Community Brag Posts

This was my first project using a jigsaw. Both of my children absolutely love it. If I had to do it again, I probably would have made the folding version instead, but I am still very happy with how this tower turned out.

This was such a fun project and only took 1 day to complete! It was a lot more fulfilling to build my own coffee table than go out and spend $400 on one. It looks beautiful in my living room and is a perfect accent to my rustic, earthy decor.

I made a wooden game board for The Duke from Catalyst Game Labs. The Duke is a 2 player abstract strategy game. In some ways, it is similar to chess. For more details about The Duke visit the official website for the game where you can find the rules and files for a Print & Play version of the game. (Unfortunately, at the time of writing this tutorial the physical copy of The Duke is out of print.)

The game board for The Duke is similar to a chess board. It uses a 6×6 grid instead of the 8×8 grid in chess.

It isn't perfect, but it's beautiful and made with love!

I spent the last 8 months building 2 bunk beds from the Ana White site.  This little girl sweet pea version for my granddaughters and a cabin version for my grandsons.  This took alot of time but their smiles made it all worth it.  I am thankful for the website and plans you provided. It allowed someone like me to build something that my granddaughter loves and hopefully will remember forever.  Many, many thanks!!!!

7ft Fancy X farmhouse table

This was my first project! We just bought a house and have no furniture except a mattress on the floor! But soon, we will have a home full of custom built furniture :)

I modified this plan quite a bit so it would fit in my space better. My husband really wanted a square table, so I came up with this one based on the farmhouse table. I changed the table top pieces to 2x10’s simply because I like how they look. It took me quite a while because I wanted the top to be super smooth with minimal gaps between the boards, so I ran the boards through a planer quite a few times until they were perfectly flat. Also, since it is square and smaller, we didn’t need the support beam along the middle.

I really wanted chairs that matched the table, so I ordered chairs that were unfinished and stained them to match the table. This took FOREVER and they were a little expensive, but they turned out great! We also got 2 barstools that match.

Like any other project, the finishing took the longest. I sanded for what felt like 20 years, then stained and poly’d for another 10. I am pretty happy with it considering it was my first try!

I needed new bases for my glasstop desk. I found the Sawhorse Leg Storage Desk and thought it would be perfect! I am a beginner and this was my first time cutting an angle like 5 degrees parallel and not paralell. The pictures in the instructions really helped me out with that. The units came together pretty easy and I decided to plank the shelves instead of using plywood (because I had scraps on hand and wanted to use those rather than cut plywood). I am a beginner and am still a little weary of using my circular saw too much, so planking the shelves was a better fit for my skill level. I think it turned out really good. I used white satin spray paint and got small clear plastic "bumpers" to pad the top where the glass sits on the bases. 

This is my second project. (My first was the canopy doll bed.) It just took a couple of days to get it all cut, put together and sanded. This was my first time with the Kreg Jig and I loved using it. So awesome.

The first 'from scratch' project my husband and I have completed. For extreme beginners, definitely simple to put together for an amazing finished piece. 

So I finally finished the dog bed I've been working on for over a month now (I've been trying to avoid the 100+ Texas heat but it just wouldn't go away!) It was based on dmanar33's farmhouse dog bed (linked below) and I just made it larger for our greyhound, Daisy. It's far from perfect but it's been another good learning project for me while practicing before I start our desperately needed King bed.

The bed was made using 2x8 for the internal structure (with one 2x4 center "slat"), 1x6 and 1x8 boards for the surround, with 1x2 as trim and 3/4" plywood for the cushion base. It is rather heavy but can easily be moved with two people. This was my first project using my finish nailer ($16 at Harbor Freight) and it was worth every penny! I can't believe I never picked one up before.

For the cushion I tried to find a cheap, thin 3" futon mattress on Craigslist to cut up (as I've done before), but after 2 days of looking online I ended up settling for a $12 full size foam mattress topper from wally world. I folded it in half and wrapped with some thick batting I had laying around so the cushion ended up ~2" thick. And for the cover I used Ana's doll mattress tutorial with some wally world Chino Cotton curtains for $16 as fabric (thick, durable, cotton and cheaper than anything I could find at the fabric store) and it worked out great! I left one end open to put a zipper into once I pick one up, so right now it is like a large pillow case, but it works just fine.

I'm very happy with the total project and I love that Daisy (~75lbs) won't be breaking it anytime soon. She has plenty of room to stretch out and it looks much nicer than the old lumpy "giant pillow" style dog bed on the floor we had before.

As soon as I heard my brother was going to get a puppy this month, I decided I was going to make this food and water dish holder. I LOVE IT! I am going to give it to him for Christmas. I made it with larger bowls for when the puppy becomes a full size Golden Retriever. She won't need it right away, so I've decided to wait until Christmas to wrap up and give to my brother. I had a lot of fun making this project. I need to make one now for our cockapoo.

Since I had to use larger bowls, I had to come up with my own measurements. I'm pretty proud of myself for tackling that all by myself. :-)

Coated it pretty heavy with the polyurethane to protect it from water spillage.

My daughter wanted her room redone for her tenth birthday. We decided to go big with Ana's storage bed plans. I had so much fun building this and really learned a lot. It took me three months to find enough spare time to finish it, but it was worth the wait.