Community Brag Posts

I bought my home a few years ago. The only thing about my bathroom I didn't like was the lack of storage. The cabinet only had one drawer with a panel below covering a large empty wasted space. I was told by 2 cabinet makers that I would need to replace my bathroom cabinets, but when I saw Ana's success, I thought "I can do this".

My woodworking experience is pretty limited, so things took a little longer than I would have preferred. The first weekend was spent popping the panel and building the shelf out of plywood & luan for the drawer bottom (thank you Home Depot cull section). The second weekend was spent making the drawers using a pocket jig and installing them into the cabinet. You WILL need a 90 degree clamp to assemble drawers, trust me. Third weekend was spent making the drawer fronts and staining them. I had never used a router so I practiced on every piece of scrap I could lay hands on. Since the cabinets were older and not made of solid wood, I had to play with the stains to ge the formula right; remember the scrap wood? It's baaack. The fourth weekend was spent pulling everything together.

When I show my family what I did, they look at me in disbelief. I know they're just drawers, but this is proof that I can make real changes to my home that has long lasting benefits. The bathroom still has a long way to go, but I know now that I don't have to hire someone to do it all.

Built for my sisters house. I pulled a pic of a mission style table from the internet and then matched the details to her existing hutch. Color match took some work!

Just a tip for Florida folks. If it is humid and raining...stop and wait for another day to stain and poly. Trust me.

I forgot to add the height of the shelf when I measured for the placement of the two by two shelf supports, but it still turned out well. 

This was my second project when I took up woodworking. It's the pocket hole version and I couldn't be happier with the results!

This was a Baby Gift for my sister and her little boy, Xander who was born just a couple weeks ago. I wanted to do something special that would last for my sweet nephew. She found a bookshelf similar to this on cool-rooms.com and we decided to try to make our own version. I've posted about it on my blog if you're interested in the process.

This is our first project from the site and we are in LOVE with our table. We spent a few weekends building it and another weekend staining. We always wanted a table large enough to seat a big group for holidays or events. We can seat 10 comfortably (4 on each side with smaller chairs and 1 on each end.) Not only was this inexpensive (around $100 total), but it is a great sense of pride in our house. Knowing we built this with our own hands and telling others that we did so is amazing.

http://ana-white.com/2009/12/plans-farmhouse-table-knock-off-of.html

This project could take alot less time if I had a wood planer.  I use a belt sander to sand all pallet wood and this is what takes the longest. Well applying the polyurethane takes a while to finally get it to the way I like it. Bc I'm my worst critic. 

I built this dollhouse for my daughter's sixth birthday. It was a great experience and my first time using a KregJig. I ventured from the plans a bit and built cantilevered staircase with dollar store Jenga-type blocks.

I got so inspired by Ana White I just assumed I can make anything just like her :D
But deep inside I knew, I wasn't nearly as good as her :(

So when we needed a bar table of definite length and height and type and color and way out of our budget, I thought to myself "hey girl! you can do this ;)"

So I came up with this super easy plan.
You can read all about it from the link below

http://tinyurl.com/pkntwa9

My record obsession was growing rapidly so I needed a solution to store my collection and I wanted some room for growth. I wanted a setup where you could flip through the records like at the record shops. It's often difficult to read the artists and album names when you can only see the spines of the album covers. I decided to make a cabinet with 9 drawers which holds approximately 540 records (60 records per drawer). More details and photos on my blog: http://www.woodworkingfourdummies.com/blog/vinyl-record-storage Cheers, Ian

This is an antique oak dresser I recently purchased. I had some rebuilding to do. I replaced the bottom and fixed/rebuilt the dovetail drawers. I did replace the veneer on the top two drawers. It isn't a difficult task. Just ask and I will explain the process. I do wish though that I had gone online and purchased some quarter sawn oak veneer. It would have matched better than what I purchased from a local home improvement store. I replaced all of the hardware. I purchased it from Kennedy's online. The hardware finish is called aged brass. If you have solid brass hardware you can purchase a "brass ager" quite cheaply. There was a mirror attached to the dresser at some time. I am going to build a mirror to match that I will hang on the wall above. I am also looking to build a back splash for the back of the dresser. I think I may purchase an antique oak pediment (decorative door header) to make the back splash from.

I built the table to fit my space and made a few changes!

I modified the plans slightly, reducing the overall seating depth by 1.5" so I could use 8' lumber with minimal waste, and make 2 cushions out of one 54" width of fabric. I also tweaked the design to make a chaise lounge on one side. I used bargain priced sunbrella fabric (has a few imperfections) and recycled soda bottle fill for the cushions to keep cost lower. Building the wooden part was quick and easy (took an afternoon including two trips to the store), but this was my first sewing project so the total project time reflects my learning curve making and stuffing cushions.

The inspiration for this piece came from an Instagram post. We decided on our overall dimensions (36" tall, 18" deep and 60" long), then more or less guessed what the size of the pieces for the face frame would be. We recreated it as best we could and I think it came out incredible. It has soft close drawers on top and the hand-made sliding shelves are also soft close. The raised panels for the doors were made on a table saw. The doors have soft close hinges. The cabinet is made from maple plywood, oak plywood, yellow pine and poplar. The top is made of cypress and stained with Minwax "fruitwood" color and semi-gloss urethane. Next step is to make the shelves which will be 48" tall overall.

This is my second build. I used the Benchright plan but had to modify it for one drawer. The Dimensions are 39 long, 25 wide, and 19 tall. I have heard others comment on how difficult drawers are. I thought I would just jump in head first with the kind of drawer that closes flush with the rest of the table - really had some trouble with making it square. I ended up shimming the face onto to the drawer because even though it opens and closes smoothly, it isn't square with the rest of the table...

I had originally planned to make the 20 second tidy up table for my living room and begun purchasing materials. However, I was let go from my job last Sunday, so changed my plans. I took inventory of all the supplies and materials I had on hand and tried to find a plan that would not require any more spending to build... to sell... to pay rent.... and thus the new table was born. And I love it. And I hate to sell it.

I tried to copy the finish on the 20 second tidy up table, and this is how it ended up. I used Minwax Golden Pecan for the base color and Red Oak for the accent color. The colors got a little blended together through the staining process. I really love how it turned out though because it's a nice warm color. The only thing I don't like is the grain in the pine didn't take much if any color, so it's still a bit yellow, which seems slightly out of place when I look at it. I think it will darken with age and look a little better. Otherwise, this was a super fun project!!