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This was my wife and I's first Ana White project. We are now hooked, and loved spending time together building something we will enjoy for years, and our dog mindy of course was the first to test our beautiful bench out!

Thanks Ana,

Steve & Courtney

I had shown this plan earlier on to my bf, telling it I really like it and it would be so much cheaper to make our future rustic dining table on our own instead of buying it. He seemed reluctant.... And then, 2 months later, I come back from my parent's house in the evening to find that he has built me my rustic dining table just as I had wished! 

This was one of my favorite DIY projects. It's so much more affordable than buying patio furniture, and the building instructions make it sturdy as ever.

I built this with my fiance, who you'll see in the image of the in-progress bench. It was a snap for us, since we have a fair amount of experience building our own furniture. With the right tools, this project can take only two days, including wait time in between coats of paint and varnish.

We made our sofa to fit the cushions we found, and thus, the sofa is actually 84" wide, instead of 72" wide. By doing this, we also eliminated the need for a love seat, and instead are in the process of making two chairs to match this sofa. All in all, our patio will seat 6, which is what we were aiming for.

TOOLS
The most important part of making this an easy, fun project is having the right tools. I highly recommend you purchase or borrow:
- Compound miter saw
- Kreg jig
- Square head screws (stripping these is nearly impossible)

Play Deck and Swing

A year ago I built my daughter a custom dollhouse for a Christmas present. She asked if I could make her one in her size. Initially, I laughed and said that I didn't think I could pull something like that off. Over the next Spring Break, I decided to give it a try. After pricing out custom playhouse kits online, I figured I could do it myself. I watched some youtube videos and looked at pictures online and came up with a project plan. The detailed step-by-step instructions along with pics are available on my blog: www.momthebuilder.net. Good luck with your playhouse project!!!

We made these toy chests for baby shower gifts.  We followed the plan for the most part.  We skipped the notching on the front of the chest, and opted to upholster the top.  I added names to the front as well to personalize them a bit as well.  Overall, it went pretty smooth, once we got going.  The plans were clear and easy to follow.  This was our first build off of plans from Ana-White, and I think they turned out pretty nice! 

We had seen the modern slat bench before, and stumbled upon the plans on Ana-White, we did look further to see if we could find a style for us and had seen one made entirely out of 2x4's that also cam with plans, http://diycandy.com/2015/06/modern-williams-sonoma-inspired-diy-outdoor…

I thought I would share mine as it differs slightly, I opted to age my bench before staining as well as added adjustible feet so I can level it no matter where I put it. I am using mine as a coffee table, and if I have too many people over, I just use it as a bench to accomodate.

I hope that everyone enjoys the look of how my bench turned out. To reproduce the look of mine I described and linked the 2 products I used for the finish. But I also used the following power tools, Table Saw, Drill and Sawzall, belt sander and palm sander. I used the sawzall as I made a slight error and had some overhang that needed trimming. We used numerous items to get the outside beat up prior to the stain and sealer. The finished product looks amazing and I don't fear someone running away with it at 80lbs.

I basically stuck to the plans, but I shortened the length of the table just a touch, and lengthened the bench to fit just inside the legs. I also used 2x4s for the legs, tapered them for aesthetics (similar to some other posters), and reinforced them with "L" brackets to reduce the wobble. We finished it with Semigloss white paint, Minwax Honey stain, and Minwax Gloss Polyurethane.

If I can make this table, just about anyone can.

I decided to try and use the plans on Ana's site but with a twist. I wanted to limit myself to using only pallets. I think it turned out great! I can't upload all the photos because they exceed the maximum size limit. If I was able to you could see how each chair is slightly different and has a lot of character. I finished them with a waterproofing oil which I highly recommend over other finishes. 

Rural Bus Shelter with 3/12 shed roof, designed to keep your kids out of the elements as they wait for the bus. Shown with log siding and 2x trim. Can be constructed on a slab on grade or remain portable with pressure treated runners and wood floor as shown.

Upgrade further with electricity and insulation for those really cold and dark climates (ie. Washington, Oregon, Alaska, B.C.).

I will make the plans for this shelter freely available to all that are interested.

After watching Ana White's video on easy garage shelving on FB, I knew right away it was the perfect technique for adding shelves to my laundry room.  The project was easy and turned out great!  I did the majority of the work by myself, although my Hubby did help me with some heavy lifting at the end (we had to add the shelving before the front frame due to the walls on either side). The shelving unit itself took only a few hours to build.  I painted it the following day making it a weekend project. We have considered adding trim to the front to give it a more finished look, but right now, it is serving its purpose. I will definitely use Ana's technique again.  It was simple and straightforward!  I loved it. 

This was very easy to make. Stained with minwax dark walnut. It's very sturdy too.

This is my first big woodworking project. That being said, there were a lot of mistakes that were made. In the pictures you can see the beginning stages when I was making the base cuts and assembling the table top. The picture with the dark top and natural legs was the beginning of one mistake. I bought gel stain because it was the color I liked but I had no idea how to use it correctly. Because of this I left the stain on and it was waaayyyyy too dark. I had to sand down the entire top and redo it. After fixing that I correctly stained the base, extensions, and bench. The extensions I made are not in the photos because I forgot to make the cuts to slide them in. I'm supposed to do that this weekend... After staining I polyurethaned the base, bench, and extensions to give them a nice shine. The table top I finished with Liquid Glass two part epoxy. That gave the top a super hard surface that shines and makes the normally soft pine top, rock hard. I figured this way when my daughters do homework on it they wouldn't leave their writing indented in my nice, new table. I hope you guys like it and I plan to do many more projects and post my results here. Thanks for taking the time to check this out.

This is my first ever wood project. I helped my dad frame his basement a couple years ago and figured that a hand built table would be a nice piece of furniture to have as my wife and I begin to start a family. I've been gathering tools for a few months to begin making furniture and I chose to start with this piece.

I had read that a few people found that the 2x6's on the table top caught crumbs so I picked up a cheap, used table saw and squared off the edges so that the table top would be more consistently flat.

For the legs, I wanted to use 4x4 untreated posts but could not find them so I used the table saw to cut down the 2x4's so that, when screwed together, they formed 3x3 legs. I then used a 0.25 inch round router bit to sound off all the edges on both the legs and all exposed edges around the outside of the table.

I finished with two coats of early american stain and in between applied a distressing technique I picked up from one other blog post.

I am 95% happy with how the table has turned out. Structurally is it very sound. If I was to do it over I would have screwed the entire tabletop in with pocket hole screws to eliminate holes on the surface.