Community Brag Posts

Full Tutorial with a LOT more photos on the Blog HERE

We had measured the garden space so we could build this frame to fit the space. The deck frame was made to be the correct height for the slide that we would attach later.

Once all the boards were put onto the frame I added some rails for safety of course. Then stained everything....

PS This IS a beginner project! I promise!!!! I am a beginner and I built it, it's still standing so you can do it too! I promise!

Easy project. I needed this bench a bit smaller due to space constraints so this is 28" x 42". I kept the height the same and finished the surfaces with some thick polyurethane. It should be noted my cost was a bit higher due to buying a sanded plywood, coated self-tapping screws and a more expensive polyurethane. I also went a bit slow on this project and it took about 2.5 hours including application of the single coat of poly.

Since I used hardwood (red oak) I have to modify the plan and eliminate the sides of the shelves. Modifications and measurement is on the additional photo. Thanks again Ana, you're the best!

My wife and I recently built this farmhouse table with her grandpa. It was a lot of fun and we are really happy with how it turned out. The table is 80 inches long, 43 1/2 inches wide, and 31 inches tall. The extensions are 15 inches long and 43/1/2 inches wide, and the bench is 61 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 19 1/2 inches tall. 

It tooks us about 4 weekends (around 32 hours) to finish the project and the included rebuilding the base of the table after our first one cracked. 

We modified the plans a bit. We used 4x4s instead of glued together 2x4s for the legs on the table and bench. 

We also used the plans on this blog (http://tommyandellie.com/?p=2582) as a guide. 

This was the first time my wife and I have tired a DIY project and we had a ton of fun. Her grandpa had some experience with wood working and had all of the tools we needed but you can certainly do this without any extensive wood working experience. 

Sorry for the duplicate post. This is my first time on the website and the first time I posted it came across as 'guest'

I showed my wife the Laundry Dresser featured on Ana White's website and she asked if I could make one for her, but not quite so tall. I also turned the orientation to fit our laundry room space. I used primarily oak from recycled pallets to build the Laundry Basket Dresser. She wanted a work space on top, so folded laundry, empty baskets, etc. all have a temporary resting place depending on the day. From start to finish, it took me about 6 hours. She plans to stain the piece at some point, but its already in use, so I'm not 100% sure that will ever happen until we move or something. ;-) Great idea and laundry room organization!

Tilt Out Wooden Trash Bin

After 7 years of our trash can sitting out in the open, my wife decided we needed to do something about it. I saw the plans for this tilt out wooden trash bin, and slightly modified it using tongue and groove for the face panel.

I wanted to attempt making a dining room table. This is my very first woodworking project. I did use store bought legs from one of the big box stores. Your site completely inspired me to just go for it. It's not quite finished. I've got to do all the sanding and staining. I plan to use a mahogany tone stain to coordinate with my brown/black parsons chairs and hutch in my dining room. Finally finished and I think it looks great! It took a lot of sanding to get all the wood pieces even, but so worth the effort. I love the rustic country look.

New to raising chickens, but eager to jump right in to it.
We bought a pre-made coop for the main home for our new chicks and it's very nice, not something I could do myself since I'm not yet at that level, but I saw this chicken tractor and thought it would come in handy for what I have in mind so I made up my mind to build it.
The lumber, chicken wire, staples, and wheels are all store bought new and came to about $75. The materials we had on hand were the screws, hinges, plastic coated metal shelving (used in the nesting area, I thought that would make it easy to clean), paint, and the corner piece of vinyl siding for the roof cap (hubby's brilliant idea, and I painted it green with spray paint for vinyl).
I did not try to build it quickly, I don't really know how much time it took me, but if I had to guess I'd guess total time would amount to about 3 afternoons, by myself.
I wanted to leave the top on the one side open with the option to slap on the other boards if/when the need arises. I have the other t1-11 panels that can sit right in those areas because I stapled the chicken wire in a way that would allow it.
I also added a flip up panel as seen in the pictures for access. I didn't want a small door that I would have a hard time getting to things in there. I'm so glad I added this feature, it sure gives plenty of room for me to maintain the food and water dispensers as well as get in there and catch the little chickies :)
I wanted it green to blend into the wooded background in our backyard. I didn't want to take any beauty away from the cedar greenhouse and fencing we added last year, and this tractor would be moved from time to time and I felt this green that we had on hand was perfect to help it blend in rather than stand out.
This thing is heavy! I have a hard time moving it around and usually need my husband to move it so I won't hurt myself. I am considering some options... I don't like the rope I have on it to pull it, any suggestions would be appreciated.
As with the other items I've made with Ana's plans, this was fun and pretty easy to make. I love this site! Soon I will take on my next project, I've bought and gathered the materials, I'm anxious to get started :)
Thank you for looking :)

I wanted to build a structure for the kids to play in and on. I used the playhouse deck design and made it 8 feet by 8 feet. The "roof" is removable to provide shade when it's sunny. It's just 2x2 and a tarp - pretty simple, but it does the job. I used treated posts, dog eared fence boards andlots of screws. I stained and built the walls in my garage before assembling it. Once all of the wood at been stained, it came together pretty quickly with the grandkids help...Lol

Ana White's plans are super easy and fun to do! I made these for my mom and I really enjoyed doing it. It’s an antique white water base stain.

David Marks

I loved the look and design of Ana's Simple Bunk Bed but due to limited space in our home, needed a triple bunk bed. I wasn't interested in the hassle of a trundle so I decided to modify the simple bunk bed plan and make it a triple. I have to say, I was a little worried about how sturdy it would be but this plan is so solid with the 4x4 posts that there is no need to even even think about that for another second!
I changed the ladder so that it was attached to the side rails of the bunk bed as someone had posted they did earlier and decided to add another little ladder for the middle bunk so my little one wouldn't have to leap from the ladder to get into her bed. ;D

In order to do a triple in our home (with 8 ft. ceilings), I needed to bring the height down so I made the bottom bunk sit on the floor with the legs only being as long as the height of the headboard. I also made all the headboards and footboards only as tall as the footboards in Ana's original Simple Bunk Bed plans.

This was my first build and there are definitely things I would do differently to make this work better if I had it to do all over again. I would make the legs a little shorter on the 2nd and 3rd bunk so that there is more head room for the person on the top bunk.

All in all though, I had a great time building this and can't wait to try some more of Ana's plans!!!

I was looking for a way to better organize my basement workshop. After looking at your Ultimate Workbench / Miter Station project, I became both inspired and motivated to organize my workshop bench equipment and power tools. I was tired of moving equipment around in my small shop area to use it and the amount of time required to clean up the saw dust during and after project work.

I modified your plans to allow me to incorporate the use of a solid maple shop table that I have had for over 30 years and provide a means to have my main benchtop equipment (miter saw, table saw, and drill press) be readily available for use. I substituted the 3/4 inch plywood top with a 3/4 melamine top with a popular edge trim to allow the workpieces to freely move through the miter saw, table saw and assembly stations. In addition, I added a removable miter saw fence using the Kreg Precision Trak system to facilitate miter saw work setup and to make multiple repeatable cuts. I made the fence easy to remove and store by using 5/16-16 inserts on both the work surfaces and on the he overhead material storage rack allowing full use of the workbench surface.

I also incorporated a separate rolling cart that served as an assembly table, table saw outfeed table, shop air compressor and pneumatic nail gun storage, router and router accessory storage and Kreg Cutting Guide Storage.

I wanted to have ready access to my cordless tools, so I built a separate wall mounted cabinet that holds my drills, impact tools and drill bits. Of course, that lead me to build a wall mounted battery charging station to consolidate and organize all the different battery chargers and spare batteries. Tried to make all things Easy to See, Easy to Get and Easy to Return.

Finally, I spent quite a bit of time researching how to design and add a dust collection system. I ultimately went with a simple, but effective system that incorporated the use of a Dust Deputy Pro, 14 Gallon Rigid Shop Vacuum, Powertec 2 1/2 inch Clear PVC tubing, Blast Gates, Flexible Hose along with Dust Rite Hose and adapters to connect my portable wood working tools. The dust collection components work work well together capturing about 85% of the generated saw dust, but I want to give a special shout out to Shop Nation which supplied a custom 3D printed dust collection adapter for my Hercules Miter saw. It is really amazing how much of saw dust generated by the miter saw is now being channeled directly to the dust collection system.

I now smile every time I enter my workshop :)