Community Brag Posts

Shiplap fireplace build. Painted with Behr Marquee in color Calligraphy. My first building project ever!!

I expanded on the plans I found at Ana White and made this closet.  They are 8' high, and made from Birch plywood and 1x2's from my local Home Depot.  I ended up using 12 sheets of plywood and 18 1x2's.  Sanded and stained with Minwax Jacobean and Satin clear on the unit and semi-gloss on the drawers.  I intalled soft-close drawer slides that I found on Amazon for $120 for 15 pairs which included the rear mounting brackets, which I highly recommend using as they save you a ton of labor and make it much easier to install the slides. 

What I like most about my work, is that I found regular hanging rods that were too expensive or just plain did not fit the end sockets.  I used galvanized fence rod typically used for the top of chain link fences, and simply brushed them with 0000 steel wool and then polished them on my buffing wheel.  If you want the brushed look, simply don't buff them.  What was best about using fencing rods, was that it cost about a dollar a foot and was much stronger than buying the actual chrome rods which were over three times more money.

For the corners, you will see that they are three angled rods, which you can not buy anywhere.  So, I purchased 1" galvanized electrical conduit. and bent it with a tubing bender.  I simply measured what I needed, and put two 45 degree bends in the rod, installed 1" sockets on each end, and a center rod support for the middle.  These two were polished with 0000 steel wool and then polished to a chrome finish.  They look amazing, and the best part is that it cost $6 for a ten foot piece, which was more than enough to do both corners.  You cannot beat the cost of using fence rods and electrical conduit for closet rods. 

I plan to install a small drawer island in the middle later as I require a need for more drawere space. 

Thanks to Ana White for the help.  I already have a few more next projects lined up using her ideas here.

I built this bed for the guest room at our previous house. The room was small, so I made floating shelves for the nightstands to save space. We have since moved and are now renting, so we didn't want to put holes in the walls to hang the shelves. I took the opportunity to build these nightstands instead. The original design was a little too tall and wide, so I reduced those dimensions by 3". This was my first time building drawers, but they went together surprisingly well. I had used a combination of stain on the bed and was worried about matching it, but 2 coats of Minwax Dark Walnut ended up being a pretty close match.

I had been wanting to build something to hide the litterbox for a long time. When I saw the Printer's Console plan, I knew this was the perfect plan for a cat litter box furniture. I loved that Jen Woodhouse's version was completely modified to her bar plan, so I thought I could modify for my litterbox idea. I modified the plans on size, as I was trying to use a bunch of mis-matched plywood. I also modified it to include a cat door, a cat passageway on interior panel, a vent on the back behind one of the drawers, and the stone top. I built a frame on the back to house the backing as an inset piece, as I didn't want it to be seen at all. I learned a very important lesson during this build. Not all 1x3s are created equal. Once I got my doors assembled, they were too big for the opening. I couldn't shave off the tiny amount needed, and couldn't make anything work short of starting over with 1x4s, sawing off a small amount, and cutting down the # of "drawers" (and handles). I wanted the inside to be fully finished (because cat pee on raw wood would not be good!). I had to finish certain "planes" prior to putting the thing together. I used kitchen and bath paint on the inside floor and sides for easy cleanup. The stone was carryover from construction on our house 12 years ago. The handles were an amazing deal @ $1.81/each .

Built the 2 chairs according to the plans, and then modified it for a bench that's 48" (our cushions are 23.5 x 23.5). Worked really well!