards, just a lot of Titebond II.   

For the ladder itself, I cut dados in the upright edges of the ladder and attached the treads with 2" wood screws along with a liberal amount of glue.  I had a slight miscaculation on the width of the ladder, so in order for it to fit in between the two legs, I had to plane away a small amount of wood, which you can see the end of in the last picture, the close up of the ladder.

After a fair amount of sanding and a round over bit in my palm router to break all the exposed edges, I finished with three coats of polyurethene.  The bed was assembled in the room using 2" wood screws which I had pre-drilled when I dry-fitted the bed out on my driveway.  There are three screws in each corner of the mattress board and two screws in each corner of the railing.  The short section of the front rail is also attached with screws so it can be removed as well if the bed is ever moved.  I finished the installation with three, six inch lag bolts, two higher up going into wall studs, one near the bottom bolting into the wall plate on the floor.  The bed was very solid, but has been made even more so with the addition of a bookshelf spanning the width of the footboard, and it is as deep as the ladder is wide.  I offset the side of the bookshelf on the ladder side to allow for a two inch gap so your toes can overhand the ladder treads when climbing up or down.

My wife sent me your YouTube video of making the sectional.  She asked me if I would make her one.  It was perfect timing because our 9 year anniversary was just around the corner.  So my 5 yr old daughter and I went to Lowes and purchased the supplies on a Friday night.  Her 8 year old brother and her helped me measure, and assemble (I did all the cutting;).  We enjoyed the project as a family and were very proud to present to mommy for a gift...

thank you!

Jack Christensen

I'm so excited about my farmhouse table! I used mostly scrap wood that I had lying around, and I adjusted the length of the table to fit my space (it is 62" long). I cut the table ends in a curve pattern just for a little more interest. I used the steel wool/vinegar solution to darken and age the top, with a paste wax finish on top to give it a more aged patina. I painted the base with the paint leftover from my outdoor sectional that I built from Ana's plans. The actual table didn't take long to put together, but it took me a month to get around to the finish.

Sorry for the photos - I used my cell phone camera and the light was bad!

This was my first build from your site! Farmhouse bench.
I was a little confused with the miter saw instructions "bevel cut at a 10 degree angle off center". I had to google to figure out what you meant. In the end the bench looks awsome and I feel very empowered with my tools.
(still need to stain the finished project, bought all the wood and built in 1 day)
Thank you Ana for sharing your plans!! I love your site and I love my Kreg Jig!
Vicki
(Canada)

I've had this idea to build some sort of storage bench or blanket chest for quite a while now. I knew I wanted a classic look with detailed moldings and a solid wood top.

I have plans for this build avaliable HERE. 

You can check out my detailed video tutorial :

Farmhouse table. Tabletop is reclaimed from a church built in 1890 (bought at Manyunk Timer in Philadelphia). So glad we went that route (the knots, grain, etc match on the outer two pieces which you can see in the pic... it's really great, but it is expensive).

Top has only minwax polyurethane, there's no stain whatsoever. Frame is stained with Minwax "polyshades" (Mission Oak shade).

Chairs you see are the "Winslow" chairs from coaster. Highly recommend them. The match was luck.

Omitted the breadboard ends only because my tabletop pieces are 13 in (!) across: that would have been too wide for ends I thought.

Many thanks to this fantastic site for the plans. I am new at this and the table is KILLER; there's no possible way I could have expected it to turn out so well.

I used your "cedar planters for less than $20" plan and modified it to create two beautiful planters for my house. I framed out the top of the planter to give it a more complete look. Also, I added a "C" for our last name. -Shaye 

This was one of the first projects I've ever built, so I would put it at a beginner level. It's a great, sturdy bed, very simple. The drawers are huge, which is surprising, since you don't realize how much space you gain when you add the drawers until you see how much they store. Thought I'd fill in details that worked for me that I had to figure out. As the plan says, the drawers are on caster wheels and slide directly on the floor, so make sure you have an area rug down if it's going to be on bare wood (especially pine, like this one is on). As another reviewer said, use 2" caster wheels, 12 total. This gives it the right height on a wood floor. You can get those in bulk at a home improvement store. I would recommend a slat system and not just a piece of plywood for under the mattress, as I was warned bacteria and mold can grow when the mattress is not given a way to vent. You can see in the picture, I had a bunch of 2x4 scraps and simply made a slat system out of that. I pocket holed the slats into the front of the bed, so no screws would be showing. I only finished the sides that would ever show, so the entire back of the drawers and bed itself are unfinished. I like the look of the drawers without handles, and they are just as easy to pull out without them. The drawers can get off track easily when being pulled in and out, so be careful when you use them. Otherwise, no problems with the drawers. I used wood glue and cheap drywall screws to attach the drawer bottoms (plywood) to the drawers. If you want to put anything of any serious weight in these drawers, really consider supporting the middle of the drawers on the bottom with some 1x2s or 1x3s, as it is a bit weak in the middle of the drawers. One more thing: I noticed standard dimensions vary slightly between finishing wood (1x12s, 1x2s, etc) and structural wood (2x4 studs), so keep that into account. Things were not flush because the finish wood was scaled larger than the structural wood. This bed is all about the storage underneath, which is great.

I'm a beginner at this, so for the most part I followed Ana's plans to building the Camp Loft Bed with Stairs. I made a few tweaks, including adding a slide to the front, putting the stairs on the other side, raising it by 7" (since there is a toddler bed underneath), and using hemmed shower curtain to create a fort underneath.
I made all the cuts with a miter saw and sanded all the wood down. I then glued and screwed the stairs, platform, and end pieces together. All the wood then got 1 coat of primer and paint. Then on Christmas Eve the bed was assembled in the kids' room. The sanding, priming, and painting took the longest. Cutting it and putting it together didn't take long.
For the railings, I did all screws from the outside to give a stronger hold than the pocket holes, and used 3 3/4" screws for the weigh bearing pieces. I counter sunk all the screws and added buttons to cover them (not yet painted in the photos). I also mounted the 45 degree 2x6 cuts in the 4 weight bearing corners to add extra bracing (not pictured). To brace the slide, I glued and bolted a 4x4 on the front of the bed. The curtains are just 2 off the shelf shower curtains that got hemmed to the correct height, and then were mounted using small teacup hooks. I plan to add an eyehole to each side, so they can be pulled back and hooked open.

With much needed seating in the mudroom, an unused space (nook) was used to build a mudroom bench and shelf. No plans were used. I basically looked on-line and mentally drew up an idea of how I wanted the final product to look.  

There were some setbacks such as not like the knock down textured walls (after partially painting the bench). I ended up covering the textured walls with hardboard and repainted.

A bench cushion was made for added comfort and style.

Complete tutorial for the bench is here and the bench cushion tutorial is here.

Thank you.

Julie

Instead of the 2X6, we used an additional cedar board to complete the sides and the ends of the planters.  This was more cost effective and still provides enough support to hold the planters.  This is a great alternative to the more expensive items we found online.  We will be building multiple to put in an unused space in our yard.  Great project!!

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.

This was my first real build!! I did it simultaneously with the elementary trestle desk, land of nod bookshelf, rolling cubbie stools and hanging bookshelf! My son wanted the ladder vs the steps and was thrilled with the hammock made out canvas drop cloths:) I made a simple bed box for chalk and cups of water at bedtime and just screwed it in to the top 2x4! the build was easy...however the assembly took my daughters help! It took me about 3 hours to build the bed and I stained it with general finishes java gel stain! It was so much fun and I am so addicted!! I will submit brag posts for the other builds soon!

Built the porch swing and was inspired to build the glider frame by another "Brag Post" Looks great and fits perfectly in my back yard!

My father in law wanted to remodel an old bedroom to a princess room for our daughters' visits. We came for a weekend with our tools and built it in pieces, which was easy to assemble and finish after the rest of the room's remodel was finished.