Community Brag Posts

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

Great barn door cabinet build by Chuck A.

please see the full post here:
http://crabandfish.blogspot.com/2012/05/aaaahhhhi-love-our-bed.html

we built the hailey platform bed, modified for a king size mattress. we included four extra feet under the bed for additional stability.

This a great project that I built for a friend. She wanted it to be a little distressed, but she gave me creative license to I found a middle ground between rustic and distressed. I hand planed the top to create a great distressed look on the top.
This is a great project, but I would just pass along to make sure that you have enough room and enough help. This table is large and heavy.

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.

Console Table 

As a first-time user of pocket holes, I have to say they're brilliant! I learned from a lot the mistakes I made constructing the planter, but look forward to using variations of the plan for more planter projects. Thanks!

It took about two hours to construct, and then paint time. I used paint I had on hand (a paint store near me occasionally sells mis-mixed paint for $1/container), so I put on a white first coat and finished it with the green. It was a little too green, so I spray painted it with a light coat of bronze spray.

I attached the side slats to the outer 2"x"2 corner rather than the inner corner and subsequently found the 15-3/4" bottom slats a little too short. I had a spare furring strip on hand, so I cut another set a bit longer and they fit more securely. I haven't decided on finials yet; I may leave them off.

You can do this!
This mini farmhouse nightstand was my first building project. Of course Ana's easy to follow PDF's made it doable but check the tips above for cuts on your 2x2's. One rookie mistake I made was forgetting to double check my pieces. My 1x2's were actually thicker than 1" so they protrude from the side of my piece a bit. A sander could fix that. All in all so proud! Thanks to Ana and to everyone else for your brags.

P.S. A mini keg jig kit is SO worth the investment. I used standard wood-cost of about $20 including $4 for my drawer handle hardware. Kreg jig kit plus pocket hole screws were an additional $30 but I have plenty left for my next project;)

posted by Carmenh | on Mon, 2014-04-14 13:45 EDITREPLY

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.  

I was way overdue on building this toddler bed for my son. He really motivated me when he started repeatedly climbing out of his crib. The bed was very easy to make. The three things I would recommend are:

1. Do not use pocket holes on the footboard, so you don't have to fill all the holes. The nails worked great on the footboard and it is very sturdy.

2. Attach the side rails to the end board on the outside, not the inside. I found this out the hard way and had to take it apart and fix it.

3. Listen to Ana White and measure your mattress first. My son's fits, but I have to squeeze it in a little.

Great plans!

I changed it alittle by not having three posts and some I added a top shelf and cut holes for shot glasses. I also added wine glass holders to the bottoms cutting out a circle and slot.....Use t-molding mush easier and faster.

First bird house..! 

Shop was a mess and needed some organization. Beginner workworker so I decided to make some shop cabinets. Took awhile and they are not perfect but they work. Now I have plenty of storage for my tools.

I found this project on I different site (sorry) but really wanted to make it for our quest bathroom. It was not to difficult and it really helps to finish off our quest bathroom since it was missing a medicine cabinet.

Super easy to make this cubby bench! Used fabric to cover the the bottom shelf, and cut an extra piece of lumber to make an additional top. Will add 3 inch casters.

This was my first attempt at making furniture...but it turned out GREAT!  My fiance was about to buy a VERY similar dining room set for $1300 before I stopped her and insisted that I could build it myself, finish it to match our kitchen/dining room, and save a TON of money!