Community Brag Posts

I have been dreaming of building a bed since I found Ana's website over a year ago. I bought the wood in January and slowly worked on it over 3 months, mainly because I was uncertain that I could actually do it myself! After spending about 3 hours in a row to finish it, it is finally complete! I am so happy with how it turned out and friends of mine cannot believe that I did this BY MYSELF! View more on my project at http://thevpfamily.blogspot.com/2011/05/lumber.html or http://thevpfamily.blogspot.com/2011/06/did-you-guess-bed.html

Computer Desk

My 5 year old grandson, Trevor, came for an overnight and we worked on building Ana's Big Kids' Picnic Table. Grandpa cut the boards the day before and Trev easily helped me drill all the holes and place the screws, then painted the table his favorite color. He was so excited to have built something so useful that he could take to his home and share with his new step-siblings.

This project took about 3 hours with painting, but was really easy to follow. Trev enjoyed learning how to use the drill safely, wearing his own work gloves and safety glasses and learning the art of painting! It was the PERFECT project for the two of us to keep us busy.

Thanks for another great plan Ana!

We made the woven back bench this weekend for our front porch. We modified the back to not have the bend in it, and we added supports to the slats underneath as we felt it needed that. It was a great plan and we love the end result of the bench! One tip, if you make, you'll actually need TWO 1x4x8's even though the supply list says you'll only need one. We used the kreg jig a lot on this project. Highly recommend this plan! Bonus, it only cost about $25 for the wood for this project!

We used the Fancy X Farmhouse Table plans to create the table then stenciled the game boards onto the sanded tabletop with a pencil.  After that we scored over the pencil tracing to prevent stain bleed over, then carefully polyurethaned over the sections we did not want stained.  After the poly dried we used a small craft brush to paint the stain in one color at a time.

I have been dreaming of getting a tufted bench that I could place at the foot of my bed for years now.  The only problem it was always ridiculously priced out of my range. Home decorations may just might be the most expensive part of home ownership, Hahaha.  Inspired by all of the fabulous plans provided by Ana White I set out to develop plans of my own using the principles I learned in her book The Handbuilt Home. This is one of my favorite DIY projects to date.  Here’s how I did it.

STEP 1. CUT THE PIECES TO SIZE.

For this, I actually did a lot of the cutting as I went along.  To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t entirely sure I had measured the bottom shelf and storage areas correctly.  To reduce the likelihood of mismeasurements, I measured liked 3 to 4 times before cutting every piece.

STEP 2. ATTACH THE LEDGES TO THE UPPER AND LOWER RAILS OR APRONS.

I used square wooden dowels for the ledges because I didn’t have to worry about ensuring that the boards were straight. Also I didn’t want to go through and make a ton of repetitive cuts on my circular saw or miter.  You can easily use scrap wood for the ledges as long as its straight and creates a flat even surface for the boards to rest on.  I didn’t cut the ledge the entire length of the rails.  It’s just important that there is enough support to hold the plywood base in place as you secure it to the rails or aprons to the legs.

Click here for more details and the complete Free plans and Cut list. 

When I first saw Ana's $10 ledges - I knew I wanted to do them, with a twist. I have this random nook in my house - and I knew they would be perfect. I wanted a feature wall there. And a feature it is.

I posted more pictures and how I framed everything out on my blog.

Thank you Ana for your continued inspiration! I wouldn't have been able to do any of it without you!

I changed up the plan by making 3 pedestals, adding drawer slides and creating flute work on the pedestals.

I had some left over Walnut wood, so I decided to make some more Beer Tap handles.  This is a fairly simple DIY that doesn't take that long to complete.  I have already written a full tutorial on my blog:

This project was so fun! I am a beginner in the DIY world and so excited with how this turned out.  the plans were super easy to follow (thank you for the video too)! Lowes cut all the lumber for me so I really only needed the drill to put it all together. To put the table together it only took us an afternoon but in total it took us several days, once it was put together, to get everything sanded, primed, painted, and stained-overall VERY VERY pleased!

We've been looking for some saddle back stools for quite a while that would fit snug under our kitchen island. I couldn't find any, so I checked Ana-White and found the perfect building plan. I used scraps to build two matching stools and so I altered the plans to fit what I had. Other then the dimensions being different, I also used a 2x12" piece of wood cut down to 9x15" for the stool top.

I've documented the process as best as I could at; http://www.tommyandellie.com/Site/Home/Entries/2011/6/13_More_Seating_f…

We adapted these plans to build our tree house, I hope it's not too much of a stretch for brag posts! Every kid seems to have two wishes: a fort or tree house and a secret passage way. Or is it just my kids? Turns out we live in the desert and trees are hard to come by. Our solution? Build a tree house in the house. Why not!? Our magic tree house is well used and well loved. This is one of those projects that simmered and in my mind trying to think of the perfect way to build the thing. The stuff our parents built and played in was a hodge podge of left over wood and their own creations, crooked construction and messy paint. So, I set the perfect aside and dove in. The only things our tree house really needs to be is safe and fun. Most families try to find indoor activities for the winter, but in the desert it is so blazing hot we need indoor retreats in the summer. This tree house is the solution a gagillion times over! Thank you Ana!

Modified from the original plans to make it longer and thinner to fit the space/need.  

For the "X" cuts I just built the frame, clamped on a rough length of 2x2 and drew lines where the cuts should go.  I ended up cutting those by hand since they were well over 45 degrees.  Next time I will make a jig for my miter saw to handle those angles.

Finish is just vinegar and steel wool.  The picture with the clamps is before the top coat was applied. Once the poly was put on it gave it a nice gloss and nice, rich colors. 

Now it just needs some decorative pieces sitting on it :)

Nice, fun project!

My first build! I tore apart two old pallets to get the surface boards for the table. The skirting is 1 x 6's from the hardware store. I need larger casters but am saving up for the real vintage ones.

This is the second farmhouse table that we have built but we modified it to fit the needs of our "clients" (my parents). This was a gift for my dad made to be an outdoor prep table/kitchen island. This was the project that would NEVER END! We built it originally and decided that it was just too tall. So, we shortened the legs, put it back together, finished it, loaded it and then SMASH! the darn thing flew out of the back of our truck! So we re-pocket holed, did our best to fix the table top and put it back together once again. We built this thing 3 times! But now it is happily home on my parent's patio and enjoying its new life.

Finish: Driftwood stain, lime wax, miniwax finishing paste wax.

Cost: $15 Most everything was scrap we only had to buy a 2x4 and a 4x4 for the legs.