Community Brag Posts

My husband and I loved the Squared2 Chair we saw on this site and we knew that we wanted to have this design for our dining chairs. As my building experience has increased, I thought it was time to try. This is my first chair: it is not perfectly executed, but I learned a few things along the way and I've decided to buy a few tools, too. I modified the square back pattern cut lengths explained briefly on my little blog.

With another baby on the way in a few months, we decided to move our 2+ year old daughter across the hall into her first big girl room. I built big sister the Kendal Extra Wide Dresser, Traditional Wood Toddler Bed, Letter A Shelf and a Dollhouse Bookcase and matched the colors with her new comforter, lamps and princess canopy tent from the Land of Nod outlet.

This is a pretty easy project to build with the right tools. For the backing, I used beadboard plywood that I had leftover from the headboard of the toddler bed. The one tricky thing was how to actually hang the bookshelf. The weight of wood for the shelf is somewhat heavy and that's before anything even goes in/on top of it. After a few trips to the big boxes, I decided on using a heavy duty mirror hanger, which so far, has worked great. 

Outdoor Couches made from the plans on the website.  Added 2 2x4's on back top to add support when leaning back.  Also added vertical supports on the back to help with added weight.

Stained and Sealed with Natural Cedar Stain and Sealer

had a lot of scraps and put them to good use with this shelf, east to change out any art/photos my kids would like on their walls, size of frames, etc...without nailing frames, changing positioning, just re-arrange on the shelf :)

This was my first furniture build so there was plenty of trial and error but overall a good learning experience. The middle walls were made using the same notching techniques as the plan, but with one big notch and several 2x4s.

Building was the fun part, finishing was not. Started with a belt sander and after digging into the wood too many times I tried an orbital. Had to resand due to swirl marks from the orbital sander. Hand sanded from 100 grit to 220 grit, applied gel stain and noticed the wood grain had completely disappeared. Seems like the pores were too closed from the fine sand paper so took it back to 150 grit and it was all good.

I adjusted the size to be a total lenght of 71 inches by 40 inches wide. 

I put all the boards through the table saw to create the flat edges whcih allowed for the flush table top.  Had difficulties with the X cuts, but turned out nicely.

Used a mix of 2 stains to reach the grey, almost barnwood look. Love the way it looks.

I LOVED creating this bench! It was quick and easy.

I really wanted an upholstered top with nailhead trim so even though the plans didn't call for it, I did it anyway :) I left off the top piece after building the rest of the bench, and upholstered it with 2" foam and batting. I used outdoor fabric because my dogs may be using the bench to get on/off the bed, and I figured it would be easier to keep clean! Luckily, my local Jo-Ann store just put out a plethora of outdoor fabrics, and they were 50% off (as was the foam!). After the upholstering was finished, I used nailhead trim because I LOVE the look. Then, I attached the top by turning it upside down and setting the bench upside down on top of it, and nailing the two together.

I decided to paint the bench white instead of staining, and I'm so glad I did. I feel that it gives the piece a certain sophistication, and it goes perfectly in the bedroom.

100% happy with this piece!

I was a bit over my head with this one but I am so far very happy with the project. It is not quite finished. The marble was installed last week and we are awating the plumber to come back to hook up the sinks. I will install the second slatted shelf once the plumbing is in. Will post finished pictures soon. The mirror is made from 6x6 posts from the lumber yard. We had a friend cut them to size using a band saw. We made the mirror frame based on a picture I found on Houzz.com. The mirror glass was something I picked up off of craigslist for next to nothing and removed from the original frame. It is HEAVY (~200lbs) and attached to the wall with metal brackets. We purchased the sinks/faucets on ebay. 

After viewing her project I decided to make a morphed version for my miter saw/router. It also houses most of my tools, screws,  jigs,  etc. Thanks for the idea Ana

We made the providence benches a little bigger to fit our space perfectly and painted them RED for pop. Soooooo many compliments from our neighbors!

Made whith Pine, Changing Table fitting with Kendal wide dresser.

This design was straight forward and easy to modify - made the bench deeper and shorter, and added a shelf.

I used pine wood and minwax walnut stain. I did run into a minor issue with a few of the slat boards being warped so I ended up screwing on (3) 1x3's onto the back, perpendicular to the slats, so the boards sat flat and their edges were flush. This also added more stability to the project. One coat of stain did the trick for the color we were going for. For such an easy project, this makes a big difference in the look and feel of our bedroom.

Since I am a very visual person when it comes to drawings and 2D/3D renderings, I have included pictures of the cut list shown on the boards you will need to use.  I hope this helps some people!  Keep in mind, if you use side mount drawer slides like I did, you need 3 extra 15.75" pieces for the slides to mount to.  I just used extra 1x3 boards I had hanging around.

We built this dresser plan to be used as a dresser / change table combo.  The guy at the home improvement store said to use oil based polyurethane so that it was more resistant to change table spills and traffic/wear over the years.  The oil based poly also added a nice amber color to the stained wood which I really liked.

This is the most complicated project I've made so far (because I've never made a plan with drawers), but after a couple tables and a desk from Ana's site (and referencing Shanty-2-chic also) I was confident that it would turn out well.

Change from the original plans --> We used 16in ball bearing "soft close" side-mount drawer slides instead of the euro style bottom corner mount ones mentioned in the plans. This requires adding the supports shaded in blue on the plans near step #7 pictures.  Getting the exact spacing width for those slides was a bit tricky and the drawer boxes had to be within 1/16" for them to work, so if you want simple you might want to stick to the euro style ones.  They allow for more "play" in the operation. 

Tip for attaching drawer faces:  For one thing, make the attahcment of the top and back of the dresser the LAST two steps you do on the whole project since it makes installing drawer slides and drawer faces a breeze.  That said, when it cam time for attached the front of the drawers I used 1/8" tile spacers all around the sides to make sure that gap was uniform and correct (see pic #4).  It was the simplest way I thought about of going about it.  Mounting the drawer boxes to the slides needed to be done before attaching the face boards for me.  And instead of nailing the faces on from the front and then screwing from behind; I put glue on the drawer box, put the face board in place using the tile spacers, and then added screws from the inside of the frame side.  It was a breeze. 

As the plans stated, I attached the top with PH screws through the side panels and six countersunk screws in the 2x2s along the width of the top using 2" screws.  It would have been a lot simpler to install the countersunk ones if I had a right angle drill or short handles screw driver, but I did not, so I made a normal one work.

If you have any more specific questions about my version of this project please let me know.  I was hoping to get to share more than 5 pictures, but that seems to be all the posts let you put up so I tried to included the most helpful ones.

got a kreg jig for mother's day and tried it out on that dead space in my broom closet.  I made $10 shelves, but in a "Z" shape instead of a "U" shape so I could attach from below and have more room on the shelf for cleaning supply storage.

 I used a 1x6 for the shelf and spray painted them black with some paint I already had.  So easy!  I used a 1x4 with a block of wood to hold up one end of the shelf so I could screw it into the cabinet.  Then leveled it and added second screw.  Awesome first project!  I learned a lot and got a place to put my spray bottles.

Sorry for the dark photo, my cabinets are black cherry.