Community Brag Posts

Using the counter height planter plans from Janettx. Thanks!

Child's chalkboard as a birthday present. "Frozen" inspired color theme. Received feedback that it would also work very well as a boutique store sidewalk sign.

I designed this desk from another desk I built. With this one, I wanted the overall foot-print smaller but still something that was able to organize all our office stuff and be able to close everything to keep it clutter-free. We have a small apartment, and although this desk is about the size of an up-right piano, it works perfectly into our living space!

I made it out of raw hardwood (Ash) and because I knew just the wood alone would make this desk heavy/bulky to move I made the top hutch removable. It's held in place by wood pegs (dominos). All the shelves are adjustable and the drawers are full-extension (something I've never had - wahoo)! The drop-down door is help up by 2 pull-out boards on each side (my first desk had chains). I spend a lot of money on this desk because I knew it was a chance in a lifetime to make and wanted it to be perfect and something that would last generations.

I built the main carcass off of plans/measurements I designed, but then all the insides, drawers, shelves, doors, etc where made as I built (because just a millimeter difference in building changes everything)!

If you want more pictures/descriptions of the building process I wrote about it in a 4-part series on my blog.

I had been asked a few times for these plans, but as someone else posted a similar one, I'll just stick to a blog post for now and describe my differences. I made this shelving unit January 2010, just after I found out of I was pregnant with my third child, and it's been a lifesaver since then. I desperately needed a toy storage solution (and purging), as shown in the 'eek' kids closet below. I didn't like the shape of triangular Ikea ones, as they spanned more floor space than I cared to give up. Plus, I wanted a place to put *almost* all of my kids toys, so I wanted it to be tall. I'm so glad we did, since we've moved twice (also, 'eek') since than, and it's made packing and unpacking the kids toys super (SUPER) easy. At first, I was afraid that the kids would go crazy and just tear down every bin at once, but it hasn't happened yet. Unlike the other plan that was posted, I used white sliders that ikea sold. I'm not sure if they still sell, as I don't see them online. It cost an additional $24 (they were $1/2), but seemed worth the extra money. I didn't have a router and wasn't particularly confident with our table saw skills. Plus the Ikea version had some really thin areas that made me nervous that it would break easily. I tried to keep it easy and just had to line up and screw the sliders in. Now that I'm a little more confident with a table saw, I'd give the router style a-go. I used two sheets of cabinet grade plywood, each costing about $30. I ripped down some pine boards to cover the front edges, which made the unit look loads nicer. However, I wish I would have used maple, instead of pine as they got dented almost immediately. Not a big deal though. The three shelves were sort of an afterthought, but turned out to be great for puzzles and other type toys. I didn't use backing or cross supports initially, but put some in after we moved. You can see them in the last picture below. The heater in our temporary house caused the slightly-bent sides to become very bent sides. That caused the drawers would spontaneously fall out, which was always quite the shock and disappointment. I put in some supports in the back, which I wish I did initially as it would have made manufacturing easier. Also, If I were to go back, I would put one cross support in the front-middle, as the boards are so tall, it needs something to help maintain the shape in the front. I've found that even in a perfect fitting slider, really heavy buckets would bend just enough to flex out of them to crash... so don't plan on filling one of the large buckets with matchbox cars and sticking it on the top. Regardless, we've learned our lessons, made it work better, and has been a huge success in our house for a while now.

Watts Built on Wolfe Way

We couldn't find a mid-height, double loft bed for our daughter that we liked that wasn't ridiculously expensive, so we decided to build one ourselves! I found some awesome plans on this website and played around with a few until I created exactly what we wanted. I mostly used the Full Size Farmhouse Bed plan but also used some aspects from the loft bed plan for the guardrails and the bottom rails. Then we went out and bought the wood and started building! This is really the first thing that I have ever built (my husband has never built anything either) and it turned out so well. I think it is gorgeous and I am so proud of it! This is my first brag post so forgive me if I am doing it wrong! Lots of instructions on how I built it below, so scroll down if you just want to see the pictures.

I used Google Sketch-Up to build the bed first and to tweak the plans. Below I will explain some of the changes that I made.

- I actually did not trim anything off of the ends of the head board or foot board as shown in the Full sized bed plans. I just built the bed to be as wide as 8 x 1x8s and adjusted the plan accordingly. I figured that if I had to climb up there to change the sheets, the extra room around the mattress would be appreciated. The 1x8s that I used were 7 1/4" wide.

- I bolted a 2x4 to the 4x4 posts right under the foot board and headboard panels for the side rail supports to sit on. I wanted it to be extra strong as the bed was going to be up high and I figured the bed would take a lot of abuse from the kids.

- The siderails were made from a 2x10 glued and screwed to a 2x4. The 2x4 sits on top of the 2x4s at the bottom of the headboard and footboard panels and is screwed into the 4x4 posts. The 2x10s are also screwed into the 4x4 posts.

- Since the mattress would be sitting up higher on the headboard and footboard than in the original plans, I added 3" to the length of the 1x8s used in the panels.

- I had planned to make a slatted base out of 1x4s to support the mattress so I also placed 2 x 2x4s on edge lengthwise down the middle of the bed to support the slats. Those 2x4s are also supported on top of the 2x4s at the bottom of the head and foot boards. The inexpensive 1x4s here are very rough on the one side which I did not want touching the mattress or for the kids to get splinters from while playing under the bed. The nice ones were super expensive at around $18 for a 14' board. It turned out to be less expensive and much less work to buy a queen sized slatted bed base from the big Blue and Yellow inexpensive furniture store here and trim the ends of the boards to length with my mitre saw. n even bigger bonus is that the wood is already finished and didn't require anything further than screwing it down to the supports.

- I made the height of the area under the bed 45" (just tall enough for DD to stand under for now) and adjusted the length of the 4x4 posts accordingly.

- I assembled the bed into different large pieces before bringing it inside. The headboard and footboard are 2 solid sections that cannot be taken apart. The side pieces are made to be able to come off if we ever need to move the bed.

- I couldn't find any really good instructions anywhere on how to build a ladder or to change ladder plans to suit our needs so I built it after the bed was built. I found it easier to envision this way and to figure out the angles. I build the ladder out of 2x3s.

I have the Google Sketch-Up plans for the bed (minus the ladder) if anyone is interested, but as I said before, I am not an experienced builder so I do not think I should post them here. Maybe someone can use them as a base to create their own plan with though. I found Sketch-up to be a very valuable tool as I actually "built" the bed virtually before ever touching the wood. It helped me figure out what order to put things together in and also allowed me to perfect my design before making any cuts. It still took many trips to and discussions with people at my local Orange store to figure out what kind of fasteners to use and where to use each type. I brought printouts of my plans so that they would be able to help me better.

A couple of finishing touches that I did:

- I sewed some pretty curtains and hung them from aircraft cable and eye hooks under the bed.

- The back of her dresser was exposed under the bed and did not look very nice so I created a magnetic wall by screwing some inexpensive metal sheets meant for ducts to the back of it. I have temporarily covered all of the exposed edges with pink patterned duct tape but plan to trim it out at some point.

Hope you like it!

With another baby boy arriving in August, my one and three year olds are moving to a "big boy" room. My oldest decided he wanted a bunk bed and as they both are obsessed with tractors, when I saw the "John Deere Tractor Bunk Bed" plan, I was sold.

We would be needing a twin sized bunk bed though not a toddler. I used the classic bunk bed plans and simply modified them to suit our needs. I moved the ladder to the front, added a rail on the bottom bunk and added a small ladder to the side for my one year old to climb into the bottom bunk.

Once the the frame of the bed was complete, I added the tractor accessories. A couple of storage cubby shelves with fabric baskets for toy tractors which act as stairs up to the ladder and make the tractor bucket at the front. Also, the wheels which are made from joined 1x6s as I find plywood hard to sand and paint to the quality of finish I like. A cab & roof from 1x4s framed together. A side mirror that I decoupaged a picture of another tractor on. I used push lights for the headlights as well as a reading light above each bed (they're on timers so they'll turn themselves off). A steering wheel (play equipment access from toys r us). Also, I built and mounted by the head of both beds a "flat wall book holder" so they would have somewhere to store a few books.

My boys and I are fairly new to building so I spent a lot of time planning and measuring to ensure it would all come together in the end. It paid off because it all went smoothly (even with "help" from my boys). It's not perfect but they're very happy with the result. We also built a John Deere themed "Just my size closet" and even finished with over a month to spare before the new baby arrives! :)

Just want to say a quick thank you to Ana both for the amazing plans and also the inspiration to take on these projects. The time spent with my boys building as well as the resulting treasures are priceless and I would have never realized what we were capable of had I not stumbled upon your website and been so inspired by you and everything you've accomplished. Thank you!

I wanted to use our laundry basket dresser as a collector for dirty laundry in our bathroom, and wanted it to have doors so it would blend in better. I also made the shelf above for our towels. It is painted white with a faux-zinc finish on the top. I made the top slightly larger so it would overhang and added cute little bun feet. My talented friend Carli helped me build the doors (and by helped I mean I handed her things while she impressed me with all her tools and skills!) and frame.

Modified the wall divider closet plan into a wall to serve as an extra bedroom in my basement. The inner wall was subsequently painted.

I made you planter. Thanks very much. Unfortunately they don't sell in the UK. I enjoyed making them though.

Modern cedar rocker.

Finally, after 21 months of having no place for extra rolls of toilet paper in the toilet area of our new home, I convinced my husband to make this for us. Now he wants one in his workshop bathroom! I've had the plans printed for almost a year!  

We couldn't find a 1x10, so we used the table saw to cut down a 1x12 into a 1x10, 1x8 and a 1x6 for the shelves. Also, couldn't find 2x3s for the legs and ended up buying a 2x6 and ripping it in half.

It came out more beautiful than I imagined. Almost done with the Squatty Potty, that we also found on Ana's site, to complete the room :)

The design of our planked entertainment center is a compilation from various designs offered on Ana White; Planked Sideboard http://ana-white.com/node/4682 &  Media Center http://ana-white.com/2012/04/plans/rebecca-media-center-console-piece.  This is the 1^st piece in our collection of 6 being made in the Farm House style for our Great Room and Dining Room.   We considered this to be our “practice piece” in preparation for the remainder of the collection with many important lessons learned.

The wood used was Red Grandis, which is plantation Eucalyptus and has just recently been made available in the U.S.   Red Grandis is being sold in California to replace Mahogany due to the environmentally unfriendly agriculture practices of many Mahogany producers.  While highly recommended by our local hard-wood retailer, we were reticent as we couldn’t find much information about Red Grandis on the internet.  And, while we don’t completely know how it will stand the test of time, we found it to be very user friendly, and it cut, machined, drilled & stained very well.   

This was our first attempt at making drawers.  While it took some re-cutting / re-routering, we are pleased with the final result and have gained some cautious confidence for the next pieces.  We did learn, in our hands at least, that the Rockler 45° Lock Miter Router Bits  provided a much more reproducible drawer corner than the Rockler Drawer Lock Router Bit - 1" Dia x 1/2" H x 1/2" Shank .

This was also the first time that we have used Miller Dowels and we were very impressed with their ease of use and outstanding fixation.  Additionally, I called the Miller Dowel company a couple of times for information and found them to be very accommodating and informative.  Based on our experience, we would recommend that you consider them for your next project.  One tip that we learned along the way was to put shipping tape around ( 5”strip above, below and each side) the dowel before you cut off the tip as it, apparently, lubricates the flex saw and protects the finished surface from being damaged while removing the tip.  

When I showed my husband the plans for this playhouse loft bed on Ana's site, he decided that we needed to build it for our daughter for Christmas. We combined the two plans for the Playhouse & the stairs and modified it slightly to fit our space. We had left-over carpet which we used on the stairs. She absolutely LOVES it!! And secretly, I think her 3 older brothers do, too. Thanks SO much, Ana!!