Community Brag Posts

Small chopping block table for my son.

I decided to build this bedside table for a friend of mine who just graduated from college as a special graduation gift. I thought it was a beautiful plan, and knew she would love it. This table was fairly easy to build and easy to finish. I ran into problems with the shelf, at first I decided to just add 1x2's around the bottom, but didn't like that and then built the shelf with a "frame" around it. It turned out nice, I hope she likes it.

We needed a sturdy table that we could put our son up to. We looked around at a few different options and discovered this plan that we could build on our own for the same price it would have cost us to buy a used table. I have built a few small things like a bookshelf and a headboard, but this is by far the biggest project I have ever done. It took about 5 hours on a Friday afternoon and about 8 hours on a Saturday to get the construction and first coat of stain on. After that we put 3 coats of a satin polyurethane on over the course of the next several days. We are really happy with how this turned out and it was a relatively simple project.

I wanted a square table that was standard height but not too big for my 9' by 9' breakfast area. I used the plans for the square modern farmhouse table, but mine is a 47 inch square. It seats 6 easily (and the chairs tuck in), but can seat 8 if we need it to. It turned out great!

I made this Console table for our entrance way! I modified the plans by adding an extra 10" in height and included a second shelf. We are now using the bottom for a shoe rack and the middle for hats, mitts and stuff! It's a perfect fit for our front entrance!
It was my first time with drawers so I had a bit of trouble. But they open and close and aren't too lopsided, so I guess they are a success! Love these plans!

I liked Kristi's version of the modern craft desk but I decided to add another cubby area. I have a lot of art things and I like for them to be organized. Here is Kristi's version: http://www.ana-white.com/2013/10/kristis-craft-desk

I really love the way it turned out and I've definitely got my use out of it.

I searched for nice shoe storage for ages and found these plans on this awesome website and even though it is an intermediate project I gave it a try. As you can see my drawers and the whole thing in general is squint but I am proud of my first ever build project. It took me 2 evenings to complete.
I added some drawers for my jewelry like one by balard designs.
I hope my next project has better right angles and joints.
Oh and I used a Kreg jig and it is amazing!!!

I used white shelves from the home store, that I cut to size. I live in Saudi Arabia so wood is not so easy to find. Maybe I can use palm trees next time!

While our daughter initially freaked out at the thought of standing on this, she is starting to come around. The adjustable level will make this a mainstay next to our kitchen island for the next few years.

2x6's all the way up the sides, added window and "roof"

picket fence rails and angled  ladder

I LOVE the Farmhouse bed but wanted to do something new with it. After looking through some other brag posts for inspiration I made my own blend of things to get what I wanted. There are a a few things I did differently than the original Cali Kinf Bed instructions, which are noted in a list below.

I'm a military wife so whatever I made needed to be easily taken apart, moved, and put back together. For this I used 2x4 joist hangers on the inside of the side rails and cut 2x4's to width. I also wanted to have storage available under the bed so I made it a little higher, 12 inches rather than 10. I should have also made the overall headboard 2 inches higher as well, not just the spot the side rails sit on. Our mattress is a little taller against the headboard than I thought it would be. That's the only thing I'd of done differently.

I didn't use 4x4s for the foot board sides, I did use 2x4's and put them together like the headboard instructions with the slot for the side rail. The difference in mine is that I added thin backer board on the front of the 2x4 and mounted the foot board flush with that, and then used wood filler to smooth around the edges and give it the appearance of a 4x4. Adds a little more work but it was well worth it.

~ I did not use 2x4s laid on top of the finished head and foot boards
~ The headboard top has a 1x6 rather than the 1x4
~ I added rope chair rail on the tops of the head and foot boards
~ I added cove molding around the plank section of the head and foot boards
~ The very top pieces of wood on the head and foot boards have a 1 inch overlap to the back of the 2x4 sides. This allows space for floor trim behind the headboard and comforter stuffing behind the foot board.
~ I added molding to the bottom of the side rails, they looked too plain with the rest of it together and that made a big different in the overall look.

Overall I'm very happy with the way this build turned out, especially for my first furniture build!

This is one of my first furnish DIY projects.

I really had trouble to pick defect-free 1x6 boards at my local home depot, and it took me two different store trips to get all I wanted.

I spent more time than what the plan estimated. The drawer rails were tricky to install. In the end I had to disassemble the drawers and trim them down a little bit in order to get the rails fit.

Great plans. Fairly easy project. My husband built it and I stained it, Briarsmoke by Varathane. The most difficult part was to get the bread boards to sit flush with the perpendicular boards when attached. We had to undo and re-do that part several times. We followed the plans and built the table base before adding the bread boards at the end, but my husband decided that it would have been easier to attache one end of each board to the bread board, then attach the perpendicular boards together, then attach the other bread board.

UPDATE: For everyone that was asking to see additional photos, I have uploaded them all to flickr. Here is the link: HERE Since doing this table I have built probably 15 more just like this one and developed a much better process then in the pictures above.  If you have any questions or want to chat about it further shoot me a comment or email at [email protected].

I had originally seen this table on the Pottery Barn website. My wife and I really liked it but couldn't afford to pay the $1200 bucks after tax and shipping. it didn't look to difficult to build so I decided to give it a shot. The wood for the top of the table was almost 3in thick 4.5in wide and 51in long. It was wood from an old pallet that was used to transport a very large air handler. Very heavy dense wood. Since the lengths were only 51 inches I opted to put 2 horizontal pieces on either side to extend the total length to approx 70in. I was inspired by the plans for the benchwright table that I saw on this site but chose to deviate from the plans on here to make it as close to the real thing as possible. I also happen to have access to very thick pieces of hardwood. The only thing I had to buy at lowes were the legs. The legs are 4x4 Douglas fir posts. The top pieces were all glued and screwed together. The ends were also done this way but had a very large lag bolt that held them together to match the pottery barn table. This was originally very rough wood so anything to help get the warp out was used. The legs are set at a 10 degree angle and the table stand 30 in tall. The hardest part of this table was finding the turnbuckle and the threaded rods so it could officially be 99% like the pottery barn table. I also had no idea how hard it was to find left hand threaded anything. I ended up finding everything I need at McMaster.com and my local Fastenal store. To make the brackets that went on either side of the rods i simply bought a piece of 1/8 sheet metal at my local Home depot and cut it to size. They also sold hammered brown paint which gave the metal a worked old look. Once this was all constructed I used two heavy coats of wood conditioner to seal the wood. This was the key to getting the color I wanted. It tells you on the can not to let the wood conditioner dry on the wood but if it does, when you apply the stain you get a 100% consistent color. Worked wonders. It almost felt like I was cheating. I used a water based condition and stained it with rustoleums "dark walnut" stain. Finished it with 5 coats of minwax semi gloss. I only did 5 coats because I was brushing it on and had trouble getting the bubbles out of it. In the final picture it looks much shinier then it is in person. The last picture of when it was still in my garage is a better indication of the final finish. I have a boat load of additional picture, so if you have any questions or want to see more pictures of how it was constructed, shoot me a message. Thanks!