Community Brag Posts

I built the Simple Bed into bunk beds. The plans for this project are pretty straight forward. The only change I made in the plans, was use 2" x 4" angle plates to mount the side rails to the head and foot boards. This made it easy to assemble and disassemble if the beds needed to be separated or moved. I also had to use two 2"x4"'s mated together to make the bed posts since 4"x4"'s are only available pressure treated. The ladder is constructed of 2"x4" with the steps spaced 10" on center. 

I made the barn wood frame for less than $30 (the plexiglass alone was $23!). It's better than the $80 they were going to charge me at the frame shop for the same style! I used an opaque black stain to both hide my not so accurate miter cuts and give it a modern feel. I'm very satisfied with the results!

My first project using Ana White plans. Used pressure treated lumber and Kreg pocket hole jig. Cost: $126.

My original plan was for a laundry cart or stand for laundry baskets. I ended up building one that is pretty big for 4 baskets, a shelf on top, and elevated 10" on the bottom for our Roomba vacuum to be stored.

After yet another move (this time to Monterey, CA) and with a baby on the way, it was time to build the girls some big-girl beds of their very own. I was going to need to re-convert their double bed back into its original crib form by September, so in June, I started looking for plans. When I stumbled on Jenny's "Sweet Pea" bunk beds, I knew I'd found a winner! She also made it sound so easy, and I'd only assisted my dad on remodeling projects, never built anything from scratch. But I was familiar with the tools and terminology, so six months pregnant and in a serious nesting phase, I got to work. My hubs helped with the heavy lifting and I had some friends assist with sanding and priming -- many hands do indeed make light work! It took just under a month working four to six hours a day (on average), five to six days a week. I used screws for EVERYTHING, as this baby has to come apart easily for future moves (and does it ever -- Jenny's not kidding when she says you can have it up and down in ten minutes!). I'm most proud of the roof -- I had originally planned on finding real cedar shingles, but those babies are expensive! So I came up with idea of using door shims. A pack of 12-15 is only a couple bucks, and it took about 24 packs to cover the entire roof. I found some light wood trim and glued/screwed it to the edges, slathered on some pink paint, and voila! A wood shingle roof! The whole project ended up costing nearly double what I'd originally budgeted, but I'm so happy with it and my girls love it so much that I don't really care. Plus, if I'd had this baby custom made, it would probably have cost quadruple (at least!) what I paid in building materials. Let me know if you have any questions -- I'm happy to share what (little) I know :)!

Closet by Joanie

We built this master closet using the simple closet plan. It looks wonderful and wasn't too difficult to do once we determined the measurements we needed to use to fit our closet. My husband does not have much building experience at all, but he was able to do this with Ana's fabulous plans. Thank you so much for saving us hundreds of dollars! We have real wood in our closet and we love it!

We used plywood and painted all surfaces with indoor latex trim paint.

This was our first project; and definitley and inspiration to do more. I am so excited to have this in our dining room. Project took about 8 hrs to build and 4-5 days to stain and poly. We used a Gunstock stain with 2 coats of Walnut over that.

Overall cost was about $150 with wood, stain, materials and poly. We ended up working with 2 types of wood (yellow & white pine) which proved frustrating as we tried to match the stain color. All ended up OK after a couple of trial and error on some scrap wood.

I can't wait to make the matching benches. Thanks Ana!

We made the grilling station to keep at our seasonal campsite and it's absolutely fantastic! We have since added some L brackets and 2 shelves, and this is where we store our extra cases of water, soft drinks, outdoor cooking utensils plus an air fryer! Super easy plans, with well written instructions for even the novice (me and hubs) diy builders!

Ali W.

Thanks for the plans, Ana!

I knew I needed a sandbox for my toddler, and saw the original on pinterest. I was so happy when I came here looking for designs and saw that someone had created a plan for this. I think I'm more excited about it than my little guy is.

The plan was easy to follow, and it went together quickly. Thank you very much for these plans

I think I get more compliments on these galley shelves/picture ledges than anything else I’ve made, and these were probably the easiest things to make!

It cost me about $25 a piece but they were nearly 8 feet long each. I used a paint sprayer to paint them, WAY easier than brushing on the paint! watch for drips though (my first time using a sprayer, treat it like spray paint, light easy coats!)