Community Brag Posts

Just My Size Closet!

Built this from Ana's plans with a few modifications.

Started with a big empty box after ripping the old stuff out and finished with this look.

Adjustable shelves and all !

For our 5th (Wood) Anniversary I built this A-Frame Wine Rack out of Eastern Red Cedar and Birch. I found the plans on an Australian Websiite so had to convert metric to sae (hardest part of the entire project). It was easy to do and took two days with drying time. If you would like the plans let me know.

Thanks for looking!

I built this bench for a Christmas present. She loves to work in her garden and I thought this would be the perfect touch. The plans were easy to follow. I made a few minor adjustments to fit the lumber I had on hand. The center bench is only 4 foot wide so I could conserve on the amount of 2x4 I had to buy. I thought the bench turned out great!

This is a fun project and made a great gift for my mom for Christmas last year. Inexpensive and didn't take long to complete. The pull is from Anthropologie (they have some of the cutest pulls!). Thanks Ana!

This is the first wood project I have made in years. Just got my wood shop built and this was the first project - thank you Ana. It ended up taking me way longer than expected. It was the first time I have ever used the Minwax custom color stain and quickly discovered after trying to stain one side why many say it is best for smaller projects. I quickly learned for a large project like this, it is best to do the boards before they are assembled.
It is pretty much the stock build, tho I did deviate some and added a couple of things. First, as i was doing this project by myself, I discovered that just flipping a wall over to add the trim is not as easy as it sounds. At that point in the build, the only thing holding the walls together is the bottom trim piece so it is very flimsy. To make it easier to flip over myself, plus maybe add some extra stability, I ran a 1x4 along the entire back wall about half way up. I believe it really helped with the stability and still can't be seen.
I also added 1x4's on the inside of the front walls from the edge by the 2x4 leg to the doorway - one above the windows and one below the windows, on each side. I just wanted to make it as stable as possible as I built it for my 3 year old grandson and I knew his 5 year old sister would be jumping around in there with him. It didn;t take any room away from the inside and really helped make it sturdy.
One other thing i sort of changed was the ladder. I do not know why as the trim piece was right at spec according to the plans, but the 38" ladder came up about 3 1/2" too short, so I ended up having to cut another one at 41 1/2". Also, especially as it was for a 3 year old, I thought it was a really big drop to the first rung when they were getting out of bed, so I added a 4th step. With 3, my grandson would have had to climb into the bed and when he was getting out, would have had to hang over and find the rung, this way he just walks right up. Keeping it at the 8" apart, the 4th step fit perfectly.
You can't really see the legs in the picture, but on the front legs, instead of using bolts going thru both legs, I put in threaded inserts on the front wall legs, that way you do not see any bolts on those legs. I also used the threaded inserts to mount the ladder.
It ended up costing a small fortune as I used #1 grade wood. I was originally going to stain it something along the lines of early american, but after spending hours trying to find decent wood at both of the big box lumber yards, even buying #1 grade I could not find enough good wood where the grain patterns were similar. I tried 4 various stains on some test pieces, was not happy with any of them, so then went with the Minwax Custom color charcoal gray, and I am glad I did. It has a bluish tint to it and looks just about right for a little boy.
Also, instead of adding the top trim piece to the back of the back wall, I put it on the front where it could be seen, plus it made it easier to hide the boards not lining up perfectly.
After it was all complete, I then applied 3 coats of brush on poly, sanding between each coat. I really wanted to finish it off by then wet sanding it and rubbing it out, but I did not think my grandson really wanted to wait any longer while I waited for the poly to cure, so instead I sanded it down one more time with 220 grit and then applied the wipe on poly.
In my opinion, it was Jaime from That's My Letter idea of the window frames that really sets it off. It looked kind of plain until I added the windows. For framing the windows, I just went ahead and sort of did it like a real window. The only difference was I was a little worried about my grandson maybe hitting his head on the window sill, so I turned them around and the window sill is on the outside. I didn't think it thru as i was thinking he could set some stuff on them, like his thomas train or something, but that obviously wouldn't work as everything would fall off when he opened the window.
For the red, I just used latex paint, apple red, then stained over it with the charcoal gray.
And then to finish it all off, the last thing I added was a 16' LED rope light. I just ran it along both sides and the entire front. I do need to put a switch on it so he can turn it on and off and not have to have his dad plug it in. I will just add it to the back of the wall where you can't see it, that way he can just flip the switch.
Biggest thing is I can't thank Ana (and jaime) enough. The grandkids love it. It isn't as nice as many would have done, but I am very happy with it and I forgot how much I like doing projects like this, tho this particular one took me a looooooooong time.
I still need to make him a sign and we are thinking about putting up a bell in the space in the top of the wall.

This was the first piece of furniture that I ever built!  Plans were very helpful and easy to follow.  If I had it to do overagain, I would have painted instead of staining (less sanding required).

Use white maple and maple ply with cedar for the sides and back of the drawers.

We used kristenlotz plans and AZCA33 style.

Liked the Griffen Reclaimed look Media console, but not the $1099 price tag that came with it!  LOL

So with $100 and 3 hours of work, BAM! 

70L x 15W x 30H

This was the first furniture my husband built. He also did amatching  sideboard table using Ana white plans.

This is my first Ana White project. It was so fun to do and turned out really well. Thanks so much Ana for your great plans and help with building them. the Kreg jig is great!

Quick and easy endtable made from scraps I had on hand.

Made from your Fancy X-desk plans. Dark Walnut & clear gloss polyacrylic Miniwax finishes.

Organization is a constant struggle in our house and our junk drawer became more of a place to stick things when you didn't want them on the countertop than an actual funtional part of the kitchen. That won't change with the addition of the organizer, but it was nice to have it cleaned out.

In total, this only cost about $12 (for 3 drawers) and that was only because I used the S4S wood. My HD didn't carry 1x3 in anything else. May have been for the best because now I didn't have to sand anything.

The lesson learned from this project was that I should have cut everything to size instead of relying on the measurements of the drawer. The silverware drawer wasn't perfect and I will likely redo a little of it because the junk drawer turned out great.

Made the super cute Adirondack Chair for my nephew Brady.  He loves it. Now i'm making 2 more for my two nieces as well.