Community Brag Posts

This project actually was a lot bigger than we thought it would be. Hubby and I are almost newbies, and we thought we could knock this off in a week or two! It actually ended up taking us 6 months to finish, although to be honest we didn't work on it consistently.

We needed a replacement for an old coat closet that was falling apart, and decided to tweak the design for the simple armoire to fit what we need, which is basically coats, table cloths, shoes, and just about anything else we want to hide away in our dining room. It's 18 inches deep by 36 inches wide. Since we couldn't find 18 inch wide wood planks, and aren't skilled enough to make them yet, we went with a hardwood plywood and covered the edges of the plywood with iron on veneer. It turned out very well; you can't really tell that it's plywood unless you know what you're looking for.

I will say that I couldn't find the kind of hinges called for in the plans, not even on the internet. So hubby and I went with 1 inch non-mortise hinges. They worked well, though they were a bit hard to hang for a couple of novices.

This is our 20-year-old bathroom vanity, retrofitted to resemble the Napoleon Sink Console. This old cabinet is the standard builder size from the 90’s -- 30” wide x 29 ½” tall x 21” deep – fits a 31” x 22” sink top. The 2 outside drawers are working drawers, and the 2 inside are faux (just fronts). It was a weekend project. Since the sink stayed in place, I had to figure out something for the drawers to slide on. I had 3 sticks of ¾” x ¾” S4S in the garage, so I used these and fashioned a frame to hold the drawers, and also used it on the sides of the drawers as slides (figured the frame out as I went along). I used up some scrap 1x12 to cut the drawer faces and supports at the inside back of the cabinet. Since the space was so tight, I used some scrap 1x2 as bracing attached to the original frame, and attached the added face frame to that. The doors are ½” x 1 ½” craft board and ¼” birch plywood. The drawers are 3/8” x 3 ½” craft board with some ¼” plywood on the bottoms. I re-used the existing hinges and used some knobs from a multi-pack (available from Target) and some left over paint that was on hand. I bought about $30 of materials in addition to my scraps.
Now that I’ve got this one under my belt, it’ll be easier to do this in the other 2 bathrooms. I’ll probably use some 1x2’s instead of the s4s if I have to go out and buy the materials for the next one, it’ll just have slightly different measurements.

For my daughters 8th birthday I decided I would make her a doll house for her American Girl dolls. Then I decided to make all the doll furniture too. Then I started thinking that I might as well sew all the bedding and cushions. She loves it!! 

I started building a different bench, but I decided halfway through that I didn't like my design. I found this, and loved it, so I modified my partially built bench to incorporate the woven back design. I substituted in a few mortise and tenon joints for strength, and used either kreg or waterproof glue for the non-structural joints. The seat bottom is made from 2x4's I resawed in half. I also rounded over the edges of the 'Y' pieces, which I think makes it look a bit more like they're woven together. Thanks for the plans, this is a great addition to my front porch!

I made this picnic table for my upcoming wedding with the intent of using it as our guestbook.  I'm hoping to have people sign, carve, and woodburn their names or a message on the table.  I painted the legs and supports white and stained the top and seats with a cherry stain.  I still need to put some finish on the whole thing, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out.  And so are my dogs.

I took the 25 cubbies plan and changed the dimensions to fit shoes. I made a simpler version for my husband too. This project went together quickly and was so fun to build.

Inspired by the Tall Secretary with mail slots but with my own twist/needs incorporated in it. Finished with pure white satin paint.

I made this cabinet to house my murphy bed.  I used the Toy or TV Armoire plans as a start and adjusted the measurements as needed.

Was planning to build the table from smooth cedar... But at the lumberyard I happened across this beautiful batch of 5/4 poplar and adjusted on the fly. The tabletop is actually a crazy assortment of widths... 6, 8, 4, 12, 4, 8, 6 (respectively). Kregged, sanding like the dickens, two coats of light stain (cause I love all the ribbons/grain in this top) and fought with the poly for a few days to get it smooth. Decided to paint the base cause the broad grain of the pine base wouldn't match the top. My wife picked the little accent color for the stretchers on the base and that added some nice contrast. I didn't intend to build a bench at the start, but I had enough wood and the remaining 5/4x12 poplar top was too pretty not to use!

snagged the 4 chairs on Craigslist too. Really rounded out the set.