Community Brag Posts

I was looking all over for the perfect desk to hold my large computer and give me some crafting space. Not finding what I was looking for, I stumbled upon Ana-White.com and I was so excited when my husband agreed to build me this desk! It's perfect and beautiful and I absolutely love it! The plans were easy for him to follow and we had fun making it together.

It took a while to come together and made several modifications but it is a great coop and was a major selling point of the house when we were relocated.  I had added a main tray under the roosts and a door to srape the poop out.  This made keeping the coop clean very easy.  

I saw this project and thought it would be a perfect project. My daughter has a Christmas birthday so I wanted to do something big that she would remember.

I didn't want to be rushed so I started this project in the fall. I built the basic "boxes" in a day but took my time finding accessories and doing all the finishing touches(sanding, painting, adding handles,etc). For the sink and stove I used Ana's plans but for the fridge I took a short cut and started with a shelving unit we already had, cut it to size and added doors.

It was fun a fun project. I loved having a great starting point and then being able to make it my own with paint and accessories. My in-laws live on a farm so scrounged their junk piles and found the sink faucet and the stove knobs (free, gotta love that)!

I built this to fill a large space in our new kitchen. I extended the plan to 6ft. and added a drawer. We topped it with a beech-wood butcher block from Ikea and I used 2 6'x18" pine boards for the shelves.

It was time to upgrade our daughter's bed to something bigger. I have always loved the idea of platform beds and went searching the Ana White site for ideas. Needless to say, I made several modifications to allow for a huge amount of storage. The bed is designed to fit up to a queen mattress, but we went with full size since her room is a bit tight. Each drawer is 24"x24"x12" deep and mounted on 100 lbs. full extension slides. This allowed us to eliminate both dressers in her bedroom plus the hamper since one of the drawers is now for dirty clothes. I built this as two 80" cabinets and used a 3/4" plywood spacer to bridge the gap. What you can't see is the six 24"x24"x12" cubbies on the far side of the bed which allowed us to remove her bookcase and toy box. Once in place, I measured and built the footboard panel with 1x4 dimensional pine and beadboard and it is attached with screws from inside the cabinet. The headboard was last as I wanted to give her a shelf for her chargers, remote, phine, ipad, etc. This allowed us to remove her nightstand. Her small bedroom feels much larger now that this is the only piece of furniture she needs once I get her tv mounted on the wall.

So, this project started out years ago with my oldest daughter. She was in daycare and frequently came home with her latest drawing or art. I wanted to make something from her art that would be a gift for mom and the grandmothers. Mother’s Day was coming up soon and we needed inspiration. Her mother said that she would like a ring post to keep jewellery on her dresser top so we came up with this. 

First we outlined the daughter’s hand and about 3 inches of wrist on a piece of white paper. (We had a similar example from Thanksgiving, the daughter brought home her hand outline on a paper plate decorated as a turkey). Took our outline to the printer and photocopied it. One of the nice things about a photocopy is you can place it face down on a piece of wood, then use a hot iron (cotton setting) and iron the image onto the wood. 

Once the image was transferred, we cut it out on the bandsaw, then sanded all the rough edges. As my daughter was very young, I did the bandsaw work and she did the sanding. Once the hand was ready, we needed a base which we found in the scrap bin. We cut out about a 3 1/2” circle and using the wrist end of the hand, we marked and cut a notch for the hand to be glued to the base. We cut it off-center to allow room for a message to mom. We found a local guy who could engrave a message make us a brass tag for our base.  The tag was large enough to engrave the child’s name below the Mother’s day message helped to identify the sweet little hand that made the gift. 

Again, more sanding and fitting the notch to match the sweet little wrist followed by staining and finishing. 

We left the hand natural and used wipe-on polyurethane (2-3 coats), then glued everything together with a piece of felt for the bottom. It was pretty tough keeping the project a secret until Mother’s Day, but somehow we managed. The grandmothers and mom loved their new ring post which has a place of honor on their dressers. 

Fast forward 30 years. My son is a kindergarten teacher with a class of 20 or so looking for a great project for Mother’s day and this is what we did. It took a bit of work to get everything ready so the kids just had sanding to do. Attached are some pictures of the ring posts dry fitted and ready for the kids to finish. 

Can’t keep secrets from home in daycare, but you can have great surprises. All the moms love their new ring post and all the kids are proud of their work. Since the completion of this project, we think we have a great idea to adapt it for a dad gift as well. 

I came across the mail organizer brag post based on Ana's Numbered Cubbies plan and thought it was a great idea. Also, I had some new Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that I was very eager to test out!

I have to say, I love my new process for creating furniture in the house:
1. Cut boards
2. Give them to my 2 & 4 yo daughters to "whack on"
3. Invite the girls to paint
4. ENJOY!

Thanks Ana for all you do!
p.s. Note "Industrial Chic Reclaimed Shelves" in last photo, thanks again Ana!

My husband built this for me while the government was shut down and he was furloughed. He rocks. The frames are from ikea.

I built this for Girlfriend this Christmas. It was fun to surprise her. I put some jewelry in it, wrapped it, and put it under the tree. I think it turned out really nice. I installed a recessed bead-board back and 1/8" glass in the door. All black hardware and a two tone finish.  She loves it but she filled it up real quick. I guess I could have built it bigger! 

Thank you Anna for designing such beautiful plans, and making them available for free. My husband likes the chair so much he doesn’t want it outside! I guess I’ll have to make a few more for our deck.

We used the plans from this site to build this for our daughter. We did however make the bed part a bit more sturdy to ensure that no one would get hurt and to make sure it could support any weight. We added 4 2x4s across the bed like rafters and screwed the slats on top of them.

Love my new leaning shelves and desk I knocked out in one weekend. My office mates want them too. 

This is my second bed built it was build for my daughter. I enjoyed building it Great Plains I added a border around the headboard. For the paint we used chalked paint aged gray we also painted the nightstands to match the bed. Thanks to my wife for helping on the painting.