Craftsman Style Playhouse
I mainly followed ana's plans for this playhouse. Instead of a plywood roof I used cedar shingles. I also added plexiglass to the windows.
I mainly followed ana's plans for this playhouse. Instead of a plywood roof I used cedar shingles. I also added plexiglass to the windows.
I made a couple of additions/modifications
I also made a couple of side tables and foot stools for the chairs. A total of four chairs, two tables and two foot stools for the deck set.
I altered the plans just a bit so that I could make use of the drawer closest to the headboard, while using bedside tables as well (not the ugly ones in the pictures, but some that only exist in my mind as of now). With the plan as is, I didn't think that first drawer would be able to open if you have a nightstand. So I left about a 17" gap that can be used as an open shelf for storage, and still had room for 3 drawers. I also wanted to include a bookshelf as the footboard to make it multifunctional. We have a ton of books and no place to store them (fear not, a large bookshelf/media center is coming soon!) I also altered the top of the headboard just a bit to give it more texture and visual appeal (hopefully, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I've been told). Lastly, I did not put the 1/4" plywood backing on the drawer carcasses. They were pretty sturdy as is, and only got more sturdy as they were attached to the headboard and footboard; I'm not worried about racking at all. Leaving the back off also allows me to pull the drawers out and access some hidden storage in between the two drawer carcasses.
I wanted a simple finish, so I rubbed it with dark walnut Danish oil. Super simple finish and I think it'll hold up as the bed is not like a desk that needs poly or something.
Sun, 08/28/2016 - 19:50
This bed turned out amazing. I love the modifications and agree the first drawer will be more usable.
Thu, 05/28/2020 - 06:11
Could you please tell me how you attached the footboard on this one? I thought about using some bolts and counter sinking them from inside the self. How did you do it?
Loved this project! The plans were so easy to follow, even for a begginer. Thank you so much!
I'm just in love with all the Ana White projects. I tackled the faux fireplace mantel, made quite a few toolbox planters so this little box was easy. My biggest mistake was not verifying the thickness of the wood pickets I used. I couldn't find the cedar ones at Home Depot or Lowes so I used pressure treated pine pickets, on sale for $1.16 each! What I didn't realize until I was putting the first box together is that they were 5/8" thick instead of 1/2". I questioned my woodworking skills when everything didn't fit together correctly, but soon figured out the problem. Since I had cut out two of them together, I finagled the design slightly to be able to use the cut pieces. You'll notice the end pieces are on top of the bottom piece of wood on certain ones. I continued to build a third box and it went together smoothly. Wow, I wish that I had a nail gun! I used 1 1/4" exterior screws and pre-drilled the holes. I have three more pickets left and I'm going to run to Home Depot to find some galvanized nails for them. I wish I could find some cedar pickets, the pressure treated pine is rough to work with. I also printed out "HERB GARDEN" on my ink jet printer, then traced the letters using carbon paper. I outlined, then filled in the letters with a Sharpie paint pen. It came out rustic looking because the wood was rough. I was hesitant to sand the wood because I didn't want to breathe in the sawdust. I put a white wash finish on the stenciled box. The other ones are still unfinished. Looking through my stash of hardware, I found the cutest fork and spoon handles, saved from an old birdhouse. I put the picture on my Facebook timeline and a friend sent me a message asking to buy it for her daughter's birthday. I'd better get busy making the next three.
This table was super easy to build... it took me only 3 hours! I opted to use hardwood poplar 2x2s for the legs because furring strips frustrate me to no end (bowing boards, splitting wood, etc.) and the poplar also made it sturdier. Had I used furring strips, this table would have only cost me $15, but I opted for the more expensive route... but still, $35 ain't bad!
Also, I used the Kreg Jig for this project, set on 3/4" with 1 1/4" pocket hole screws - EXCEPT when I drilled the base frame onto the table top. I used 1" pocket hole screws for that, just in case the 1 1/4" screws were too long and came poking out the top of the table.
Click my blog link for the complete play-by-play!
Built this over the weekend for my girlfriends sister. It was a great project and the whole family was able to work together on it, sanding and waterproofing it before assembling. The loveseat plans need a little tweaking. We ran ran the slats the same direction as the chair plans call for so we added a middle support for extra stability. We also pitched the seating down towards the back by 5* to make a more natural sitting position.
With the help of friends and family, we managed to build this greenhouse rather easily. We had to start with the foundation since the spot we chose was not an even grade. We did this by filling sono tubes with cement and leveling each off so the greenhouse would have a solid place to sit. We then built out a frame around the outside of the cement tubes with some reclaimed 6x6's. After that, we filled the space with 5 tons of river rock and then got to work! After the foundation was ready putting the rest of the house together was a piece of cake. The frame was so easy to put together. We had a few minor kinks to work out here and there, I won't say this house came out 100% perfectly, BUT I am so happy with the end results. We chose to paint it a deep green color as a final touch. So far we just moved a few potted plants from our deck to the greenhouse for the winter. It has been working very well to keep the plants cozy during the colder days we've had. Eventually, I plan to build a potting station, shelving, and most likely a garden bed for winter harvests.
Mon, 11/09/2020 - 09:52
The foundation looks great the greenhouse looks amazing! I'm sure fun was had building it too:) Thanks for sharing.
My husband built this buffet table as a mother's day gift, for me. It matches my farmhouse dinning table, that he also made from Ann white's plans. He Installed soft closing drawers. It took him about 17 hours.
This was my first indoor woodworking project, where it mattered if the corners were 90 degrees and the colour matched and the wood was not warped.
Even when the lumber yard gave me the wrong width of board, did all the cuts and I didn't notice until I was home, laying out my pieces and measuring everything, I will still able to complete it.
I went with the 10" (9 3/4") wide top instead of the 12" (11 3/4") rather than go back to the lumber yard and have it recut. I was anxious to make my project and it was a hassle to drive that distance. it didn't have the 1 1/2" overhang that the larger width would have had but it fit in my tiny space better.
The next time I visited that lumber yard for more wood, I got my money back and I learned a valuable lesson - just because the lumber yard staff are picking up the wood for you, you need to read and check. I didn't go closer to see it because of Covid-19 restrictions but next time I will ask to measure it and check it before I bring it home. I've learned to carry my tape measure with me, just in case!
I love this desk! My husband loves it too. He was surprised to come home from work one day and find it sitting in the office. Cutting the notches for the shelves was tricky. I bought the cheapest jigsaw from Home Depot, which would have been ok had I bought a decent blade to go with it. The blade it came with was terrible, but after much trial and error, and power sanding, it all worked out. I'm really happy with the finish. In person, it looks like the pit of an avocado, which is exactly what I was hoping for.
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 20:46
Beautiful! It looks like something out of a home decor magazine!
I used Ana's planter box plans and I designed and built the bench out of pallet wood, and purchased the power coated trellis's and custom fit then to the planters.
With a new baby on the way, my husband, Steve and I had to move our 2yr old son out of the nursery and into his big boy bedroom. After casually looking at storage beds and falling over in shock at the prices, I came across Ana’s plans for the storage bed. Knowing that Steve is extremely handy but had not attempted to build furniture before, I started talking him into building this bed. He was sold the moment I told him that we would save close to $2400 by building it ourselves. This was a longer than anticipated project mainly due to Steve’s full time work schedule, my inablility to handle stain fumes, allowing a toddler to “help” build his bed and working around said toddler’s nap schedule. We modified Ana’s plans by adding some trim to the cubby hutch, omitting the doors on the small hutch and sizing everything to a full size bed. We also omitted the shelves on the storage headboard since we weren’t going to use them with the side towers. I am absolutely in LOVE with the final result and have a long list of other projects that we will be building in the near future.
Needed a table for food prep with my grill and found your plans! I used treated lumber for the base and nice cedar planks for the top. The treated lumber had a whiter than usual color which made the base really pop out. I put a nice pecan stain on top and a few coats of poly so the BBQ sauce wouldn't stain it! This was so easy, literally took 2-3 hours to build, stain and poly was done over the next few days. Ready for my next ana-white project. Thanks for posting these plans.
Wed, 07/09/2014 - 16:24
I was looking on Pinterest and found this table. It was exactly what I was looking for. You inspired me to go out and buy a miter saw and some wood and make the table. It turned out wonderful. It now has a permanent place on my patio and gets used when I grill mostly. I was hoping to be able to upload a photo but don't see the option to do so. Anyway, I want to say thanks for the great plans/instructions.
Made this Loft bed for a full size mattress in 2019 and it is still strong. I added a stretcher on the bottom of bed across the length of the the bed added strength.
Super easy and fun project! We altered the original plans to build a loveseat and had zero issues. We did add some extra support below.
I did not find 25”x25” cushions within our price range so I settled for 25”x22.5” and they work but ultimately 25x25 works best.
We used pine for the chairs and table and stained with Cabots black exterior deck stain and sealed with polyacrylic.
Found this on the website and had to build it. Turned out perfectly.
When we recently bought our 150+ year old house, we were pretty happy with just about everything (not stopping us from coming up with projects!) except the kitchen. This kitchen hadn't been updated in about 15 years, had dark brown walls, boring square white tiles with white grout, and TONS of cabinets. Everywhere. I felt like the walls were closing in!
So before we ever signed a piece of paper I had a vision of open shelving. Wide, white floating shelves to put our every day items at arms reach and display the few items we rarely use but think are beautiful.
I loved Ana's plans, but I needed these shelves to hold 12 dinner plates, 12 bowls, 12 salad plates, 4 pasta bowls, and...well, right there that about 40 pounds of stuff. And the basic plans just didn't seem heavy-duty enough.
Enter our contractor, John, who I asked for help because, while they were my vision, they were his handy-work. My husband and I didn’t even attempt to build them on our own. John is a perfectionist and we knew he’d make this plan work…perfectly.
As usual, this was no sweat for John. To build the frames he used 2 x 2′s and secured them with 10 x 1 1/4″ angle brackets. During assembly, John made sure to position the center supports to match the wall studs in front of which the frame would hang. Once assembled, he removed some dry wall and attached the brackets directly to the studs.
We could store baby elephants on these shelfs, they wouldn’t budge.
Since I knew what needed to be stored on that first shelf (our every day items), we used the measurements to equally distance the three shelves (not including the first shelf of course—it needed more space above the counter top). Then we sealed up the dry wall. Another help with support was butting the shelves right up to the corner, putting another screw in another stud.
We moved the lighting electric up for new under cabinet lighting—so easy pre-tiling.
For the actual shelves—I like to think of them as “sleeves”—John used 3/4″ sanded plywood for the tops and bottoms of each shelf, then 1 x 6 clear pine ripped down to desired thickness for the fronts and one side (the other side is against the wall, so was left open). The primed sleeves spent a few days on the screened in porch while I tiled around the frames, they were pretty heavy and very solid.
I’ve made an attempt to lay out the measurements involving our floating shelf project. These are to scale and give a good idea of how our plans differed from Ana’s.
We LOVE our shelves and get so so many compliments. The seemingly small and simple changes (tile, shelves, new window trim, paint, and soon flooring) made a HUGE impact and not that huge of a cost. And we don't miss the upper cabinets at all.
Thanks for the head-start and inspiration Ana!
Sun, 10/20/2013 - 09:42
Where did you get the heavy duty angle brackets? Having a hard time finding them. If you have the link, that would be great! Thanks!!
Mon, 10/21/2013 - 08:41
I'm not sure where to get big angle brackets like that, but you might want to try a local lumberyard instead of a home center. Even when they don't have a product they often know who does. The angle brackets embedded in the drywall is a clever idea I never thought of using.
Tue, 11/25/2014 - 20:08
What city was this work done in? I live in Seattle and I am looking for a contractor.
Planters build by Urban Wood Solutions
Fri, 03/31/2023 - 04:23
These are incredible. They look a little deeper, and would be good for vegetables. How deep are they?
The plans for this headboard are great. Very easy to follow and the cut list is spot on. I used some choice pine from Lowe’s ($63) and then used the vinegar with steel wool mixture to age the wood. That’s where this piece is at right now. Trying to decide if I want to leave it or put a light satin clear coat.
Thank you for the plans!!
OK.....I added 2 more pics. I added 1 coat of Satin Clear Poly witch gave it a richer look.
Comments
Ana White Admin
Sat, 10/03/2015 - 09:20
Beautiful!
I love this playhouse, it is so inviting! Thanks for sharing!