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This was my first DIY furniture project!

The materials cost less than $50! Of course, I did buy some fun new
power tools!

Thanks to http://ana-white.com for the great plans!

I learned quite a lot from this. The nightstand will go in our guest room but the next project will be Master-Bedroom-Worthy! I’ll try to share what I learned with you here so you can avoid my mistakes.

I cut all my pieces first. I used super cheap wood because I wasn’t sure how good I’d be at this. Needless to say, they weren’t all exactly straight so my “squaring up” didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped.
Lesson: buy straight boards

Then I went crazy with the Kreg jig and drilled all my pocket holes. I tried to use pocket holes for all the connections.
Lesson: just follow the directions

Another thing I'll do differently next time -- I'll sand and finish all the parts at this point before assembling the piece.

I can't wait to try my next project! Thanks Ana!!!

So happy with the way my Balin Console Table turned out.  I altered Ana’s plan just a bit by adding 1x2’s to the sides at the top and bottom to recess the side panels and I added drawer slides for easy opening as well as trimming out the front of the drawers to recess the drawer fronts.  Thank you Ana for great plans!

I got the plans from the Cubby desk and made it for my son who started school this year.

I used scrap 1x2 and 1x3s, added a piece of chalkboard painted plywood to make a fun wall decor for my kids. I resized Ana's plans to fit my scraps, all dimensions are listed in my post link.

Built the top out of reclaimed wood reclaimed from buildings in/around Chicago. Stained top and insides shelves with minwax hickory gel stain. Outside painted in chalky finish Dutch boy antiquainted lace. Custom made rail and hangers for sliding apparatus. 

A good friend of mine came to me a week ago and said she needed a console table to fit under her apartment window. She then whipped out the LL Bean catalog and on page 34 was the Mission style Underwindow Bookshelf and that is what she wanted. I told her I would give it a try and a few days later you see the final result in the photos.

It came out larger than the LL Bean catalog version as mine is 44" long, 28" high and 14" wide. You can see the catalog offer at this link: http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/13930?feat=504183-GN3&page=mission-under…

The center shelf is adjustable up and down about 4" and I added brass corner protectors.

I think it came out looking pretty good. Especially when you consider it cost at least $100 less than the catalog and it is not a kit.

This was my very first woodworking project. It came out great! My wife did the distressed corners. Amazing how easy it was. Pardon the puppy posing for his dad.

Basically eliminated the bottom shelf to gain more space and built this as a "built-in". Fortunatley for us this room is the right size and we just screwed it into the wall studs.

My first woodworking project.  

The top is poplar and I had the local lumbar yard cut them to uniform thickness, planed and jointed.  That made a nice close connection when it came time to glue and screw. 

Also since it was not dimensional lumbar the boards are cut to actual size so mine is a few inches wider than the original plans. 

I needed to modify the plans in order to make the top removable so I fashioned 4 blocks and attached them to the insides of the apron, and used a spade bit to drill out a 7/8" hole.  Then attached 3/8" hanger bolts to the top and attached to the base with wingnuts and washers.  Worked like a charm!

I wanted to keep all the interesting variance in the top so it's just natural with Minwax Satin Poly.

I've been looking at all of these plans for awhile and finally decided to take the plunge. My son and I built the little Rhyan Console Table to use as a sideboard in my small-ish dining room. There's an 84" farm table, 8 chairs, and 2 corner cabinets. I hate to have to squeeze by people who are seated at the table, so I was looking for a narrow unit to use as a sideboard. We made the legs 4" taller than the plans called for to make it a better height for use as a sideboard. With Thanksgiving in just a few days, we put the hardware on today so it will be ready to put into service. We are already looking forward to our next project. 

We needed a bench to hold shoes and bags on the foyer, and this plan fit the bill. I stretched the bench one foot so 3 kids could sit on it and to add one more cubby. I used pocket holes everywhere I could, so I had to modify the assembly order. We're excited to start using our new bench!

I made this using the kreg jig and cedar. 12x12 tile.

Since we needed some space to hide all of our not so midcentury technology gadgets I decided to try myself on this beautiful credenza.

Build was fairly straight forward. I cleaned  the looks up a little with using my router and cutting some dados for the divider and rabbets for the box itself. Worked out really well. Also I found some really nice hardware online but wasn’t willing to pay 20$ a piece for them so I made them myself. I think this brings the build to another level. For a finish I used dark walnut stain and 5 coats of arm-r-seal. Love that stuff…..super easy to use! Also I finished the finish with a coat of paste wax! Makes it super slick and gives the grain a little more depth!