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Reader build

Working on getting furniture done for my kids. Gives me something to do when they are away on visitation. New furniture from a store is too expensive right now & gives me something to work on to keep my mind off of things.

Modified to fit a Twin XL mattress.

My husband Chris and I have been planning for a few years now to build a farmhouse table for our home. Every year for christmas my mother-in-love (mother in law) gifts us a "must have" tool. We like to think of it as her investing in our home and quality time together. Last year she gave us the Kreg gig, holy cow, that sure is a must have!!! :) This year we received a hand sander. Needless to say we were motivated to start our farmhouse table journey.
We loved the table Ana built for her sister, so we followed the plans almost to a tee. We ordered the turned legs from Georgia. Let me also add that we try to buy everything we possibly can that is made in america, from paintbrushes on. I encourage everyone to take the a few seconds to look and spend an extra dollar or two to support america's economy.

The only modification we did to the plan was add a small strip of wood to the base layer for just a little extra touch of character. :)

Living on a small city plot, this vertical ladder planter was just what I was looking for to grow my herbs and flowers. I am not an experienced builder but the plans were easy to follow. It didn't take me much time at all to complete this project. Now I am looking forward to fresh herbs and flowers all summer.

I adjusted your Barndoor l Pantry plans to utilize repurposed lumber from a Murphy bed. The shelves are 22" deep for my microwave, toaster oven, etc. It's so functional and much easier to work in my small kitchen.

Finally a place to hold library books away from spilling milk and coffee cups!

I'm still helping my kids furnish their new home. They "hired" me to build them a massive coffee table for their family room. They fell in love with the legs featured in a plan built by Shanty 2 Chic (http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2013/11/diy-square-coffee-table.html). The legs definitely were the most expensive part of this table!
I made a couple of adjustments: because these kids of mine hope to have kids of their own soon, and the table measures 48x48, I reinforced the lower shelf of the table and the table top with support pieces. I picture babies crawling all over this and wanted to ensure that it would hold up!

I finished with the same steps used by Jen of House of Wood's rustic yet refined finish, but used a dark walnut stain as the base.

Another fun project for me, and they are very happy with it!

And, I just have to say that Osborne Wood products delivers a wonderful product with great follow up and customer service! http://www.osbornewood.com/

Ana, I really loved this design and was pretty easy to build! I like the way the finish turned out by painting it black and just a few coats of poly on top. 

The benches are overbuilt with intention of converting 2 benches into 4 chairs in the future.  I made them larger so I can simply just cut them in half and add two 4x4s 18 inches higher than the current bench legs at 24" and just deck it as a chair back, seems simple enough. One thing I would change in the design is eliminating the 3 1x12s and 2 of the 1x4s and just going with a solid table top at 33 3/4 x 40 3/4, similar to what I did on the benches.  

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions.

Brookstone desk with a white oak top and drawer that I built for my 8- yr old son. It is a very fun build.

I saw this on the site, and I knew it would be perfect for my soon to be 4 year old boy's room. I wanted something that would be strong (hellloooo 4 year old boy!!) and not too "babyish" to last him through several years of preference changes and growth. This was not too difficult at all! Though I slightly modified some of the construction to make it easier to break down. I ended up using a box spring with a mattress, instead of slats to save a bit of money. (We got the box spring and mattress for free from a relative.)

I made this out of pine, and bought everything from Home Depot. Total cost for everything (including paint, sandpaper, wood glue, etc) was about $160! We are loving it!

This design came from Ana's website. My daughter Alex asked me for a shelf to hold all her "stuff". She's a typical girl... lots of "stuff". I was able to snap a picture before she started to fill it all up!

I needed a small rectangular table to put between the sofa & wall. I also wanted a small table to set elsewhere in the room temporarily. Nesting tables were the answer. I adjusted several measurements to fit the wood I had on hand for the tops. The larger table used 2 1x8's. The smaller table is topped with 3 1x6's. I also used 1by lumber instead of 2by except for the 2x2 legs.

What do you want for your birthday? 'A purple kitchen'....

That's how it all started. My husband and I had no previous woodworking experience and we managed to build these guys.

The devil was in the details here! Building these didn't really take that long, It was the finishing and accessorizing.

Thank God that I know how to sew/craft. I loved the ruffle curtain from crafting chicks so I made that. The apron and oven mitts were made from the same set of fabrics. I ordered the butterfly stick on mirrors on line....they didn't stick that well so we added double stick tape. The front of the fridge is magnetic primed. The flower magnets I made and the imagine was a primed wood precut from Michaels that I painted. Stove burners are plaques for wood burning. Stove knobs, brush, and flower hook all from Hobby Lobby. Bar faucet from ebay and the sink is just a bowl.

The lights were my husbands idea....the fridge lights are magnetic drawer lights that come on when the door is opened and off when closed - just like a real fridge! The oven light is a push button LED light.

My baby was thrilled to receive this. While I loved the PB kitchens, I really think this was much better because it gave my husband and I something to work on together and it was priceless to hear my girl tell everyone that Mommy and Daddy MADE that kitchen just for her!

2nd project - added some additional supports on the back with scraps & fixed a bowing issue. We've had it in the bedroom since October 2013 & love it (especially the price tag)!

I followed Ana White's instructions to a tee and things turned out great! I chose a dark brown wood stain and used an exterior Helmsman Spar Urethane for protection. Because the sandbox will always be outdoors, I ended up putting 5 layers of urethane on it.

I also attached a tarp (not seen in the pictures) to the bottom to hold the sand in. This way the sandbox can be dragged if you want to move it's location.