Community Brag Posts

I wanted to make a built in storage bench for the breakfast nook in our eat-in kitchen, but wasn't entirely sure how to go about the process. After seeing Ana's "Mimi's Storage Bench" I thought the plan could be modified to fit our space, so I convinced my husband to give it a shot. We've done a fair amount of carpentry in our house, but this is the first piece of furniture that we have ever built. Thanks to Ana's plans and our new Kreg jig, it turned out better than I ever imagined. We absolutely love the new bench, where my toddler spends every morning eating his breakfast while staring out the window and giggling at the squirrels in our backyard.

I added support for more weight by adding a 2x4 on the inside of the four legs. This way, I have the entire frame supported by screws AND 2x4, so I can rest easy.

Golf bag stand
Can’t remember if found this plan here or not but get most my plans here. Fun and easy build.

With Father's Day rolling in, my sons and I needed a gift, stat! My husband thinks that Table Tennis is the quintessential father-son activity, so that was an obvious choice.
We needed something easy to make, easy to store, and budget friendly. With a 6, 4, and 2 year old helping out, I made a foldable mdf ping pong table that could easily be placed on our picnic table outside.
We had home depot cut the mdf in half, primed it, taped off some lines, spray painted it with chalkboard paint (bonus, you can keep score!), and screwed 4 small hinges to attach the 2 halves. We added a removable table tennis net, some paddles and balls, and have played nearly every day!

We have considered buying a cedar-lined chest to store blankets, towels, etc. for many years.  However, we couldn’t find one that came close to matching the Knotty Pine bedroom set that we had in our master suite. 

Hence, our design criteria was quite simple; match the bedroom set and have a chest sturdy enough to support our Beagles as they peer at the squirrels outside the window.

We used plans / ideas from several different chest designs which were readily available on the internet.  Most of those plans were using hard woods such as oak.  Those plans called for a hard wood framing with ¼” oak plywood for the panels.  Since we needed to use Knotty Pine to match the bedroom set, we used 1” Knotty Pine for framing and Knotty Pine ¾ ply w/ Kreg Screws and copious glue to strengthen the construct.  We finished it off with locally available 3/8” cedar T.G. planks.  It is very heavy and very strong!  This project was done entirely w/ Kreg Screws and no router rabbeting for the panels.

We learned the following while doing this project:

·      When using soft woods, always put the power sander on the wood before you start the sander.  Otherwise, you can get scratching / sander burns that don’t present themselves until staining begins.

·      While very strong, ¾” plywood is very heavy!

·      When using plywood, it is recommended that you stain both the visible and non-visible sides of each piece where glue is not to be applied.  Otherwise the chance for delaminating increases dramatically.

60 hours work and $350 to build.   

I built this for my sons 3rd birthday. He absolutely loves it. Thanks for the plans

I built this for our entry way at our cabin. I added a drawer at the top for sunglasses and keys. 

I needed a garden shed (for potting supplies) and a dog house, but I wanted it to look good. I started with Ana's plans, but screwed up a cut and was too lazy to go to the store, so I modified the plan a bit - also we didn't want a lot of venting off the roof.

OUR MODIFICATIONS:
NO BACK WALL - I did not build a back wall, as we pushed it all the way up to the house. (You need to check your codes for this if it's allowed. The way I'm integrating mine w/o breaking the exterior waterproofing of the house and it's unconditioned made mine OK)

DOG HOUSE- I cut away a hole for our dog between the battens. And as you can see - he loves it. He's got his Coolaroo dog bed inside. We also added a 'ceiling' to the lower dog house half, that divides the gardening storage from dog house. The large shelf inside that acts as a dog house ceiling, and above are my un-used pots, hand tools etc. (no worries no chemicals with the puppy)

PAINTED EXTERIOR- I painted it red to match the house, and will also be putting garden pavers in front of the doors.

ROOF- We did put an underlayment down on the roof before the asphalt shingles.

LESSON LEARNED- If your dog is a Mama's boy like mine, he may try to climb a ladder to remove you from a roof which he has determined is not OK for you to be up there.

*One concern is - most sidewalks slope away from the house, so we had to shim the sill plate so front of the shed doesn't lean outward causing the doors to pull open constantly. As you can see from the photo I still need to flash at the roof where we cut back our houses' battens.

COST- We live in CA - and this project was more expensive than anticipated, our lumber/roof shingle costs were around $270 alone, and keep in mind we didn't build a back panel. I have very little scrap left over too. When I was nearly done the hinges were an additional $15 a piece, $10 for the latch. And we had the primer and paint in the garage. Underlayment for roof, I already had in the garage too.

TIM-: I started this project on a weekend, but it ended up taking longer; probably because I didn't block out the weekend just for this project. I spread it over the course of a month, so hours wise it probably wasn't as bad as it felt... You do need two people though, and that's where I ran into some trouble, I kept trying to work on it when my husband wasn't home. Probably 24hrs, 3 easy going days. Could probably be done in a weekend if you were dedicated and didn't get distracted (or screw up a cut like I did, which sent me to the drawing board to fix my mistake)

I used the classic bunk bed plans and resized them to fit a toddler mattress and to keep the height about four inches shorter. My kids love them and we are very happy with the result. I'm glad to share the measurements with anyone who is interested. This was a first project for me, but I had a much more experienced friend helping. If you're interested in plans you can find my explanation here https://warburtonshome.blogspot.com/2017/10/toddler-bunk-beds-diy.html

This is my first, of hopefully many projects to come. I modified Patrick's Jelly Cupboard plans to be 40" tall and added the tins to the doors. I used spruce and pine board from a local lumber yard. The finish is Miss Mustard Seed milk paint inside and out. With kids in the house I didn't want to use stain with the heavy chemical smell so I mixed the milk paint with a lot of water to look like a stain. That product is so easy to use and looks great. Needless to say my wife loves her pie safe. Thanks Ana for this site and the inspiration to give this a try. I'm hooked!

We wanted to put up a whiteboard to use for homeschooling and were amazed at the cost of even a small one. We got some shower board from Lowes that measures 8 feet by 4 feet, put 1x2" boards over the top and side edges and screwed through them into the wall studs, and added a Ten Dollar Ledge shelf we'd already been using for the kids' books. Super easy and it looks great!