Community Brag Posts

I'm building new beds for my daughters for Christmas. My oldest wants a bigger bed, so she's getting the full size simple bed. My baby bear needs a little more space in her room, so she gets the loft bed. The loft bed is finished but no pic's yet, as I can't assemble it till Christmas. For the full bed, I combined the Simple Full Bed with the Simple Bed with Arch. It's not quite finished yet, but here is a picture of the headboard. I'll add more pics when I'm done. I want to thank Ana for the hard work she puts into this website. To go out and buy similar beds to the ones I'm building would have probably cost me a couple thousand dollars, and would have been made of flake board. Because of Ana's plans, both my children will sleep on good quality, solid wood furniture for under five hundred dollars. Thanx Ana!

This is my first DIY project and I learned alot. It was fairly easy to put together following the ste-by-step plans. I did however have to cut the legs of the table down by three inches due to mis-measuring, but besides that minor hiccup this project was great. This was also the first time ever applying, or even working with, wood stain. Some of the areas did not come out as dark as I wanted, but the overall look of the stain, and the finished product we're pleased with.

For my next project I'm going to really try my hand, step everything up a notch, and attempt the Faux Fireplace Mantle with Hidden Storage Cabinets ( http://www.ana-white.com/2014/11/free_plans/faux-fireplace-mantle-hidden-storage-cabinets ). Wish me luck!

I used the Tryde Console Table plans to make a small table to go in our conference room.  I liked the design, but if I had to do it again, I probably would have not built in the breadboard ends.

My little two year old is sleeping on this right now, hehe, which is so funny to see his little body take up only 1 square foot of it.

We got a queen mattress from a family member and I had been wanting to build this bed for a while so what better excuse. I had a TON of 1x3's from other projects so used those as slats instead of 1x6's as in the plan. I also used some other scraps up so my headboard part is shorter than in the plan which I also was fine with. It barely fits in his little 10 x 10 starter home room, but I am still pretty proud of it.

I adapted the plan for the Shoe Rack Bench to give it multiple levels and allow it to serve as an entryway table in addition to a shoe rack. I used 2 x 10's for the project.

This beautiful table measures a little over 8ft x 3ft and made out of oak plywood and pine.
Instead of using individual slats for the main surface as in the building plans, I decided on one large 8ft x 3ft piece of oak plywood. I encased it in 2 inch pine and routed the top edge with a 1/4" round over bit.

Our outdoor furniture from Costco was falling apart but the cushions were still in great shape so I decided to design the furniture around the existing cushion dimensions. I used all Cedar wood and stained it with Australian Timber Oil Honey Teak stain. The table design was from a picture I saw on another site.

Finally having a house meant that we could finally have family over for holidays, parties, etc. The problem was that we didn't have a table large enough to accommodate more than 4 people comfortably. When I saw the plans on here, I knew it would be the perfect fit for our home which is turning out to be a little bit rustic, a little industrial and very eclectic. While my dad has done some woodworking projects, they have mostly been easy shelves or home construction, nothing like this project. We built the table and built the matching 8ft bench out of approx. $95 of construction pine lumber. We changed the table lumbar from 4-2x10s to 8-2x6s (cut down to 5" width for cleaner edges). My dad did most the construction and I completed the finish. I sanded to 220 grit. We used SamaN Water-based stain in Black (I love that stuff, so easy to use and re-wets so I didn't have any lap marks, although it did wipe off some when I applied the poly) and ZAR Ultra Max waterborne oil-modified polyurethane. The grain raised even more after I laid on the poly. I love how the pine created a reverse grain and has such great texture. We made some modifications, one being that we did not attach the table top to the base. Instead, we added some wood to the bottom of the table to brace against the brace and legs. The table top is so heavy that is never moves and will make it easy to move since together, the table and brace are too heavy for 2 people to lift. Some of the things we learned: always double check the measurements (the base braces were about 1.5" to tall), if at all possible, create a jig to keep the leg pieces square, be careful assembling the base (we cracked one of the braces), and let poly cure for at least 24 hrs even if none of the literature mentions it. If we had the equipment, we would have loved to use a planer and a joiner, but even so, I think it came out awesome. It only took 40 years, but I think that our first father-daughter woodworking project has been a great success. Can't wait to work on our next project!! Thanks Ana-White & Shanty 2 Chic for some great plans!

This sideboard buffet took me several months to complete mostly because I have little kids and had to have my husband home to give me the time I needed! The hardware and paint was the most expensive piece. I first stained it with kona stain then painted it with ASCP in Provence. I still need to put the wire mesh in doors but I'm still searching for options:-) This was my first project with drawers and it was not easy!

I wanted a bunk bed for our daughters, it needed to be easily moveable like the "classic bunk beds." I also wanted stairs like the "Sweet Pea Garden" bunk bed because we have toddlers in the house. I modified the classic bunk bed to put the ladder on the end, then built the Sweet Pea stairs to fit to the opening (I think the only difference in dimensions was a 20" top stair. I didn't want the unfinished ends of plywood so I got 4'x16"x3/4" pine boards from lowes which happens to be the width of the stairs in the plan. Instead of using the 1x2's as trim on the ends of the shelves I put two of them together, one all of the way down the front of each stair and one resting on the top of the stair (screwed together) so I wouldn't lose lateral stability. I then spaced 2x2's in between to keep it "simple" looking instead of the heart shaped decorations from the sweet pea bed. I used some 1/4" paintable composite board to provide a backing to the stairs. I bolted the stairs on to the bed with some flat bar stock cut to size and 3/8' in hex bolts cut to length. I used pocket hole joints wherever possible and countersunk all other screws and used 3/8" dots from lowes to fill the holes. I painted it with a coat of primer and a coat of Glidden Trim and Door paint in antique white from the Easy Vintage Step Stool project.

I made a smaller version of the Tryde End Table with Shelf. I made 2 of them from 6 2X4's

About 6 months ago the husband and I purchased a foreclosure for dirt cheap, hoping to rehab it into something livable. It turned out to be a total gut job. So much of the budget was blown on the big stuff--roof, electrical, water, plumbing, that we've really had no choice but to figure out how to do much of the work ourselves with occassional assistance from my son-in-law, a general contractor who lives 400 miles away.
Although he did most of the basic sheetrocking I decided that I was going to build my own closet. After all, how hard could it be. I got it framed out and sheetorcked. Between the low ceilings in the room and the fact that I mismeasured the door frame height, I wasn't able to put in standard doors. But that's okay, I think I like these better.
Thank you, ladies, for giving me the courage to tackle some of these jobs that need doing. I've learned a lot of new skills, done things I never thought I would ever do...and love the feeling that so much of myself is going into making this house my home.