Community Brag Posts

I decided to try and use the plans on Ana's site but with a twist. I wanted to limit myself to using only pallets. I think it turned out great! I can't upload all the photos because they exceed the maximum size limit. If I was able to you could see how each chair is slightly different and has a lot of character. I finished them with a waterproofing oil which I highly recommend over other finishes. 

For Christmas gifts this year, I built several different jewelry boxes from the Easy Jewelry Box plan. The center one is a variation of the plan, made taller and narrower (that one was for Mom). The drawers are all lined with embossed felt and the 2-drawer boxes have adjustable drawer dividers. These all have sticky-back felt on box and drawer bottoms. The tower style box has added trim. Each one was an afternoon build. These were super fun to build and were a huge hit with Mom and my friends!

As a newly blended family of seven  people, we needed a dining room table that would accomodate our family comfortably.  With nothing suitable available locally and our joint interest in homemade projects, we searched for a plan we could work with.  We were thrilled when we found this plan, which we customized to the dimensions of our dining room. We adjusted the length to 9' and the width to 33" and went with a plank and breadboard end top.  We used a Tudor colour Minwax polyshade stain with a satin finish for the top.  To achieve the worn look of the pedestals we used a torch to burn the wood, primed it with a primer sealer, painted it with furniture andcabinet paint (Armadillo) for durability, then scuffed/sanded the desired areas with a durable 60 grit sandpaper.  Making the table ourselves allowed us to use a colour scheme which matched the chairs we had purchased.  We will add, it was more time consuming than anticipated, but well worth it!  We LOVE our new table!! 

I'd been looking for a plank-style farmhouse table for quite some time. Couldn't find what I wanted to buy anywhere (and too cheap to spend the money even if I did), so decided to make my own table. Made up my own design for the table top, and then went looking for the right legs. I liked the pedestals on Ana's design a lot, but thought 3 was too many for my project. Looking at some of the other tables that had been done with only two, I decided I didn't love the high placement of the spanning bar when done with only 2 legs. So, I moved it down to the bottom of the legs instead, and added a couple of decorative knobs to make up for the lost visual interest to the pedestal columns. I'm not a particularly physically strong woman, but I was was able to do this entire build single-handedly, with very little previous experience assembling furniture (lots of diy experience doing other kinds of home improvement projects though). Only needed a second set of hands when finally lifting the top onto the legs at the end. Fun project overall.

Final table size is 8' X 33.5". Seats 8 comfortably; can fit 10 when needed.

I completed this project on a day off from school. It took about 8 total hours from start to finish. I purchaced 1x8's and cut them to size to minimize the looking through piles of lumber for stright boards. My first project, and im looking forward to the next.

Saw Ana's plan on Pinterest for the Rustic X Coffee Table and wanted it in my own home!

I modified the origianl plans by making the cabinet taller.  I also built 2 cabinets and trimmed them both together to make it appear as if it is 1 giant cabient.  It measure over 7 feet tall and just over 6 feet wide.  I did add an additional 1x2 brace in the center of the cabinet to help support.  I also cut an additional 1x4 to use a brace when anchoring it to the wall.  I also chose to add an additional 2 trim pieces to each door because they are much taller than the original plan doors.  

With a desire to decorate a mantel for the holidays, my husband and I decided to build a fireplace mantel and surround. This was our first building project.

Inspired by the faux mantel at Blue Roof Cabin blog and with the drawn up plans from Ana White, this mantel was fairly easy to build.

I (we) are very happy with the results. Since the plans were adapted to fit around our existing fireplace, the completed dimensions are 66 1/2 inches high x 74 3/4 wide. Total cost came to $130.81

For more details about the building process, please check out the tutorial.

Thank you.

Julie

Used square laundry baskets instead of regular rectangular baskets. The square ones aren't as deep but are a bit taller so I had to modify the plans. I added a backsplash and some wooden tags to the baskets to designate them for certain colors. I also added some decorative trim and finished the bottom in a gray stain and used white chalk paint for the top.

Larger than on-line plans but it got me started. The top is made of oak skids glued together for 1-5/8" thickness.

We made this table following the Rustic Console Table plans. We bought all the supplies at our local lumber yard so the cost was about $60 for the project. This plan turned out so great that we even made the matching side table:) It is sturdy, useful and plain and simple great for the space! This is a fun one to make!!

Built this around Thanksgiving before I got a miter saw so took a little extra time with circular saw but worked just fine. 

Modified the plans only slightly to include 3 seats for all our kids. On one side I put a vertical dowel rod that we can place sand weights over to counter balance the weight when all three are on it. I did use pressure treated pine for the parts that are resting on the ground so that it will last a little longer since it will usually sit in the grass. 

Kids love it!

This was a fun project. It took nearly 3 months to complete. Nights, weekends and a few finish redo's :). 

Rural Bus Shelter with 3/12 shed roof, designed to keep your kids out of the elements as they wait for the bus. Shown with log siding and 2x trim. Can be constructed on a slab on grade or remain portable with pressure treated runners and wood floor as shown.

Upgrade further with electricity and insulation for those really cold and dark climates (ie. Washington, Oregon, Alaska, B.C.).

I will make the plans for this shelter freely available to all that are interested.

After watching Ana White's video on easy garage shelving on FB, I knew right away it was the perfect technique for adding shelves to my laundry room.  The project was easy and turned out great!  I did the majority of the work by myself, although my Hubby did help me with some heavy lifting at the end (we had to add the shelving before the front frame due to the walls on either side). The shelving unit itself took only a few hours to build.  I painted it the following day making it a weekend project. We have considered adding trim to the front to give it a more finished look, but right now, it is serving its purpose. I will definitely use Ana's technique again.  It was simple and straightforward!  I loved it.