Community Brag Posts

I made this picnic table for my upcoming wedding with the intent of using it as our guestbook.  I'm hoping to have people sign, carve, and woodburn their names or a message on the table.  I painted the legs and supports white and stained the top and seats with a cherry stain.  I still need to put some finish on the whole thing, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out.  And so are my dogs.

It was time to upgrade my boy's toddler beds to big boy beds. They wanted bunk beds but I was afraid they'd take turns jumping off the top bunk. When I came across the Sweet Pea bunk bed plans I was so excited because the design wouldn't allow them to jump off the top bunk.

I was inspired by someone else on this feed who built doors. I also tweaked the pergola a bit. I also added extra support to the rear panel framing by adding another vertical post from the top of the horizontal post to the top bunk horizontal post and then another from the top bunk to the bottom bunk horizontal post, both directly down the middle. Probably overkill but felt that was a long run for the rear panel sections. I made my roof out of plywood siding panel and framed it on the back side to keep it from bowing and added support. A few more added elements are a dedicated fan for each bunk, reading lights, and led light strips that flash and fade into different colors. 

I had a lot of fun building this and since it's been completed, I've had even more fun building much smaller projects. 

Thank you Jenny for sharing your plans on Anna White's website and thank you Anna White for sharing all of your wonderful plans as well! 

Decided to add a secret compartmet on the bottom of this stand for small personal items.  Used piano hinge and cabinet push latch.  Wanted to hide the hinge but kept it easy and simple so I painted it black and you can barely see it.  This site is amazing and I cant wait to make more projects.

My wife, and I wanted to upgrade my 5yr old daughters bed. Hopefully this will give her enough encouragement to actually sleep in her room!

The bed turned out great, and my daughter loves it!

This project took a little longer than usual, because with the exception of the couple pieces of plywood all the parts are made from rough maple lumber. The longest part was planing, and gluing all the parts up.

We used the plans for the Farmhouse Table Knockoff similar to the one from RH, to build this table. We made some changes, and some hints:

1. The table is made of Cedar, as it will be used outside. Pine is just not an outdoor-friendly material, but Cedar is rather insect-proof. This will be used at a beach house.

2. We used 1x, not 2x on the top. The top just seemed to clunky with the 2x size. Plus, it's near impossible to find 2x in cedar.

3. We couldn't find 8x1 or 8x2 for the breadboard, so we used 6x1 (same as the table top).

4. We measured the length of the breadboard before we cut. I"m glad my husband made that suggestion because I found the seven (7) 1x6's totaled 38 3/4, not 38 1/2 as the plans call for. So it really does depend on the wood and humidity and such. So I think it's a wise decision to measure the width of all of the boards before you cut that piece.

5. We did not screw into the table top as recommended by the plans.

Used the inspiration of Ana-White dog kennel and made ours with an old bed frame that wasn't being used anymore. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I just need to paint and stain it. You can see the side is from the bed headboard and footboard.

I really really wanted a farmhouse table...but...we had a space that needed a square table AND I needed to fit 8-12 people (or more!) so we modified Ana's farmhouse table plans to not only be square, but really big as well. This table is 6 ft on each side. Since the table itself was so big, we reversed the breadboard ends and used a 2x4 on 2 ends just to even out the size a bit since is not rectangular...and the area is quite small but needed a big table. I didnt want it to be completely out of proportion. We did not use a stretcher because of the square factor, but each leg is a 4x4 post and reinforced underneath. It's HEAVY. It won't be moved anytime soon! I'm loving it:)

My take on the vintage step stool. I just used scrap wood for the supports. I painted it pink and then added some detail with white paint. Then I sanded over everything to make it more vintage-y. I was pleased with the result. The sanding really distressed the white detail.

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.

It's summertime and I wanted to be able to sit on my screened in porch with my husband with a cold drink and enjoy the nice weather. But...we had a less than cheery porch and not to mention no porch furniture. So, I started a mission to bring a little excitement to our porch and give us an outdoor area to entertain and enjoy! With some bright-colored paint, my carpenter's square, and a little patience okay..a lot of patience, I think I nailed it! I made 2 accent/ottoman tables, 2 outdoor lounge chairs, an outdoor lounge love seat, and the Hudson Outdoor table. I also bought 4 cushions on sale at Walmart in colors that match my bright patio set perfectly!

I modified the outdoor lounge chair in to a love seat by doubling the dimensions of the: back tie-in, seat frame supports, front and back aprons, seat back supports and seat back bottom support, using a 1x4 back tie-in instead of the 1x2, adding an extra seat frame support in between the front outside and inner support, and used 10 back boards and seat boards instead of 5.

I think now I'll go back to the porch and enjoy the afternoon with a nice cool iced green tea and finally get to relax on a porch with furniture on it!

This is my first build and I had so much fun!  I am now officially addicted to DIY and woodworking!  

I started off with a couple of problems right out of the gate but, I really wanted to make this for my Grandaughter for Christmas.  The first problem was the ceiling in her room is 7 feet 6 inches  high.  So, if I lowered the height then the loft platform became too low to install over a twin bed.   It didn’t allow for enough headroom over the mattress.  Plus, I didn’t want her to sleep on a mattress that was on the floor. So, I raised the platform to 48 inches and modified the roof so that I would be able to fit the Alaska Cabin Twin storage bed underneath.  

I also modified the size by increasing the platform dimensions to 40”x48”.   Doing that allowed me to comfortably fit the bed underneath. 

 I was lucky to find laminate flooring on clearance at Lowe’s. I paid five dollars for an open box. I used it to cover the plywood floor. I also used it for the roof by just nailing it to the 2x4s. 

 I wanted my granddaughter to be  able to paint, use her markers, and be as messy as she wanted without restrictions.  One wall is made from dry erase board with 1x4s as shelving to frame it out.  (I used Ana’s flip down desk plans as a guide for the shelving.) The back wall is slat wall from Menards.  I just spray painted it hot pink.  The third wall is a 12 inch shelf framed out by 2x4s. The last wall is leftover 1x3 and 1x4 boards that I stained and painted. 

 My daughter didn’t like the first ladder so I moved it to one side. I stained the ladder with Minwax classic gray. I also used the classic gray stain for the cabin bed frame.  The pink on the cabin bed is  Sherwin Williams “hibiscus.”

 My granddaughter and I finished the bed this evening. She loves helping me “work “in the garage. We ended our build by adding a monster free zone. Monsters will be zapped if they try to enter the clubhouse or the bed! Thank you Ana! 

Mary

I made this cabinet to house my murphy bed.  I used the Toy or TV Armoire plans as a start and adjusted the measurements as needed.

Went to a local farmer, who had a barn falling down and asked if I could get some wood. He allowed me to take a few pieces and turned it into a corner cabinet for my wifeWent to a local farmer, who had a barn falling down and asked if I could get some wood. He allowed me to take a few pieces and turned it into a corner cabinet for my wife

This is our third project. We needed a table set in the living room since our IKEA coffee table did not survive the move to TX. My husband and I fell in love with the rustic X collection and decided to start with the coffee table first. Everything was quite straight forward until cutting the 2x2 for the X. Well, without much wood-working experience, I made a rookie mistake of cutting them to length before cutting the angles. Eventually, we came up inches short on the 2x2 bars to make a complete X. We had to re-measure and re-cut all the angled bars. But we made it! At first, my husband got frustrated and wanted to leave the X's out and let the table be open on all four sides. But since we are trying to build a whole collection (end tables next, and then console able), I really wanted the X's to make them cohesive. So we survived the taunting tasks and have learned from the experience. We cut the 2x2 a little long and then mark them against the frame before we cut. The original measurements from the plan did not really match up to our frame so we decided to mark and fine-adjust. It worked out well. There was a slight "rainbow curve" in the middle plank of the table top. We decided to use a heavy duty 2 1/2 PH screw on the sides to suck it in, to try to make it level. It worked out well too! At the end, we sanded all the corners and tops really well because I wanted an even top. It is a very nice size coffee table and heavy and sturdy. And we are both extremely happy with the final product.