Community Brag Posts

This took a little longer than a weekend and it helps to have some help because it is so big. I would cut the legs about an inch shorter if you have 9 foot ceilings, other wise it will scratch your ceiling when you tilt it up. I put the door on because I was worried about my 3 year old falling out. She loves it and it was fun to build.

My husband and I built this for our son's bedroom using all five of Ana’s series of plans for the cubby wall system. We did pretty well, especially considering that it was our very first building project. We made the media component of the wall unit the same width as the two sides since we didn’t need it to fit a wide screen TV. My hubby was thrilled that the drawers went together beautifully. The doors turned out a little “off” -- luckily the room has a beach theme so this piece fits right in with the beach shack look!

I had to make some adjustments to the size, because our new mattress is 180 x 190cm, and I had a couple of problems with the plan, it was probably me rather than the plan, but nothing that I couldn't overcome. The bed is pino (pine) purely because I couldn't get any other dry timber in Colombia, unless I won the lottery. 

The boards on the headboard panel, I pocket holed (using ordinary wood screws) as well as glued, to ensure they will not part in the future, and I used lag bolts to attach the base to the footboard.

The bed is a few inches taller than the plan, purely because my Wife wanted one of our dogs to be able to continue sleeping under the bed!

Unfortunately due to the small size of the room, the photos do not show the bed that well. The full build is on my Blog.

Now to make the night stands! 

In our new home there was a 46" wide coat closet at the entrance. My wife wanted a place to sit down, take off shoes and put our coats and backpacks when we were home. I found Ana White's plans for this shoe bench and modified it to fit our space. The project took 3 days to complete due to the painting, staining and polyurethane, construction of the bench itself was quick. Previously I added a light switch and two 3" LED recessed lights in the ceiling. The project came out wonderful and I am very pleased. Thank you for the inspiration!

-Mike

I modified the Small Old English Style Farmhouse Dining Table plan to build a writing desk.   I used five 1x6 boards for the top for a width of 27.5 inches.   I made my desk 56 inches in length.  I put the drawer on the long side like a pencil drawer.   I did use the legs that Ana recommended in the plan.   I love how it turned out.  I used dark walnut danish oil and dark wax for the finish.  

Thank you Ana for yout amazing plans for the triple pedestal table and bench! I modified it to work for the dimensions that I needed which brought it down to a double pedestal table and bench. It ended up as a 3'x5' table. I attempted the antique coffee stain technique but it wasn't taking so I just used the stain that I used on the table top instead of the coffee. I LOVE how it turned out!

Leah

My husband modified the Simple Bunk Bed plan by Margjack and built this bed on weekends over the last month. He first built the four head boards and then went on to design his own railing and ladder. I liked how Margjack created more height and identical beds, especially if/when we use them as individual beds instead of a bunk bed.

After priming and painting all pieces, we assembled the bed in our sons' bedroom. A slide show of the assembly can be found at:

http://vimeo.com/27997563

We needed a place for our garbage/recycling bins that would look nice and was inaccessible to our dogs.  I decided to make two drawers for the bins and two drawers for storage.  I found a set of 10 drawer slides on Amazon for around $50.  They are heavy duty and full extension.  I measured our garbage bins and built to size.  The total height of the cabinet is 36" including the countertop.  The cabinet width is 35.5" and the depth is 20".  The butcher block countertop(25" by 48") was purchased from Home Depot for $98.  I only had to do a light sanding, router the edge, and apply a finish.  The cabinet will be located along a wall and have room for a counter height chair.  This will allow my youngest to have a snack while I work in the kitchen.  Although I didn't use a specific plan, I used ideas from several of Ana's designs.  Thank you for the inspiration Ana!        

So my sister's house is on a rural, sandy lot. Did I mention sand...lots of sand. Her tile doesn't react well to sand-covered shoes , so they needed a place for guests to take off street shoes to replace them with spa booties. I offered to build them a storage bench for that purpose.
I modified the bench to make it shorter as per my sister's request. She also wanted the lower shelf modified to place a boot tray on it to catch the sand. I suggested replacing the lower shelf with rails to place the shoes on so the sand could fall off onto the boot tray. We nailed finish nails into the legs under the rails and slid the tray onto them. Now she can remove the tray easily to dispose of the...sand.
The finish on the body matches the mirror, which hangs above it. The lid of the bench was stained to match the finish on the doors, posts, etc. I used wrap around inset hinges from here: http://www.rocklerpro.com/product.cfm?page=5135&rrt=1
I checked this as a weekend project because of dry time for stain and poly.
Thank you, ANA for the awesome plans.

When we made the decision to get a Great Dane puppy, we knew she would need to be crate trained.  The idea of a metal XXL crate wasn't terribly appealing so my wife suggested I build a piece of furniture.  My skills are above beginner level but I had never built a piece of furniture.  I started with the dimensions for the metal crates (54"L x 37"W x 45"T) and put pencil to paper.  We agreed we wanted somewhat of a rustic look for the finished crate.  I decided to use pine 1×4's, 1x3s and 1x2s, pinned and edge glued together.  For ventilation I chose the black metal banister rails.  The bottom of the crate is a sheet of sub floor covered with sheet vinyl.  I lined the inside of the crate with hardware cloth to deter chewing on the wood.  The top is made of tongue and groove carsiding, I had left over from another project.  The 4 sides are finished in Dark Walnut Stain.  The top has the same stain plus 3 coats of Satin Urethane.

When we moved into our new house, I figured it was time to replace my girls's mattresses on the floor with actual beds. so I set about making the twin storage beds with corner unit. I primed all the wood prior to cutting and assembling, and that made things go much faster. Assembling the corner unit was tricky, since i really didn't want to have sanding and much paint in their bedroom. (i loaded in the beds first and the corner unit a week later). I added trim that wasn't on the plan, and also used the magnetic paint on the center area, although it makes a weak magnetic surface. All in all, I LOVE the way it turns out and no one can believe that I built it and didn't buy it... (although it seems obvious to me when you look closely LOL)

This spring, my neighborhood started a community garden.  Five families came together to break ground, sow, tend, and give away our produce.  The local church close by allowed us to use their front lawn for the "Lakeside Community Garden," located in Duluth, MN.   Every Saturday during harvest season, we gave away our produce to the community.  I took on the project of building a farm stand.  One of our neighborhood families donated re-claimed lumber to the cause, and I started building.  I had research many farm stands on-line, and knew I needed two large boxes to hold the veggies, as well as a sign to indicate what produce we were giving away.  

We have gone through several sets of deck furniture at our home in Monument, Colorado. We like wicker, but so do the squirrels! Inspired by an article in the Wall Street Journal where the author used his wood shop experience to make outdoor furniture and avoid "astronomical prices," I found this site. I thought, "Even I can build something out of 2x4s." I borrowed my neighbor's high-end chop saw and made two chairs, a love seat (by cutting the dimensions of the 79" sofa - three cushions - down to 55" - two cushions, and the coffee table, cut down from 55" to 47". Construction took less than two weeks from purchasing the wood to finishing. Everyone who has seen the finished set loves it.

When I saw Ana post this shelf to Facebook, I stopped what I was doing and got to building it. I think it was about 3 hours after she'd posted it that I had this thing built and ready for the first coat of paint (and I cooked dinner during that time). It's perfect for the big kid's jackets/backpack/shoes when she comes home from school (I hung it at kid's console table height so she can hang her stuff and access the top). So far it's worked perfectly, and she just LOVES it.

modeled after the Restoration Hardware Salvage Wood X Base Table which at this 8' table listed for $3395 just for the table. LOL

Used the Fancy x farm table plans and used all 4 x 4 on table, and followed plans for benches with 2x4