Community Brag Posts

Build this firewood shed over one weekend and stained it the following weekend. This was my first project and I only received a little help from my boyfriend. Can't wait to start my next project.

I have 3 Grandson's that love to be pirates so I decided to make them a pirate ship teeter totter. After searching the Web for plans and finding nothing I was looking for I decided to just go for it and see what I could come up with. This pirate ship is heavy duty. I use 2x8's, 2x10's and 2x12's for the frame and seats and 1x10's and 1x12's for the inside foot platform. It's 5ft long, 3ft wide and 3ft high. I had to put some stop blocks on it or it would of been a catapult instead of a teeter totter. (I know this because I climbed on and took it for a ride) Everything is connected using pocket holes and pocket hole screws (Thanks to my Kreg jig) I added a pole up the center and added a pirates flag and puts some swords on the sides. The kids sure have fun on it and so do I.

Bookshelf for our living room

This project was taken from the Rustic X End Table plan. This is my second big project that I have attempted and I am still learning from my mistakes made from making the Rustic X Coffee Table. Hope you enjoy!

Took the general dimensions from these reclaimed wood plans and modified them to include a chevron back. The most difficult aspect was determining the cut marks for each chevron piece and rounding the edges to bring out the details.

Finished the headboard with a satin-finish, oil-based enamel paint.

Additional pictures and information available on my website.

This is one of my first projects. Thanks for the great plans. My daughter loves her new toy storage.

This was my first major build with plans from Ana. I actually found this bookcase via Shanty2Chic. It went smoothly and all in all took me a few evenings about an hour at a time. I have 3 kids so it did take me a little longer to finish. I am so impressed with myself and so is my husband. I used a 10" chopsaw for most of the cuts. I also used my KregJig. Thanks Ana!

I desperately needed storage in our 1910 house that was not in the basement.  I wanted a place to keep my sewing machine and accessories, at-home school supplies, and other odds and ends.  We had an alcove in the kitchen that was about 74 inches wide and 17 inches deep, so I decided to build something to fit that space.  I really liked the Simplest Armoire plan but I also really liked the Kentwood Bookshelf, so I ended up somewhat combining the two.  Since I had a fairly large space, I made the cabinet about 6 ft X 6 ft.  The hardest part was getting it into the house.  This project was my first big DIY building project without my dad's help.  I did call him a few times during the project however, and he helped me hang the doors.  I really enjoyed using the Kreg Jig and I appreciated having all of the Kreg Jig instructions for the Kentwood Bookshelf.  It was a huge help, as I had only used the Kreg Jig a little and with my dad in the past.  My husband has been a great support as I have ventured into building furniture.  He works from home, but any time that I needed him to help hold a large sheet of plywood he was quick to help.  This was definitely a big project for a beginner, but I enjoy a challenge when it comes to fixing things and creating things. Fortunately, this one worked out in the end!  Now what should I build next summer...

Followed simple instructions, but  added my own twist.  Do it yourself craft paper holder. 

I have always been interested in some kind of projects and just to see what I can do with my hands. I am a father of 3 and hardly have the time to sit down must less pull off a huge project but I set aside some time and worked on this late at night after the kiddos went to bed. I came across this site when my wife was on pintrest one night and have been hooked ever since. I was at work one day and saw all these different projects that I wanted to do and that's when I ran across this bed and I could not wait to start working on it. I called my wife and sent pictures of the plans and said meet me at Lowes we got a project to work on lol. I had a blast working on this and yes I did run into a few problems here and there but overall it came out great. When I went in I originally was going to follow plans to a T but decided that I would make changes here and there as I went. Due to height contstrictions in my son's room I lowered the overall height by two inches which worked out perfect. I did build the steps but I also made the back where it would come apart for east movement. I only used actual pine boards on the steps and the rest is 3/4" MDF board. I ripped everything on a table saw to exact width and length and drilled all my holes with a Kreg Jig. Alot of people are afraid to use MDF but believe me I could shake that bed as hard as I can and it doesn't even budge one bit. It is heavy duty built for a monkey child like I have. The project overall took around 30 hours from start to finish. My only suggestion would be to paint every step of the way instead of waiting to paint until the end like I did. If you have any questions about the build feel free to ask and I will help out the best I can. Thanks Ana for the plans and thanks to atouchofarkansas for the original inspiration for you guys have gave my son years worth of enjoyment. Can't wait for the next project to start.

Modified the plans to add a shelf for DVD player and gaming consoles. 

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.