Community Brag Posts

I've been doing only little projects here and there, so when I got an order for a bench, I was a little apprehensive, but of course I said YES!  I immediately started scouring the web for ideas on how to, and what the cost would be to build.  I came across Ana White's modern bench design and knew this was the one.  I priced out all the materials and gave my customer a quote which she, without hesitation, accepted.  The next day, I took a trip to the local lumber yard and purchased all I needed.  Now, here's where I messed up a bit. Like I said, I priced everything out before purchasing.  Well, I priced out the wrong 1x6s which threw me almost $35 over my original budget.  Womp womp, right?  I still made a little profit.  But this bench cost me $100 to build.  The customer ordered this bench for her garden and wanted it to be stained rather than painted.  So, the wood, the decking screws, waterseal, and the outdoor waterproof stain and sealer was my purchase for the build.  Totally worth it!  The bench turned out great!  I am delivering it to her in a couple of hours from now and I cannot wait for her to see it.  I think it turned out beautiful especially for my first!  Thank you, Ana, for making the design so easy to follow! 

This was my first woodworking project.

The inspiration for the project came from the "Dark Mahogany Chase Chunky" headboard from World Market. At $300 (at the time) it was out of my price range. But after looking at it for a while, I decided I could do it myself.

I used and modified several of Ana White's headboard plans to come up with the final (rough) idea.

I used 3 2x3 boards for the frame, a 3/4" thick piece of plywood for the body (which I had cut at the hardware store) and a 1x2 to top the plywood. I was just going to paint the whole thing but I found these bamboo placemats and decided to incorporate them into the project. At $1 each why not? I used 3/4"x1/2" S4S Moulding for the grid.

the cost of materials was about $66 but I had enough plywood left over for another headboard.

My wife asked me to make a pair of these to go with the outdoor table I built

Took a weekend when I got time off of work. Would do things differently the next time and love the kreg jig. Will be buying the kreg jig clamps soon.

We needed a space saving alternative to individual twin beds...these were very simple to make. Our boys love them! We kept the same deminsions as the original plans and ended up having a little extra room on each bed for storage as well as toy storage under the second bed. Worked out very nicely and left space for the next project...a study station :)

Loving this tall entertainment center to fit under my wall-mounted television!

The dogs cant knock over my photos anymore!!!!

Added some fancy trim pieces in the middle to match the trim on the bottom.  So sturdy and hides all my junk!

http://www.ana-white.com/2012/06/plans/tall-corner-media-console

I love this apron, perfect for hiding pencils from my husband.

Here is my spin on the Farmhouse bed.  I made the entire thing 8 inches taller, added a couple random pieces here and there, and stained it dark walnut.  I also modified the plans to use a box spring and bed rail fasteners to make it easier to take apart.

I used the plan from the Clubhouse bunk bed and modified to look similar to a Mathy-by-Boles Treehouse Bunkbed.

When my sons outgrew their twin sized beds and primary colored room, I had already fallen in love with Ana's storage bed collection. I was happy to see that a full size bed was included in the plans. Building it yourself means you can adjust any plans to fit your room exactly, and I planned to squeeze storage out of every inch of their 11.5 foot wide room. The first adjustment I made was to make the headboard taller, so that their pillows would not rest against the small hutch with doors. I also added height to the cubby hutch, making it a 9 cubby unit. The entire bed unit is 92 inches tall. The center tall bookcase is actually two 47 inch tall units stacked. I have watched too many home improvement shows where tall units are built off site only to not fit up stairs or around corners. The center unit is 94 inches tall and 19 inches wide, filling the wall exactly with only an inch of wiggle room to spare. I also added drawers to the open cubbies in the bed base. This was my first time making drawers, but Ana has instructions on the site, so it was no problem.The sides of the bed base facing the walls are just open cubbies as in the original plan. Beadboard paneling faces the drawer fronts, cabinet backs and the face of the headboards. Did I mention how much storage these beds have? The hollow headboards are not accessible once the center bookcase was in place, but that didn't stop me from filling them up. I had 6 Rubbermaid bins (18 gallon) in our basement full of stored Hot Wheels, Little People and other sets. All of the contents fit in the headboards alone. I also put some large saved toys in the under bed cubbies that face the wall. Yes, the Little People Garage will fit! My favorite modification was added an extra crosswise 1x3 that ties together a large section of the slats that support the mattress. This makes an easy lid allowing that you can lift to access even more storage under the mattress. We store their camping gear and off season clothes under the mattresses. I can't total the hours, I worked on this project on and off for about 9 months. When the building was nearing completion I started looking for bedding so I could match the paint colors to the bedding. I painted all the plywood back panels before attaching them to the cabinets. This was especially a life saver with back of the 9 cubby unit, as there are four colors in this section. After painting, everything was glazed with Valspar Translucent Color Glaze in Mocha. When this layer was dry I coated everything with a protective coat of Minwax Polycrylic. If you are wondering about dark circles are at the top of the unit near the ceiling, I had a great idea to use solar landscaping lights up there for a soft lighting effect. It looked great for a few nights until the batteries wore out. There is not enough natural light in the room to charge them. They have since been replaced with a couple strings of cheap colored lights. They are shoved way back towards the wall where you can't see the wires, but are on a timer, so at night they give a nice glow on the ceiling.

I have been holding a really cool farm pallet in the garage for 3 weeks.  I finally decided to use one of the slats with the 2x4 supports to make this bench.  Only 7.97 for a box of screws!

I'd built a table for my daughter and her roommates at college last year.  One of them is getting married this year and asked If I would mind building one for them.  They found a picture of this table someone had built and I tracked down your plans.  They needed it smaller so this one is 72" by 39" and I built the bench in a similar style.  

They wanted a smooth top (no grooves between boards) and no breaboard ends.  The table top wanted to warp a bit at the corners without the breadboards, so I imbedded some angle iron to keep it flat.

Rustic table plans with slight modification of the width and the legs were mounted differently for a little added flair. So many finishes to choose from....

I followed the Emersen Console plans, but with a few changes. The biggest in that I went with sliding doors because I didn't want the doors to open into the living room. This meant having the doors run between the face trim and a guide I tacked into the inside. I also adjusted all of the measurements to fit what I was planning on stuffing into it. I drilled a 3 inch hole in the bottom for all of the cords to run to the power bar and left a gap between the shelves and the back. I kept the wood light to contrast with my floor and painted the doors blue for a mid-century modern-ish feel.