Hi Ana,I just wanted to share our first knock off wood project!

http://littlelizardking.blogspot.com/2010/07/pottery-barn-wanna-be-part…

We still have to hang the hooks and either fix the drawers or add baskets, but we love them!!! You are pretty amazing! Thanks a million.

Awesome book cases. I love the plans with little legs on them :)
For any seamstresses who wants to DIY a cloth bin in the fabric of their choosing. This is a fantastic tutorial.
http://jezzeblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-interfacing-storage-basket-tut…

@greenerlinen thanks!!! i had been looking for a tutorial like that!!!

Hi Ana! I love the new site and love your plans. We are just finishing building our house and I can't wait to have all the tools set up in the garage so I can start building some of these great things myself! Just a quick thought, I don't know anything about blogging but have seen on some other blogs verification thingy at the bottom where you enter in a word shown to keep advertisers and non-real people from posting. I think Casa Modern et al are pretty terrible for trying to get free advertising on your site. Boo. If they think Ana White fans would like their stuff and you are cool with them as a sponsor they should pay you for the ad space. Anyways, just wondering.

This may be a stupid question but this is my first project so have a little mercy!! haha but I'm going to build this for my cousin who just had a baby. What kind of wood do I use....see told you it was a stupid question!

Thanks!

Jessica I used pine or whitewood boards. Cheap and paints well! And easy to work with for a first project. Make sure you ask for furring strips for 1x2s, 1x3s, 1x4s and 2x2s - but check the quality. Where I live, the furring strips are the same as the premium boards, but this is not always the case. Good luck! Ana

I'm in love! I can't wait to start my first project. I was curious you might go about adding the 'lip' like the reader's pictures? I think it is beautiful and I would love to replicate it.

I am unable to save this project as a PDF for some reason. Not a huge deal, but I thought you might like to know. Have a great day!

Well, it appears that I completely overlooked the embedded file that was further down the page. My apologies.

Hi Ana,
I have a dilemma! I live in Venezuela and nothing is the same here!!! I can't buy wood filler or 1x2's, 1x3's or anything else!!! I have learned to substitute a lot of things. I made the $4 stackable chairs and Clara's table and had to improvise on a lot of things! I finally found countersink bits for the drill, but at $20 a piece, I have had to learn to join my boards in a different way!!! But my most current problem is not being able to purchase 1x12's. I can buy 1x7's and then I have to cut them to the width that I need. I am new to building, but I LOVE it!!! So please forgive my dumb question, but what can I substitute for 1x12's??? I can get mdf board and compressed pine board in large sheets. Could I just use one of these or would they maybe not be as strong??? Is there something else I could use since a lot of plans call for these.

Do you have any suggestions for adding doors?  I would love to do this project with doors on either end for some hidden storage.  Thanks for your time!

The designs in the images are quite nice, it seems that the designer has taken more efforts.

Okay, we made the cubes bookcases this weekend and OMG, I clearly am lame! How do you successfully get your cubbies square?! We used a speed square but it's embarrassing! I almost (really) don't want to post pictures!

When you first start out, that's a major challenge. I have some horrendous practice joints to prove it. Eventually you will develop a very practical understanding of geometry and a greatly reduced dependency on numbers.

To make sure my shelf dividers were vertical, here's what I would do:

1. Arrange my top and bottom pieces so that their back edges touched, and the faces that would touch the vertical dividers were both up. Assuming that the pieces were the same size, I would make sure the ends were aligned.

2. On -one- of the front edges, mark off where the vertical dividers will go. Establish that this will be either the right or left edge of the divider.

3. Using a framing square (the really big metal ones), extend those lines back across both faces. If the shelves are deeper than the framing square can handle, mark as much as I can and then extend it with a good metal straight edge. There's no skimping on the straight edge though, it needs to be at least as long as the two faces combined.

4. During assembly, use these reference lines to line up the edges of the dividers and secure them. And always remember to keep the same side of the divider, on both top and bottom, on the same side of the reference line.

Because I'm not very trusting of my ability to line things up against a line and keep it there while fastening, I'd probably cut a dado, or shallow groove, to hold the vertical dividers. That's a mildly advanced topic though.

The diagram mentions using shelving instead of 1x12s to save money. How would you do this? What type of shelving?

You can find pre-finished shelves at most home improvement stores. Menards has huge piles of them in varying lengths and widths.

You'd use them just like a 1x12, cutting them to the appropriate length and attaching them with pocket screws just like you would a 1x12. The material is typically particle board, usually with melamine veneer on the faces.

Hello! I love this tutorial!! My hubby and I need to built a COUPLE of these things for a project we are making and we are trying to figure out how much money we need. How much did it cost you (estimated guess) per unit?

Hello! I love this tutorial!! My hubby and I need to built a COUPLE of these things for a project we are making and we are trying to figure out how much money we need. How much did it cost you (estimated guess) per unit?

Hi! My boyfriend and I decided to take on this project for our first DIY build together :) We modified the plans a little as we added another row of cubes on top and put trim around the top edge. We painted it black and it inspired us to paint the rest of our living room furniture (coffee table, end table and tv stand) black as well. It looks very modern and classic... i Love it!!

The hardest part we found was actually getting the wood cut to size as we have limited space and no power tools of our own. It turned out great and we can't wait to get started on our next project! :)

Check out my page for pictures!
http://www.chocolatencharm.blogspot.ca/search/label/Decor'NDesign

I love the plan. I do suggest using wood dowels for the bottom where you couldn't "nail" directly into the wood. I might even use wood dowels for the "bottom" portion of each divider and nail in the top portion of each. Other than that, love the plan. I will be using this with a tweaking to make laundry basket holder in our utility room. Thanks!

Can't wait to make these--thanks for sharing! The problem the pdf for the plans are not working...Adobe says file is corrupted? Instead of text, it is just symbols. The drawings come through for some reason.
3154802952_1279598460.pdf

thanks!

Building my first project now... how do I know whether to use screws vs nails and how many do I use on each joint to build the "box" (ie. step 1)?  thanks

Hi,

I've been making a shelf like this during my free time, and admittedly it's been made over different sessions rather than all at once. When I completed construction and put the trim across the front two shelves they had both bowed and were no longer straight. This is causing a problem in that the trim is straight and no longer lines up across the entirety of the shelf board. 

Any recommendations of how I can fix this, or more realistically, avoid this in future projects?

Thanks!