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This is my first furniture building project and I was initially nervous that I have taken up more than I can handle. But things turned out just fine. My wife said she would pick this table if it were in a store and that made this project a success. My wife and I both like the distressed look and nothing in the stores impressed us enough. Three weekends worth of effort and we have a gleaming new table exactly as we wished. So, if you're a beginner like me, do not fret. This is a good starter project if you have the right tools.

The basic specs were from this site but I had to change it to suit my size. Also, for the top I used 2X6's throughout except the center piece which is 2X12. I liked this look a little better. I do not know how much work Kreg Jig will save as I have no experience doing it the other way. Kreg jig is not very common and I did not find it in Home Depot. Lowes carried it. With this design note that you cannot put any chairs on the smaller side of the table as the bottom stretchers will obstruct you.

I had to use a hand planer on many occasions to level things out, especially between the table top planks and the breadboards. With construction grade lumber there will always be warps and twists, so this is something you need to plan for.

Now to the build part,
Top is all 2X6 with center piece 2X12. Rest as per Ana's plans. Construction grade lumber - Douglas Fir.
I did not sand too much - used 120 Grit throughout - did not sand with anything finer than that and it turned out ok. I did this to retain the feel of the grains. It was fun distressing it. We used hammer, chains and nails, but the best effect was from chiseling on the sides. Practice on spare wood first.

For Finish I used Dark Walnut from Rustoleum. One single coat. Then I wiped on Minwax Red Chestnut on top and quickly wiped it off. That gave it a pop. I used 5 coats of Rustoleum Poly on top. Rustoleum makes a huge difference to your project time as it dries much quicker than minwax. Also one single coat of stain did the job as advertised. Note that Rustoleum Poly is milky in color, but dries clear.

Good luck to your project and hope this helped.

Shortened the plan to fit my space. Used Georgian Cherry stain. 

Needed a dresser/changing station for our baby boys nursery. After pricing the "cheap ones" at target ($225). Decided I could build one for much less and much better quality. Found the Fillman Dresser/Changing station plan on Ana's site and felt that was the plan.

One modification I did to make the drawer bottoms stronger was to route a ¼" rabbit ⅜" from the bottom of the drawer to help hold the ¼" plywood.

This was my first time using milk paint and after the first coat I felt I ruined the project because the color was so uneven. Thank goodness for the internet because when I looked milk paint up every site had a "don't panic" paragraph about the first coat going on uneven. Quick sanding and a second coat Made me a believer.

As this was my first project I am very pleased with how it turned out. I learned a number of things to avoid and look forward to my next project.

Thanks Ana for all of the inspiration and ideas.

This was the first Farmhouse bed I have ever built!  I am totally in love with it!  I found the plans very easy to understand and follow.  I used the Twin Farmhouse bed and adapted it for a double and also added some trim details in the head and foot boards.  I also changed the way I attached my bed frame as I wanted to be able to take apart easily if ever needed.  So I used 2 by 10s and attached them to my posts.  I also made a trundle for underneath it. Finally totally complete!!  Love the way it turned out.  

The hubs and I built this for our two year old daughter. It was pretty straightforward, and wasn't a huge time commitment. We had taken her out of her crib a few months back, but she had been sleeping in a twin mattress on the floor, so she could get used to not being in a crib. She was so excited for her new bed.

Note: we used rockler brackets to attach the rails to the headboard and footboard, so its not just one huge piece, and when we move we can take it apart. They worked Great!!

Also, because she is two, and we wanted to keep her lower to the floor, we decided not to use a box spring for now, so we took 9 inches off the bottom of thr headboard 4x4s. this ensured there was not a gap between the top of the mattress and bottom of the headboard. If we choose to use a box spring mattress later, it will still work out fine and look great.

My sister was in love with my 4x4 truss table i made and needed a patio table so we decided to take one day to make 2 tables, one for each. We convinced both daddys to take care of the kids while we made the table by telling them the tables were gonna have beer coolers inside! Attaching the to of the table was a lot a job. If you plan of doing this you really want to have a kreg jig. It works well, we love it. I made a bench to go with it. I made my how plan for it.

This was the second double x bench that I made.  It was very simple to make.  It took me around 3 hours to build it and another 2 hours to sand, stain and paint it (this does not include the  1 hour between coats that I allowed them to dry).  I used Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint and General Finishes Java Gel stain.  Annie Sloan Chalk paint does NOT need a topcoat if it is being used outside.

A lot of hard work went into this table, but Im so happy with the result. I followed Ana whites plans closely and read all the Blog comments to help out. I made the table one 1x6 board wider and 4 inches longer to fit my space better. I also used a turnbuckle and threaded pipe for the stretcher to make it look a little more like the Pottery Barn Table. I think it gives it more of an industrial look. I used a red mahogony stain and plenty of polyurethane finish. I still have to build the bench, and i'm looking forward to using the plans from this site.

These flat wall bookholders are the perfect little shelves to add storage for books to my boys' new tractor bunk bed. What a great simple plan!

A couple of years ago I used Ana White’s plan for a faux fireplace, the grandchildren always love hanging their stocking on it for Christmas. But I always wanted to dress it up a bit. I didn’t even attach it to the wall. It was plain, it really needed something.

Look what I did to it.

I added a hearth and faux bricks.

Thanks to the beautifully written as well as the example build post by Hilary, I found this project easy to build for a beginner like myself. I followed the plan as written and can't wait to start my next project.

This was my very first woodworking project! My girlfriend and I built it as a learning experience, and to use as a work stool in our "workshop" (aka garage). The wood we used was pine. We were so happy with the results we've decided to build more. Thank you Anthony DeCesare for posting the plans, and Ana White for many more amazing designs.

Thanks for fantastic plans Ana!!  My 12yr old son and I knocked these out in an afternoon.

He learned new skills and we got a key project done.  The best thing was his statement of "these are awesome!!"  

Second wood project overall. First with a power-saw. Just found Ana-White - love it and thanks for sharing it all! I had to change the dimensions of this one to fit the space we needed it for. It holds two paper bags side by side to hold all of our recycling. So much neater then our plastic bin we had.

Looking forward to the next project...