Community Brag Posts

The 4-foot "classic beadboard" wall shelf is simple and cheap to make and it looks great for hanging pictures or decorations on the wall. The project requires only about $10 in materials, but it does required more advanced tools such as a chop saw, table saw, jig saw and router. Comparable shelves sell at between $60-$80.

I can build the project is about 1-2 hours, but it may take longer if you don't have all your tools set up. The plans are free on my woodworking blog at: http://www.jrlwoodworking.com/

You can also make the shelf in 2-foot and 3-foot lengths, simply shrink all the horizontal dimensions by one or two feet.

My hubby is 6'5'' tall. Since most matresses are 80 inches long, he mostly ends up with his feet hanging out of the bed (since you don't lay your head down at the very beginning of the mattress, right?). So I tried to solve this problem by making the bed 4'' longer than the plans suggested. I added 2'' of foam on each end of the bed, so now its 84'' long and my hubby fits perfectly!

Thanks for the great plans, I had a blast building my own bed!

X console 

This was my first project and I LOVE it. We desperately needed to get a new table for our kitchen, and thanks to Ana... here she is. I love it. I cannot wait until I build more things. The Handbuilt Home is ear marked for many projects. I am such a geek, I have not only the book, but the digital version as well. This is so helpful because the digital version is on my phone and I have it readily available when I go to the store. I cannot recommend this book enough. Ana exudes confidence and that helped me to pick up that circular saw. NO FEAR! Ok, I was petrified that first cut, and probably all of the other cuts too, but it didn't stop me.

This table was so time consuming because I have three children and those little stinkers take up at lot of time. I am positive if I could have dedicated a day or two just to this project, I would have been done sooner. I underestimated how much time needs to be dedicated to sanding and staining and sanding and sanding :) I also underestimated how heavy this table is. I needed help to turn this table right side up.

All in all, I could not be happier with the finished project.

My daughter and I used these easy plans to build these two shelving units for the garage. We altered the plan slightly.The sizes that I used were determined by the lumber I had available as we used rescued lumber for this project. The height on each is 5' (tallest 2x4's we had) and the length is 64". All I had for 2x4's were 48" pieces so we used some other rescued lumber for the shelves. We used whatever we had. So they are made from misc lumber. The 2x material made for the strongest shelves. Depth is 17" as in original plans. 

We added additional brackets for support under a couple of the shelves. We also attached to the wall to avoid tipping. I absolutely love these. So useful. No more unstacking each tote to find out what's in the bottom one. I LOVE IT! Thanks for the plans.

We completed these in one afternoon. 

Great way to turn inexpensive pine into a beautiful piece. Our wood was quite wet so we were extra careful to keep it tight and straight. Once the top was assembled, out came the torch! The torch provided an instant partial drying of the wood causing a great bonding and snug fit. The flame brought out the grain in various colors. We opted to use polyurethane as a finish.

Of course we had to make benches to match! 

I'm really happy with how this project turned out.
To attach the beds together I deviated from the original instructions and instead attached the headboard header to the headboard itself instead of to the feet of the upper bunk as directed. I used 3/4" dowels to attach the two beds, drilling 3" into the bottom bunk (through the header and into the posts), and 2" into the legs of the top bunk. This way the beds will easily come apart. They are incredibly secure, and incredibly heavy!

My boyfriend and I made this bed in about six hours on a saturday. The instractions were easy to follow and I am in love with this bed! Its very sturdy and i get tons of compliments on it! 

Thanks for the amazing detail in your plans. I was able to make this table for my family. 

One of the projects that I've wanted to tackle for a long time has been adding built-in bookshelves to the sides of my existing fireplace. This fireplace (and I'm assuming the mantel) was original to the house and I wanted to create an addition that would look seamless and tie into the existing woodwork. I began designing a piece above the mantel to give the fireplace some height and then I designed the flanking bookcases to match. All of the project details and free step-by-step instructions can be found on my website at: www.momthebuilder.net

I modified the original plan so that it would fit in the area wher my old linen cabinet was.  I also wanted the drawers to be visible.

We had a dark corner in the living room that was needing some light. I had two vintage pendant lamps (amazing thrift store find) and leftover barn wood from my farm table build. I decided to build a frame to hang the lights in the corner. For less than $10 I have a completely unique lighting solution.

built to fit messy corner.  wife loves it there!

My husband and I decided to tackle this as our second woodworking project together. We have been wanting a larger dining table that would comfortably seat 6 people and easily squeeze in 8 if needed. We decided to build Ana's turned leg farmhouse table, adjusting the dimensions and choosing slightly different legs. These variations better suited our dining room space.

We purchased the "Modified English Country Dining Table Legs" in soft maple and 3 1/2" diameter from Osbourne Wood Products, which totaled $136. The rest of the lumber was made up of pine boards from Lowe's, which totaled around $40-$50. When assembling the 1 x 10 boards to make the top, we used a biscuit joiner to help our slightly bowed boards stay flat. Once the table was fully assembled, we painted the base in Lowe's Antique White (satin finish) and stained the top using Minwax's Special Walnut, then applied at least two coats of Minwax's polyurethane in satin finish.

We made a couple of mistakes along the way which actually worked out for the best, giving the table some rustic character. Being relatively new to woodworking, we neglected to thoroughly wipe the 1 x 10 boards of all wood glue before the glue dried, making it difficult to remove later with sanding. Some wood glue remained, which showed up later once boards were stained. We ended up liking how this turned out to give it some charm and more of that 'handmade' look.