Community Brag Posts

I wanted a place for a flag pole, but I didn't want to put one in the ground or screw into my siding, so I modified the cedar planter to hold a flag pole. It was a fun project!  Check out more here!

My son has been falling/climbing out of his crib. My wife wanted a toddler bed as soon as possible, which meant yesterday. She has had this in mind for some time considering she made this marvelous quilt for our little dude. The bed is pretty crude from a joinery standpoint. It's just butt joints with glue and screws. The dimensional lumber gives a nice break on the pocket book, especially when it's free from helping someone move it into my truck. The joints get some spice by button plugs. It's not finished with anything special, just some 120 grit. I figure we will probably paint it to match his new room in the house we are moving into next week. I wish I could have made it out of pocket holes entirely but the box o' screws wasn't in the budget when the wood is free and the 2-1/2" screws are given to you. Bottom line is that my wife is happy with her hubby the the little stud muffin is happy with his "big boy" bed.

Modern farmhouse bench used as entryway bench/storage

TV console table made of poplar wood. Shaker style inset doors. Solid wood construction. Painted with General Finishes Milk Paint and High Performance Top Coat.

Modified DIY Coat Rack! We call this our "Bear Proof" helmet rack. My daughter's chihuahua (named Bear) likes to mark anything at his level, lol. So I took Ana White's free coat rack plan and added helmet hooks to keep everyone's helmet off of the floor and safe from our little Bear. Thanks so much Ana! We all thank you so much for your generosity!

This is a farmhouse style kitchen table that I built for Mom's little kitchen. She needed more counter space and more storage space and had the perfect corner for it to fit in. These are based off my own plans which I have not published on Ana-White yet.

I needed more storage for our TINY kitchen. I found the nursery armoire plans and asked my dad to help me build it for a pantry! We modified it some by making it taller and adding more shelves inside (sorry no pics of that). For the doors I wanted to do something fun so we cut lots (over 700!) of small pieces of wood and inlaid then in a herringbone pattern - IN LOVE! For the handles we used copper pipe and I am IN LOVE with those too! Enjoy!

~ Maggie

Thanks Ana for your amazing tutorials, you are starting to help bring my house to life!

I built this Coffee Table from plans I found online. It's made from furniture and construction grade Pine, with a two-tone stain. I sealed it with polyurethane. Now if I could figure out a way to keep the cats off of it!

see the full post at:
http://crabandfish.blogspot.com/2012/06/fish-made-work-bench.html

we bought our first home two months ago and have been doing a lot of small improvement projects. we decided to build your sturdy work bench in order to have a dedicated space for cobbling new projects together.

I wanted to make use of the twin size mattress from my son's old bed and I thought it would nice to have an extra place for his cousins and friends to sleep when visiting so I added a trundle.  I had to slightly alter the plans to accommodate this, and made some little happy mistakes along the way.  Because  I wanted to be able to take the bed apart I had purchased some surface mount hardware for the rails.  What I didn't account for was the extra width it would add for the platform.  It ended up making the frame large enough to fit a queen size mattress.  This would have been fine if I hadn't already purchased a new full size mattress!  Ha Ha.  I ended up having enough of the bed slats showing that it bugged me so I ended up taking a 2 x 4 and cutting out a notch so it would sit flush on the rail and cover up the slats.  I stained it using an American Chestnut Satin Polyshades Mix and overall I am pleased with how it came out.  This was a good learning experience and now I'll get started on a nightstand shortly.

Farm table and bench.

Bill Morris

I drove to my dads house to get the wood. He has had rough cut 1X12's sitting in the back yard for several years. They are warped, dirty, cracked..... I think my husband thought I was crazy for wanting to do this. 6 months after getting the wood I finally started. I first took the boards and sanded the caked on red dirt off. Then my 8 year old helped me rip them on the table saw into an 8 inch piece and a 4 inch piece. Then sanded again. The boards turned from red or grey to a yellow color. My husband told me to do it right I needed to use a jointer and he showed me how and I needed to use biscuts to join the planks together, we borrowed one and he showed me how to use the tool. It is so cool, I want to buy one. Then I called my neighbor over to help me, he brought a power planner over and showed me how to use it. It made all the boards the same heighth and REALLY sanded them good (remember these are rough cut boards). Then we used a belt sander to make them really smooth. Then we used a router with a Vgrove bit down the planks where the 1x8's meet. He had two fluted, tapered columns in his garage he has been trying to get rid of so we cut them down and used them as the posts for the headboard and footboard. I cut the arch with a jig saw. Looks pretty darn great! I surprised people with the wood I used! Thank goodness for biscuts, jointers, planners and belt sanders! Best part......cost me a whole $15 to get to this point. I had to buy wood glue, biscuts, and sand paper.

I want to use a laquer finish and try to use a glaze in the grooves. I will try to attach a finished picture when it is done.

We needed some storage by the back door for shoes and dog accessories so it would be easier for us to take our dogs out for walks. I saw the plan for the shoe dresser and thought it would be great since we would be storing shoes in it. I made it narrower to fit our space and also made it deeper. The cost was mostly in the hardware.

Great plans! Easy to follow and well written. The final project was bigger than I thought it was going to be but very happy with it. Built exactly as the plans stated and the finish project is very heavy duty. My skill level is average and I am only a weekend wood worker and I found it looked very professional.  

Our old firebox had rusted out through improper installation. So, we took it out and built a 7” bump out directly in front of it. The best part was, the new electric fireplace fit the old firebox location perfectly. Since my wife wanted a stone appearance, we purchased two ¼” 4’x8’ decorative panels that she then “schmeared.” For the mantle, we used pin oak milled from our property. I used three boards to create a faux beam to provide the look we are very happy with. The hearth consists of four walkway pavers.

This cost me $55 for wood (pine), nails, and bolts. Additional $7 in paint. It's very sturdy and very comfy with a lounge chair cushion (Walmart had a great price--cheaper than I would have spent to make one myself). This will also serve as bench seating for my deck (I love multi-use furniture). Thanks Brook and Ana for this great plan!