Community Brag Posts

Our friends and my co-worker, Tommy & Susannah, got married back in November and for their wedding gift I said that I would build them a coffee table. They liked the look of my original one that I built but wanted is square like the one I did for my sister. However, their living room space was not that big, so they wanted scaled down version. They wanted it 2 1/2' x 2 1/2' and similiar in color to the ones that I had already done.

Not to be say how cheap I got the wood for their wedding present, but the wood for this was not very much at all. Especially since I got the 4x4's in the culled wood bin for $1 each, and only needed 2! Total cost of wood was $17.50! Add in the screws, stain, staining materials and you are looking at around $30.00 max. Now my labor for this project was priceless, so was very expensive wedding gift!!!

As an Ana White newbie I was excited (to say the least!) about my first real project.

It was also my proving ground. My Hubby said that if this went well, I could feel free to build an office desk... pergola... coffers in the dining room... whatever! He was floored and impressed beyond words!

I have included a before picture of our entryway and also a view from our front door, so that you can see how much of a presence this has in a room. I love it absolutely!

I made mine a bit deeper in the seat (about 20") because my husband has size 15 shoes that needed to be hidden. I also added a shelf for more shoes (which was easy and also where I tried out my new Kreg Jig). That tool is pretty darn sweet!

I decided to use hefty planks for the seats as well and reinforced them with a bit beefier legs, as my husband and his family are all nearly 7 feet tall. (just in case - you know!)

Mine is a bit shorter in length than Ana's... but all in all pretty similar. These pictures don't show all the holes filled in yet (as I ran out of putty) but that will be done next week. It looks pretty polished where I have filled them in though - paint is a wonder at hiding things.

My tearful thanks to Ana for making this seem so completely "do-able" for a woman! I was feeling pretty low before building this - but I have to say that working with wood is a REAL confidence booster and it feels so satisfying when you see the finished result. The JIG is a bit intimidating till you get used to it - but then it's so cool! Love it!

I started this on a Sunday night and finished on a Wednesday night.

I will be building again very, very soon!

My wife wanted a built in shelving unit for all of her Fiestaware.  I couldn't find anything that worked so I looked for large hutches instead.  I found a nice design on Ana White and saw some other modifications from other posters - came up with what you see here.  Turned out well.  I never worked with Blum hinges before so that was a learning experience.

this is a staple of mine, one that I love and my nieces do too. Every time a niece, so far 5 have got them, I have them all ready, built, sanded, primered, and an activity that we do together, is paint the beds whatever color the girls want. They love it, we also sew a mattress, 2 pillows, and they get a crochet blankie to take. Really great bonding time! Also made 2 for the make one, take one campaign of Ana's. These are the cutest, sturdiest beds I've ever seen. And yes, every niece has climbed into their beds to "test" them out :)

Great plan!! Easy to build and very sturdy. The only modification I made was to use 1x8's for siderails and raised the frame about 3 inches to make more room for storage. Thanks!!

So this project took quite a while for me to finish, but I didn't cut any corners and expanded a bit on the basic plans that were offered.  Some notes on changes to the project:

• Instead of leaving the gap in the bottom and middle shelves, I used a second 1x10 and ripped it down to the exact width I needed so that it would be flush (this was done for the bottom shelf and the middle shelf.
• I added 3 supports in Step 5 at the back to provide additional support for the middle shelf.  
• For the top, instead of 2 2x10's, it is 3 2x8's ripped down to 6.25" each, then edge glued.  A brace was then added to the bottom and used to attach the top to the main unit.  See the pictures for a better description.  
• I also edge glued the doors out of 1x6's in order to get the dimensions I wanted.
• I used a 1x3 at the bottom to give it more of a sturdy look
• OK, so the big part that people complained about the original plans were the lack of information on how to do the rails.  I cheated and contacted a metal fabricator to make them for me.  Pricing was consistent with what you would find online for similar barn door hardware, but it definitely turned out better than me trying to do it myself. 
• The stain is Minwax "provincial" and I used a wipe-on poly to coat it.  For the top, I used 400 grit sand paper between coatings, and let me tell you, you can see your reflection in the finished product.  Turned out really well!
• My only regret is that I used project boards for the two end pieces, and so they don't quite match the remainder of the project.  I would have edge glued them just like I did the doors given the chance to do it over. 

Anyway, enjoy!

I was looking for a shed to keep pool towels and other deck and pool items. This shed hit every feature I was looking
for. My husband loved the plans. He's always saying he can build anything with a measured drawing and a
cut list. The only thing we changed was the roofing material. we were given some metal roofing by a friend.

I love this design and have made several for family and for sale. This was the one I made for Ana's promotion, Make one, take one. This is the one that was given to charity, Wings. this is a house in our area for battered women and their children. As an ER nurse who sends patients there, I realize the importance of a well made doll bed, (Doll given as well) 90% of the time these kids have to leave their homes with nothing, no toys, no clothes, and I hope seeing this doll bed would help some little girl forget about the trauma she's been through, if only for a little while, and let her be a little girl again.

Started by making these bunk beds for my 9 year old and then I made another for my 6 year old. I couldn't help myself, so I made 12 more for other people to give as Christmas presents. Thanks Ana!

I had a great time with my first project being this vegetable bin. I did have to have some help with the actual construction and I know it's not perfect. It's uneven and has flaws, but I think it gives it a little character.

Completed the corner bookshelf (we opted to not use cupboard doors on the bottom) in two afternoons. 

doll bunk beds painted tangerine with bedding

We started out practicing on end tables. Take your time carefully picking out your lumber. We ended up with a slightly warped 2x10. There is no give in a big board like that so it put us behind. The picture shows it stained with minwax "Provincial" and one coat of minwax satin. More coats for the top are in progress.

I found these amazing plans from Ana's website here.  Couldn't be easier!  I modified mine a bit to fit the space and used recycled pine wood for my project!  The Scroll legs I used my jig saw to cut them out with the great stencil provided in these plans.  I was really happy with the result, as I only had minor sanding to do to make them match up when I glued them together.  Since I was painting this piece I used dry wall mud over the seams on the legs to hide the joints (a lot less expensive than wood filler).  Since it was all recycled wood I had to do a lot of sanding but it saved me a lot of money!  So very happy with this project!  Thanks for again for the amazing plans!!!

Randi Wolf

RW Creations

Just delivered these Adirondack chairs to my son and his GF as a housewarming gift for their first home. They selected the colors and they turned out perfect! I used a countersink for the front screws and filled with plugs so it looked very polished!

These were all Christmas projects...My daughter needed a blanket chest, so I used Anna's Toy Chest plans - modifying them to add a lid (which also functions as an extra seat). I made the dimensions larger because she had some really large blankets to store and also added some fancier trimming. Her husband wanted DVD storage in their room, so I built the cabinet and painted it to match the blanket chest. I do most of my building in the evenings, so it took a couple of days to build these - the finishing took the most time over several evenings. Also shown is the mail organizer, with an airplane motif because of my grandson's love of airplanes.