Community Brag Posts

Dark walnut finish

I sometimes really struggle with making this bed, mostly because it's huge and heavy and not a one person assembly. For some reason I still insist on trying to go solo, and it never ever works out. I was in search of some method that would not only make assembly easier and possibly a one gal gig, but also add to the stability factor.

I decided to grab some metal brackets often used in putting together decks or fencing to use as cross braces for my box spring support. This made it much much easier!

This desk was made using the "Fancy X Desk" and "Modular Office Base" plans. A CPU enclosure was added with a similar "X" design. The top is 3/4'' plywood with 1x2's and 2x2's providing the framing. A 1x4 runs down the back of the desk with a cord try to hide cables.

I made this sawhorse desk for my 11 year old daughter's room makeover. It's a nice, simple plan that was fast to cut and assemble. I would trim the top of the saw horse legs to be under 24 inches to make sure it completely fits under the desk top. I may add a backsplash type backing.

For my niece's birthday, we used Rayan's plans (over at the Design Confidential) to build an industrial folding chalkboard sign. I used 1/4" MDF for the chalkboards for smoothness and 1x2 pine for the frame, stained one coat of ebony & one coat of rustoleum "sunbleached" stain. I totally forgot to take pictures before we dropped it off, but it was super easy and a real hit!

I had a perfect corner in our playroom that was reserved mostly for clutter and always wanted to do something fun with it. The base is made with 2x8"s topped with Handscraped Hickory laminate flooring. Bored holes into the floor and installed 1" diameter color-changing LED decklights. Added theatre-style tracklights, disco ball and other dance floor lighting for extra effect. Of course the stage wouldn't be complete without wireless microphones for karaoke and mic stands hooked up to a small amp and speakers in the ceiling. I made the shelving on the right side with 1/2" black pipe and used leftover 2x12" shelves from an old garage shelving install from 7 years ago! The kids were ecstatic on Christmas morning for the reveal!

Outdoor sectional.  Modified the sectional piece to be 48" rather than 72" as in plans.

After searching for months for a coffee table I found one and put my DH to work. This is his first time making any type of furniture and I think he did an awesome job. We used Red Oak for the table and it weighs a ton :)

This plan was spot on but i do suggest when sinking the pocket screws to secure the table tank it slow and do not over sink them they will protrude from the table top. This was fun to build.

This past summer I was blessed with an opportunity to get some really old wood out of a barn that was built before the civil war. The barn sat on a 1000 acre farm.

I was so inspired by Ana's plans I made two tables, that can be put side by side, alongside each other or used as two separate tables with benches. I also made a bar with granite top...... It was lots of sanding as I did not have a planer at the time, but I love the finished project and get compliments by all that see it. Thank you Ana White.

Cathy B

This was our first build, so it was definitely a learning process! We followed the plans pretty closely, with a few minor modifications to suit our needs. The finish was inspired by CreativePineapple's stain/white paint combo - we loved it so much that we had to do our own version!

The center console section was built out of 3/4" MDF - we knew we were going to paint, as opposed to stain, and it was quite a bit cheaper. We primed and painted this section as we went, as we knew that getting our hands/brushes into the cubbies after assembly would be difficult. This added to the time to finish, but it did make for an easier (and probably more even) paint job.

The side panels and back (not shown - we still need to do cutouts for cords before we attach) are 1/4" plywood. The legs are untreated SPF 4x4s, and were definitely where we ran into the most problems. Finidng untreated 4x4's was difficult enough, and when we finally found one that didn't have a ton of chunks and dings in it, we had problems with wood cracking when we got it home. We waited until the wood had acclimatized to our home and stopped cracking, wood-filled the cracks where we could and tried to position the legs so the cracks were facing the console, and hidden. Luckily, this approach was successful, and you can't tell that cracking was an issue. In retrospect, I probably should have just gone with cedar, particularly since we weren't staining it and it wouldn't have mattered that it was different from our other pine boards.

The only placed where we really differed from the plans was adding additional trim to the front section, as opposed to edge binding. The trim was simple 1x2s, similar to the bottom trim.

We primed and painted the entire white bottom section before attaching the top, which was made of stud-grade spruce 2x4's. We used a wood conditioner on the spruce before staining, as it is such a soft wood. The stain was left on for 15-20 minutes before wiping, as we knew we wanted a darker, richer colour. Two coats were required to get the shade we wanted (3 on one board which wasn't soaking up the stain as well). We then finished with 3 coats of Varathane Diamond Wood Finish, to get an especially glossy finish.

We were blessed with a LARGE TV for Christmas. Totally unexpected. So I needed to build a table for it to sit on. I previously made a narrow farmhouse table and liked the look of it. So I decided to make a smaller version with two shelves underneath. To reduce clutter, I built a couple of "towers" for the x-box, dvd, and wii to sit on (2 half boxes with 1x4 sides with 1x4's nailed across the top.) Dimensions of table are 48 inches long x 22 inches wide x 32 inches tall. (TV is a 60 inch and I think it fits great!) I used pocket holes and 1.25 inch pocket hole screws to attach everything-except I nailed the shelves down to the supports using 1 1/4 inch finishing nails and used 1.25 wood screws to attach legs to apron and supports to legs. I ripped the 1x4's down to 3 inches on the leg front and 2.75 on the sides to make them uniform. Also the aprons I ripped down to 3 inches wide. The shelf supports are about 1.5 inches wide and the shelves themselves are about 18.5 inches wide.

Hubby followed the plans exactly, using cheap whiteboard from Lowe's. I stained using Minwax dark walnut and a water-based Minwax poly with a matte finish. I would only use this kind of wood again if I were painting the project. It is hard to stain and my options were limited, because the wood doesn't take stain well. Love how "pottery barn" it ended up coming out, though!