Community Brag Posts

My wife and I decided it was time to give our new TV a home. We began looking on ana-white.com and saw a beautiful black entertainment center. That is where I received my inspiration. It is a very similar design however, I decided to change the color and add inset doorsand drawers.

Everywhere we looked for an entertainment center, it was either too pricey, or the measurements were not right. I decided to come up with a plan for an entertainment center that would fit perfectly into our little niche.

I've done a couple of things from plans on this site but this turned out awesome. We had some old weathered rocking chairs that I dismantled and was able to use some of the wood for these Adirondack chairs.

Could have gone with a dark stain but the gray really worked well on this. Pretty simple build and very sturdy chairs. I loved this project and will certainly be making more of these.

My wife found this design on your site and set about convincing me that it would be a good idea to replace the (new) IKEA loft beds that we had recently bought.

The loft beds were not such a great idea as they were 7 feet tall in an 8 foot tall room. Needless to say, i didnt need all that much convincing that replacing them was a good idea...so the first step was to list the loft beds on ebay to fund the builds. They sold for nearly 2/3rds what we purchased them for so we were very happy with that!

Armed with our cash we set off for the Hardware store to pick up our timber, drop saw and coach bolts. We purchased all the timber that we needed and the screws and (i dont know what they are called but) the things that you screw onto the post and the rails to allow them to slot into one another and be pulled apart relatively easily (see the image titled Foot).

We made the bed head slightly lower than the plan calls for and made the foot exactly half the size for uniformity (1200 high and 600 high respectively). We recycled the side rails from an old 1980's waterbed (which saved us considerable money and gave the bed the nice chunky feel we were looking for. Additionally, we raised them 350mm off the ground so that we have space for the future trundles that will be built (watch this space!).

To give the slats in the bed head and foot a little more of a framed appearance, we mitre some 19mm x 30mm beading timber to fill around the slats in either end. You can see this from the pics. We then added some non structural pine to the inside of the rails for the bed base to be affixed to.

After some research, we discovered that it was in fact cheaper and easier to purchase the slats already done and tied together with the polyester strap from ikea...(its called the sultan lade bed base if anyone is interested). I then drilled holes in either end of the slats and screwed them to the rails. This helps with both Rigidity and mattress support as it stops the slats from sliding around the place.

The bed was then filled with putty in the knots, cracks, nail and screw holes, sanded, then painted. I used a water based undercoat followed by 6 coats of semi gloss acrylic applied using a mini (100mm) roller. This has given a lovely silky texture to the paint that has to be felt to be believed.

All up we spent a little over $140.00 on material (but if we needed to buy the rails it would have been over $200.00...still a bargain considering we have seen a very similar bed in the retail stores for over $1000.00!

Just yesterday I won a second hand (donor) bed on ebay...watch out as I start my next build.

Thanks Ana, without you putting this out there, my wife would never have found it and I would never have built it.

We built this for our daughter's 6th birthday! Love how it turned out :D  As you can see we opted to leave the plywood backing off for the time being so she can use it as a doll house and play on both sides. When she grows out of the doll house phase we will either convert it to a book shelf, donate, or sell in a yard sale ... so many options!

I am loving my new garage shelves.  They were my first woodworking project and very easy to do!  I left the bottom right side open to fit my outdoor table and chairs in the winter (I live in Michigan).  I also used thicker plywood than plan because my shelves are a bit deeper.

Thank you so much for the plans Anna.  My two year old absolutely loved this Christmas present.  I used drains for the stove tops and added a wire rack to the stove and tiled the backsplash.    

I desperately needed some storage in my workroom and finally decided to make this! It's from the 6 Cube Bookshelf plan and it works perfectly in this space I've got in my workroom.
I would've rather used real wood throughout, but this is my first proper project and to keep the cost down I used MDF for the main boards (all cut to size by my local B&Q, yay!) and planed whitewood 1x2s.
I definitely learnt a lot on this project, but most of the mistakes are hidden under the paint :-) and in the end I'm really pleased.
I wanted an off-white finish and, after a baffling time in the paint aisle, chose a very pale grey, it sits in the room perfectly! I'm hoping to make some fabric boxes for it, but not sure what colours I want yet.
Now for the next project...

I used the chicken shed plans to create the coop, with a modification to include two nesting boxes, one on each side.

I slightly modified the nesting boxes, using a U shaped frame and added hinges for the front to swing down and the pine shavings to be swept out.

For the siding, we found it easiest to do the tack and trace method. We tacked each full sheet of siding in place and traced the cuts for the window, roof line, doors, and nesting boxes. We then took them down, darkened the lines, cut 'em, and re-hung them. It made it a million times easier, IMHO.

For the inside, I designed several roosting bars with poop platforms. The water is a gravity fed chicken nipple/pvc setup, which I found online.

The food stations, also gravity fed, are (new) sewer pipes with wye connectors.

I used the roof and siding scraps to make shelves for storage inside.

By sourcing reclaimed materials, I built the coop, run, interior, feeding stations (5), and waterer for $550. I only bought 27 pieces of new lumber (15 2x4's and the 12 8 foot long 1x3's)

Even the paint was free! (We have a drop and swap at the haz mat recycling center run by the county. We have gotten 100's of dollars of free paint, stain, and varnish there. I even used a can of free spar varnish to seal the inside of the coop)

There are still a few pieces of trim to be cut and painted, but the girls are inside eating, drinking, and merry!

I did find that at the Home Depot, if you buy chicken wire, it costs way more then 150 feet x 36 inch "stucco netting". The stucco netting was $54 for 150 feet, and chicken wire is $76 for the same amount. It is the exact same wire.

I built the run out of resourced 1x2 furring strips. They were a pain to work with, very prone to breaking when not supported, but with the entire run costing $25 for wood and $54 (with half a roll left over) for chicken wire, I can handle some extra time and effort.

If anyone has any questions for me, feel free to contact me! I'd love to help!

We made this sewing/craft table by combining plans from the modular office. It was a big job but SO worth it! We love your plans and use them all the time!

Submitted by Candace Ann Williams