Community Brag Posts

Wanted to add some flair to the deck had a designer come up with a computer generated pic and built it. Very happy with results Anna White has inspired me to do more wood working and have confidence in my builds.

My daughter needed a loft bed to give her more floor and storage space in her bedroom. I modified the original plans to fit her twin XL bed, which is 5 inches longer than a regular bed. I also added an extra 2x6 across the back two posts for extra support.

Cutting and assembly was relatively easy; I glued every joint and used pocket holes per the instructions. I sanded using 80, 120 and 220 grit. The finish is a Minwax "parchment" water-based stain, with 3 coats of Polycrylic. All pocket holes were pre-drilled prior to finishing.

I assembled the platform and footboard in the garage and brought it into the house as a single unit; same with the headboard. I brought in the rails separately. To assemble, I marked 1 1/4 inches from the outside post edges, and used wood scraps/clamps to align and hold the rails while securing them with pocket hole screws.

My daughter's mattress is very high; it rises only about an inch below the top of the top rail. So I build a bed-length shelf which also had the added benefit of providing a little more height/protection against her rolling out of bed in the middle of the night (see pics).

In all, I was surprised at how long this took me. Probably because I'm a novice and this was only my 2nd project. The totals are:
- Cut and assembly: 14 hours
- Sanding: 25 hours
- Finishing: 2 days

After finishing, I left all pieces in the garage for 5 days to air-out before bringing into the house.

Total cost the lumber was $125, 1 qt stain @ $13, 1/2 gal Polycrylic @ $50 per gal, and $20 hardware for a total of just over $200.

I had made this bedside table before, but this time the bottom two drawers just wouldn't work out. I fiddled with them and cut out and made 6 box drawers before I finally just decided on shelves. I used 1/4 inch plywood and 18 gauge brad nails to secure it. Once all this was done ,I found 2 basket "drawers."

12/16/14 UPDATE:  Posted a plan for this project, linked in this brag post

This is a variation of the Easy Jewelry Box plan. The completed measurement is 11” wide, 14 ½” high, and 7 ½” deep. This one has a center “tower” with 5 drawers 5 ½” wide, and a wide overhang on the top and bottom, which covers the 2 side doors that open out for hanging necklaces. The drawers are lined with embossed felt, and the drawer bottoms and insides of doors are covered with sticky-back felt. The 2 removable ring drawer inserts are some scraps of 1” foam, covered with scraps of the sticky-back felt, with slits cut into the foam with a utility knife (cut the slits into the felt first, attach it to the foam, then cut the slits into the foam). Cost breakdown: antique brass knobs: $28, sticky back & embossed felt: $14, hooks: $15, wood: $35, hinges: $7, paint: $5. (already on hand: finish nails, glue, sandpaper, left over stain & poly) . I worked on this a few hours a day over a long weekend, probably about 12 hours total. Finishing took most of this time, the build was actually only a couple of hours.

My version of benchright coffee table. Made this for my daughter. It's made of solid cherry.

A fun project to make ending with a functional product to boot!  I went all out making sure that each truck/shelf would coordinate with each grandson's theme/decor in their bedrooms.  Chase, who will turn one next month, has a super heroes/comics theme for his room.  Therefore, I selected Captain America as the star of the big rig shelf.  Red, white & blue paints, some wooden shapes and some creativity and Captain America was ready for Mr. Smiles.

My husband needed a place to store his stuff--maps, yes, but also cords, hard drives, and other things he didn't want the kids to get into. I took the coffee table plan, essentially cut it in half, then raised it up to fit four drawers. The best part was that I only made three drawers--the bottom one is extra-tall to fit his extra-tall stuff, but it has false drawer fronts. I also opted to skip the caster wheels.

More difficult build then I'm used too. Modified it to fit a full mattress but I think it turned out great! It's a lot cheaper to build than most Murphy beds to purchase out there on the market. Enjoyed these plans. Thank you Ana!

I took an old storage closet and turned it into a kitchen so that we could rent out our downstairs using Ana's basic cabinet plans altering them to fit my space. I really liked that she used 2 x 6's for the base of the cabinets and it worked out perfectly for the toe kick. 

I was asked to build a crib by a family member for their first baby.  What an honor.  The first place that I sought ideas was Ana-White!  Of course!  

It turned out great!  Thanks for the ideas.

I took the plans for the narrow farmhouse table and modified them for a pocket hole jig and shortened it down to 6 feet. This was a surprisingly fast build. My husband and I only had about 45 minutes a day to work on it and we still finished it in about a week. More information on the blog post (coming soon!)

We wanted a round table that would seat a full Monopoly game. To do this we needed about a 5' diameter tabletop.  The base was made consistent with the plans.  

A few tips on the base:

1. Get your angles as close to 45° as you can.  Otherwise, there will be much sanding and puttying in your future.  
2. If you want to hide your lag screw like I did, I used a spade bit to recess an area for the screw head.  Then I glued in a plug made from dowel and sanded flush.  

If you want to make a round tabletop, here is what I did (there may be better methods).  Keep in mind this was for a ~60" diameter table, I was assuming that the perimeter arc pieces would be about 4.5" wide and that I would cut the inner circle at a 50" diameter.

1. Picture 1 - I built two 5' slabs of (7) 2x4s pocket-holed together.  
2. Picture 2 - Then I cut two pieces from each slab that would later make up the 90° "pie slice" pieces.  Make sure to remove the screws that will be in the way your saw blade. Also, you just have to concern yourself with the angle since the radius will be dealt with later.  There is a lot of wood waste with this method, but I think it avoided headaches. 
3. Picture 3 - I assembled (screwed and glued) the "pie pieces"to the cross pieces. The length of the cross pieces don't matter much since they will also be to cut to a specified radius.  Since I would be cutting a 50" diameter circle, the large cross piece had to be at least 50" and the two small pieces had to be at least 22.25" (subtracting the 2x6 width).  
   1. Picture 3 - I mounted my router to a piece of MDF and drilled a hole at the necessary distance to cut a 50" diameter circle. This distance is 25" + half of the bit diameter.  Since I used a 1/2" straight bit, my point was 25.25" from the center of the router bit.  I screwed this jig to the center of the tabletop assembly so the router could pivot and cut a circle.  As for logistics, I rested this assembly on some scrap wood and kneeled on the tabletop as I was cutting it.  It took a large number of passes with the router since I was cutting through 1.5" of material. 
4. Picture 4 - The perimeter pieces required some time and geometry. I found that I would need (8) 23" 2x8 pieces (the 23" is approximate because I was a little off for some reason, though I can't recall why).  From those pieces, I used the same router jig to cut the perimeter arc pieces. You will need to make two new radius holes in teh jig to accomplish what you need.  To cut the inner arc you need a hole set at 25" - half of the bit diameter (24.75" for me).  To cut the outer arc, I used a hole that was 29 5/8" from the center of the router bit.  You may need to do some fine tuning to these pieces to get them to fit correctly, but for me it pretty minor.  I trimmed a couple pieces with a miter saw but that was it. 
5. The rest is screws and glue. 

I made this garden trellis with cheap 6' cedar fence pickets ripped down to 1 1/2" strips. Get the free plans and tutorial at The Handyman's Daughter!

Such a great, simple project! Thanks for the plans Ana! I'm doing my best to send people your way via my blog, iliketomakestuff.com