Community Brag Posts

We shortened the table and lengthened the benches - you can see all our details and changes in the blog link.

I build this limonade stand, together with my granddaughter  with inspiration from Ana White

Br Knud from Denmark

This was my first finished project using plans from Ana's site, and I am very pleased with the finished product. Every aspect of the finished sideboard is based on something from the site. I started with the plans for the Planked Wood Sideboard, and made no modifications as the dimensions were perfect for our basement family room. I decided to inset the back (http://www.friendly-home.net/2012/02/gigantic-rustic-sideboard.html) as Ana explained that Hillary had done, and love the final result. This will allow us to use this to potentially divide a room in an open concept space at some point in the future.

For the finishing process, I decided to follow the "Rustic Yet Refined" finish tutorial highlighted on both the Ana-White site (http://ana-white.com/2013/08/rustic-yet-refined-wood-finish) and Jen Woodhouse House of Wood (http://jenwoodhouse.com/blog/2013/06/07/diy-dining-table/). I fully intended to complete the 9 step process, but found that after we applied the Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner, followed by Minwax special walnut stain and wiped it off within 15-30 seconds, the finish mirrored the restoration hardware finish that we were going for. We decided not to proceed with layering on the weathered oak or applying the whitewash, and went straight to the spar urethane satin coats.

Overall, the project was a success, but was difficult to finish during the Minnesota winter as it was unbelievably cold and was forced to complete the finishing process in our basement/laundry room, which extended the length of the project. I am very excited to begin building other pieces from Ana's plans.

This was my 5th build. Took a few weekends working in the morning. Table is Weathered Oak (base) and Early American (top) stain. Modified the plans to make it slightly smaller so it would fit better in my kitchen. Very sturdy and table looks gorgeous in person, very happy.

The toy room needed some attractive storage for the books and puzzles instead of the floor! Enter this plan. I shortened the shelves to 36" and fastened the shelves to 1x2 stretchers that I fastened to the inside of the sides. I hid them by nailing a face frame to it made of 1x2s. I used beadboard for the back, which I painted before attaching it.
I had a hiccup when I forgot to use my square and had to backtrack some, which made this project longer than I anticipated.

We built the farmhouse king size bed over the last week. We used 2x4 hangers to hold the 2x4's in place and used 2x4's to support the mattress. We put 7/16" plywood on top of the 2x4's to support the mattress. We struggled with how we were going to attach the side rails to the bed frame and finally came up with a way we felt would be strong enough. Please see the pictures included to see exactly how we attached the rails to the bed frame. We used lag bolts, and metal brackets.

I built this play kitchen for my daughter's second birthday during my newborn son's short naps or often with him strapped to me in his baby carrier. I spent more money on higher quality wood to save myself time and effort sanding the wood down. I splurged on a drinking faucet as it was the perfect size and a mini version of my real kitchen faucet. I used magnets on the fridge doors and oven door and a simple ribbon to prevent the oven door from opening too wide. I have built a few things befor-shelves, table, baby gate but consider myself a beginner who is still learning a lot about woodworking.

Thanks for the instructions! Here's my version. I haven't built much of anything before, but I needed it in my basement to handle kids' stuff. My version is 18 feet long. I combined a 12-foot and 6-foot 2x4 to get that length, which meant less cutting, which I had done at Lowe's (for free). I used the 6-foot 2x4s throughout the shelf to ensure it was strong (in other words, I didn't want a 12-foot "section" and a weaker 6-foot "section" added on).

I was able to get everything in my car but the ride home was slow. I also had to use my egress window to get the 12-foot boards in the basement.

Total cost for me was about $170 including a couple boxes of screws and wood glue. I could've easily spent double the cost on store-bought shelving. Thanks for the plans!

My husband and I built this counter height with specs of 351/2" high x 25" wide x 48" long. We are using it in our kitchen as a prep island.

My oldest son really wanted a toy cash register, and he loves pretending he has a Bait & Tackle shop. I built the market base where the front side is for "Will's Stop 'n' Shop" and it can be turned around and used for "Wyatt's Bait and Tackle". The countertop holds the cash register and shopping basket perfectly. They are great Shopkeepers!

This is a twist on the Modular Family Entryway Mudroom System - Pullout Rolling Bench Cart . There have been many posts on the net for a mudroom locker set such as the one I have. In our case we had a mudroom with a closet, not much room to move when sliding the doors open, and as well we have kids that need a place to sit in order to put boots/shoes etc on. I took advantage of my husband's work assignment out of the country to rip back the closet,to 20 inches deep and open it up and added a bench for seating, baskets above for out of season/rarely used stuff, and used rolling cubbies below, but in my case I wanted storage bins instead. My thinking was so that I could make it look clean pretty quickly by just chucking every thing in to the bin... These are tall enough for our boots. In the bottom of the bins I put a piece of outdoor carpeting, then a plastic grid, and over that another layer of outdoor carpeting so if the footwear is wet it will drain and dry-no biggie to vacume or sweep out. Best deal: I can simply roll them out of the way when I want to sweep underneath! I measured cubby space to basket size above, and made the bins below after doing the bench and middle supports, to ensure a good fit. The bench top is an old piece of pine board I sanded, stained and used 4 coats of marine varnish so it would take lots of wear and tear.