Community Brag Posts

This is the cooler stand presented by Jenny from Birdsandsaoap. Very easy to build and always ends up with someone asking to buy it or have you make them one.

I wanted to attempt making a dining room table. This is my very first woodworking project. I did use store bought legs from one of the big box stores. Your site completely inspired me to just go for it. It's not quite finished. I've got to do all the sanding and staining. I plan to use a mahogany tone stain to coordinate with my brown/black parsons chairs and hutch in my dining room. Finally finished and I think it looks great! It took a lot of sanding to get all the wood pieces even, but so worth the effort. I love the rustic country look.

I took the 25 cubbies plan and changed the dimensions to fit shoes. I made a simpler version for my husband too. This project went together quickly and was so fun to build.

Been a while since I had time to actually build anything worth posting about! My wife wanted some items for her Kindergarten classroom this year, so built several items, most inspired by the Farmhouse family.

I made this table to go next to an outdoor grill to be used as a food prep area or just a surface for holding ingredients (instead of using the deck railing!). The top is stainless steel which fits tightly over 2 3/4" pieces of plywood laminated together. The bar/handle in front is made out of galvanized pipe. All wood was treated.

Legs - 4x4 posts
Bottom shelf - 1x6's
Sides - 1x4's
Top - 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood laminated together with a stainless steel top (custom fit) over top
Towel bar - galvanized pipe (cut and threaded to size at Lowe's), floor flanges and 90 degree elbows

Large version of the toy box for the basement. Added a half shelf in the bottom row for small items (cars). 

This is my first, of hopefully many projects to come. I modified Patrick's Jelly Cupboard plans to be 40" tall and added the tins to the doors. I used spruce and pine board from a local lumber yard. The finish is Miss Mustard Seed milk paint inside and out. With kids in the house I didn't want to use stain with the heavy chemical smell so I mixed the milk paint with a lot of water to look like a stain. That product is so easy to use and looks great. Needless to say my wife loves her pie safe. Thanks Ana for this site and the inspiration to give this a try. I'm hooked!

Built this coffee table as a housewarming present for my buddy who got me hooked on woodworking as a hobby! Made from reclaimed wood.

You want to see more? Check out my blog and follow me.

http://me-go-eco.blogspot.com

my twitter is: me_go_eco

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, RECLAIM! Thanks!

We are remodeling our 3 bedroom house into a 4 bedroom. In doing so, my youngest is getting the smaller room. We decided to go with a Murphy bed to allow more play time space. I do not particularly like the fact that this bed doesn’t sit off the ground but overall love the simplicity of making it. We turned it horizontal and just love the overall product. I can mot wait to make something else from this site!

Tams

We modified this table to make it larger for our growing family. It measures 42" (10 inches larger than the original plan). We added 10 inches to the length of the 2X6's and added 5 2X2's to increase the width of the width of the table. We love the interest it added to the table. 3 coasts of minwax cherry and three coats of minwax helmsman poly.

I needed some extra storage space and have always wanted a storage bench in this corner of my dining room. It took me a week to build from start to finish. I’ve never done any woodworking before, so this plan was good for me, as it was easy to follow with the color coding. The only thing that was “off plan” were the X’s on the face of the bench. I had some leftover 1x1 trim, from a handyman project a few years back, that I was happy to use up. It fit perfectly and I had just enough for all X’s. My biggest challenge with this project were the lids. They have a very minor bow, so one of the corners isn’t flush. But, it’s not enough to bother me or need to re-do the lid. All-in-all, I’m super happy with this banquette and may have caught the woodworking bug!

We were shopping for bunk beds for our 5 and 3-year-old kids, and everything I saw was overpriced, mass produced junk. I'm not kidding - we were looking at $800-$2000 for anything that appeared to be remotely stable, let alone well-designed.

Naturally, I started searching for plans (it's the right thing to do), and naturally, I found my way to Ana White. This project began in earnest when I found the Side Street Bunk Bed plans here:
http://ana-white.com/2012/03/plans/side-street-bunk-beds

I figured I'd give it my own twist. I needed to practice using my DeWalt compact router (and the new trim router table my wife had given me months before), and any excuse to bust out my Kreg Jig is fine by me. I also had different ideas for the ladder and guard rails...so I printed out the plans, sketched out my variations, and proceeded to suffer through the indignity of lumber shopping at Home Depot.

I know what you're thinking - WHY would anyone even bother trying to find a straight board in THAT place? Well believe me, I suffered for the convenience of driving to the HD two miles from my house. I had to work each and every board like crazy, but eventually I got em all into fine shape. Wood wants to be good, even the crap they sell at HD.

About halfway through the build, I started to worry that what i was building was TOO sturdy - total overkill. But now that it's in use, I can tell you I'm glad I built with these plans. I can still climb up on top of the bed with both my kids if I want to and this thing doesn't budge. Not an inch. Not a creak. SOLID. Exactly what any parent wants.

Not a lot of complex tools involved here; my trusty Delta chop saw, my DeWalt 18v cordless drill, a DeWalt palm sander ( I spent hours with this), the Kreg Jig and a couple of clamps (of course), and the DeWalt Compact Router and table. The router really made a difference in the overall design – and I wasn't afraid of screwing up the lousy lumber I was working with. In the end, it all finished rather nicely.

I treated every piece with Minwax wood conditioner, then a single coat of Minway Polyshade in Pecan. Nothing fancy, but after sanding it down and giving it a polish, I gotta say it looks just as good as your average IKEA finish. Not bad at all.

This is the largest piece of functional furniture I've ever built, and my kids LOVE it. They talked about it for days after, and you can't buy that on Amazon. It was a real confidence builder, and I'm PSYCHED to move on to some nicer lumber and more complex projects!