Community Brag Posts

This was my second wood project and I am really happy with how it turned out. I basically followed the plans but made mine alot bigger. It measures roughly 6' long, 33" tall, and 20" wide. I wanted to let people know how I made the center door because the video used alot of tools and skills that I do not have.
I made the doors out of 4" and 2" select pine with PH's on the back. I then cut a 5/16" groove in the center on the outside of the stiles. About 7/8-15/16 of the way up the door I installed a 1/4" wooden dowel. On the cabinet frame I installed another wooden dowel that the door dowel rests on when closed, this is also the dowel that rides in the groove that was cut on the door.
The other difficult part (for Me) was the cut out design on the bottom of the frame. I did this by using a big bowl for the center and a really thin strip of wood. Once I cut out one side I just flipped the cut piece over and traced it to the other side.
I finished the top off with 3 coats Minwax Dark Mahoganey and 3 coats of Minwax Polycrylic.

TV console table made of poplar wood. Shaker style inset doors. Solid wood construction. Painted with General Finishes Milk Paint and High Performance Top Coat.

My wife and I had been talking about buying a new dining room table for some time and we are just so sick and tired of paying good money for cheap, particle board furniture from Wayfair or box stores. And solid wood furniture is expensive AF! So, I decided to build a table myself, even though I'd never built a single piece of furniture in my life. When I found the plans for this table I realized that I could do it myself. The plans were straight forward and easy to follow. I had to size the length down to fit in my smallish dining room (and it is still a little bit too big), but I am so proud of what I was able to build by myself in a weekend. Thank you Ana!

After following Ana's blog for over a year and bookmarking dozens of projects, I finally built my first project. (I built it months ago and have since built 3 other things...so this is addictive!)

I love the modern West Elm look but didn't want to shell out over $600 for two low Parson's shelves which still would not fit my dimension exactly, so this was the perfect project for me. Initially I had intended to stain the bookshelves a warm pecan color, as I think "modern craftsman" is more my style, but honestly the outcome was so wonky that I couldn't see that the shelves would look nice stained. Instead I painted them with what was supposed to be a color match to BM's Weimeraner -- lesson #1001, BM's paint cannot really be color matched. I may repaint in the future as this is not as warm as the original, but it's been fine for the past few months.

Honestly I had many building problems with my first project -- I had mistakenly thought working with 2x2s (pine) would be 'easy', but I found the opposite to be true (and since I have done another project with 2x2s since then I can confirm that we are not meant to be bffs). I did choose straight boards, but I had the guys at Lowe's cut them. Unfortunately in the future I will have to buy my own saw (and pick up truck and workshop, lol), because literally every single time there has been a problem, even when I check the boards at the store. The problems are generally small--1/4" or so--but of course this makes your project off square.

As a result there were noticeable seams between the 2x2s and the 1x12 boards. Of course caulk and paint hid all of that, but this was the main reason why I couldn't stain the project. I also had trouble with the 2x2s splitting when I used the Kreg jig -- luckily this happened only a couple of times, but in my next built it happened even more often, using Douglas Fir. (if anyone can help me with this, I would love to hear!)

Long story short -- it was a lot of work, it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned, but I love the final product, seams, warts, and all. It fits our space perfectly, it's incredibly sturdy, and the power of making something myself--even imperfect--is amazing. Since then I have built an activity table and a picnic table for my kids, and I even felt confident enough to design and build my own window box. (sure, it's not complicated, but I credit Ana's "training" entirely. of course I haven't yet installed it, but that's a different problem)

Thanks, Ana!!!

I mostly followed the plans except for a few modifications in order to use the wood I got for free. I did use 4x4s instead of 2x2s for the legs because I wanted the chunkier look. I might chop them off and put on some fancy feet, but for now I think they look fine. The most expensive part was the foam cushions. I got the good stuff because I wanted the chairs to be comfortable, and they are!

Thanks Ana for your amazing tutorials, you are starting to help bring my house to life!

Great barn door cabinet build by Chuck A.

please see the full post here:
http://crabandfish.blogspot.com/2012/05/aaaahhhhi-love-our-bed.html

we built the hailey platform bed, modified for a king size mattress. we included four extra feet under the bed for additional stability.

This a great project that I built for a friend. She wanted it to be a little distressed, but she gave me creative license to I found a middle ground between rustic and distressed. I hand planed the top to create a great distressed look on the top.
This is a great project, but I would just pass along to make sure that you have enough room and enough help. This table is large and heavy.

I wanted to make use of the twin size mattress from my son's old bed and I thought it would nice to have an extra place for his cousins and friends to sleep when visiting so I added a trundle.  I had to slightly alter the plans to accommodate this, and made some little happy mistakes along the way.  Because  I wanted to be able to take the bed apart I had purchased some surface mount hardware for the rails.  What I didn't account for was the extra width it would add for the platform.  It ended up making the frame large enough to fit a queen size mattress.  This would have been fine if I hadn't already purchased a new full size mattress!  Ha Ha.  I ended up having enough of the bed slats showing that it bugged me so I ended up taking a 2 x 4 and cutting out a notch so it would sit flush on the rail and cover up the slats.  I stained it using an American Chestnut Satin Polyshades Mix and overall I am pleased with how it came out.  This was a good learning experience and now I'll get started on a nightstand shortly.

Console Table 

As a first-time user of pocket holes, I have to say they're brilliant! I learned from a lot the mistakes I made constructing the planter, but look forward to using variations of the plan for more planter projects. Thanks!

It took about two hours to construct, and then paint time. I used paint I had on hand (a paint store near me occasionally sells mis-mixed paint for $1/container), so I put on a white first coat and finished it with the green. It was a little too green, so I spray painted it with a light coat of bronze spray.

I attached the side slats to the outer 2"x"2 corner rather than the inner corner and subsequently found the 15-3/4" bottom slats a little too short. I had a spare furring strip on hand, so I cut another set a bit longer and they fit more securely. I haven't decided on finials yet; I may leave them off.

You can do this!
This mini farmhouse nightstand was my first building project. Of course Ana's easy to follow PDF's made it doable but check the tips above for cuts on your 2x2's. One rookie mistake I made was forgetting to double check my pieces. My 1x2's were actually thicker than 1" so they protrude from the side of my piece a bit. A sander could fix that. All in all so proud! Thanks to Ana and to everyone else for your brags.

P.S. A mini keg jig kit is SO worth the investment. I used standard wood-cost of about $20 including $4 for my drawer handle hardware. Kreg jig kit plus pocket hole screws were an additional $30 but I have plenty left for my next project;)

posted by Carmenh | on Mon, 2014-04-14 13:45 EDITREPLY

Great plans! Easy to follow and well written. The final project was bigger than I thought it was going to be but very happy with it. Built exactly as the plans stated and the finish project is very heavy duty. My skill level is average and I am only a weekend wood worker and I found it looked very professional.  

We modified the Ana-White modular dollhouse meant for small dolls to build this Barbie size house! (Please ignore the workshop walls in the background of our pics! Lol!) Our daughter loves to set up all sorts of houses/school/hospital/stores, and commercial modern barbie houses are all covered in specific printed paper that restricts what a room can be used for. This way she can make buildings however she likes! It isn't much bigger than her old barbie house, and the pieces/room boxes are easy for her to move/stack. Each room box is 9" (w) by 18"(L) by 13"(h), with wall panels 4.5" wide. We also love that these room boxes can become bookshelves once she outgrows barbies! Thank you!

I was way overdue on building this toddler bed for my son. He really motivated me when he started repeatedly climbing out of his crib. The bed was very easy to make. The three things I would recommend are:

1. Do not use pocket holes on the footboard, so you don't have to fill all the holes. The nails worked great on the footboard and it is very sturdy.

2. Attach the side rails to the end board on the outside, not the inside. I found this out the hard way and had to take it apart and fix it.

3. Listen to Ana White and measure your mattress first. My son's fits, but I have to squeeze it in a little.

Great plans!

I changed it alittle by not having three posts and some I added a top shelf and cut holes for shot glasses. I also added wine glass holders to the bottoms cutting out a circle and slot.....Use t-molding mush easier and faster.