Community Brag Posts

Modified DIY Coat Rack! We call this our "Bear Proof" helmet rack. My daughter's chihuahua (named Bear) likes to mark anything at his level, lol. So I took Ana White's free coat rack plan and added helmet hooks to keep everyone's helmet off of the floor and safe from our little Bear. Thanks so much Ana! We all thank you so much for your generosity!

We built this bed in the Cabin style, but we wanted to be able to stack it Simple style. It turned out beautifully!!

My husband and I loved this idea but we don't have much wood working experience. My brother and sister in law were visiting and we decided to make this project together. Our son loves Turtles and we already have a bunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle "stuff" so we thought that would be a great theme. The guys cut all the wood and assembled and the girls did the painting. Then my brother in law who is super talented added in the details.

This was my second project from Ana White, and overall it was successful. I used a miter saw for the cuts (struggled with the bevel because my 12 inch saw isn't a slider, a kreg jig to attach everything (struggled to attach the 1x3s to the legs due to the angle of the dril and tight space), but everything eventually was held solidly together and it's really very sturdy. My husband is about 160 and he was able to jump on it with absolutely no give. 

The paint is just small samples we had on hand from home depot to coordinate with other projects in the kids' rooms, and I handpainted the letters. I finished it with a double coat of polycrylic. 

I built this Coffee Table from plans I found online. It's made from furniture and construction grade Pine, with a two-tone stain. I sealed it with polyurethane. Now if I could figure out a way to keep the cats off of it!

For the paint and stain:
The Wife and I really wanted a rich red color, but didn't want it to be so bright that it stood out funny against the rest of our furniture and settings in the living room. So, I went and picked up some Espresso Water Based Stain from Woodcraft, from the brand "General Finishes" for the base coat and the for the 1/4 board back. As you can see in several of the photos, I didn't cover the entire thing and in some areas I purposefully was SLOPPY (Yes my Wife's name is Amy). Afterwards... for the red coat with the finish.... my wife loves using this Annie Sloan paint that she uses to refinish other projects... Basically follow any tutorials on youtube or on her webage. It can be a hard to find paint, but I think a milk paint and clear wax and a brown wax will do the trick also.

For the build:
I took the planked wood sideboard plans and pretty much threw out the middle doors and drawers. I have a pretty serious entertainment center in our living room and the center channel speaker is by no means small.. It's so large that at the box stores, I could never find a media console that it would fit. I chose 3 shelves because I wanted it to look fairly even. For reference... the center shelving area is approximately 25 inches wide.
Nothing really special here, if you need some hints or tricks that I used message me and I'll help the best I can. I'm by no means an expert at this, Just take your time and anything you do will come out looking great. Plus. YOU MADE IT!

We did it and we love it! Hand made by the LeFebvres in Canada. First attempt at cabinets and drawers. Definitely visit Hilary's site and follow her tips which make this so much easier to construct! Finished cabinet is not only big but VERY heavy to move. Love it.

Farm table and bench.

Bill Morris

From the Modern Square Farmhouse table.

My niece's husband is career military and they move a lot. She saw the farmhouse table on Ana's site and asked if I would build her one that could be disassembled for moving and have extensions for large group gatherings. Challenge accepted!

In order to take the table apart, I used 2 - 6 inch long lag screws at the top of each leg that screwed into the 2x4 supports for the table top. Due to the weight of the table, it is advised to turn the table upside-down when removing the screws or assembling the table. Next, I used 3 inch lag screws to secure the beam under the table. Again, the lag screws are easily removed for moving.

For the leaf inserts, I utilized a dowel jig so the leaf extensions could be easily inserted and removed on the sliders that support the breadboard ends. (It is necessary to drill the holes out a little larger that accept the leaf dowels. If this is not done the leafs will fit too tight and it is difficult, if not darn impossible, to remove them.) This was advantageous for two reasons ... (1.) The leafs are easily installed and removed; and (2.) No need for leaf extensions that have their own 2 x 4 sliders. This reduces storage space for the extensions and eliminates the slider insert hole cutouts on each end of the table because the slider is never removed.

The table, when disassembled, is in (8) sections:

(2) table leg sections
(1) table top
(1) Main beam from under the table
(2) Leaf extensions
(2) Breadboard ends attached to 2x4 sliders

My niece is simply thrilled with the table.

Great instructions and a great finished project

I built the kids play table stool for a birthday gift, handpainted with a single letter monogram.

We followed Ana's plans almost exactly. We decided to do without the slower board that ran the length of the table and it is still super sturdy and we love it. When we were finished building, we filled all the cracks in the table top {between boards} with wood filler and then stained the top. I wish I would have filled the cracks on the bench too because there is a LOT of food that gets stuck in the cracks with little ones. I also wish I had done a self-leveling resin on the top right away too because when we moved the table, it did crack some of the wood filler that was in-between boards. It is still much better than having cracks that food can get stuck in, but I will for sure be doing the resin in the near future to make it more of a solid surface and make it so the soft wood can't have writing marks in it from my kindergartener.

We painted the legs to make it two toned. Once I had 3 coats of white paint on it, I sanded the edges and then rubbed the whole surface down with the same stain that we used on the top. This made the edges that we sanded stand out but also made the white paint not so white. It is exactly how I wanted it to look. It came together so perfect

We put 4 coats of clear coat on it too and its shiny and beautiful. This was the first big project that my hubby and I built and I am quite impressed with how well it turned out. The finishing is what took the longest. We had the table built in a day or two but it took me all week to get it painted and clear coated.

With all the wood, paint, stain and clear coat this cost us about $225 for both the table and bench.

I made this cabinet first, actually two of them, that way I would know the exact depth to build my other wall cabinets.  The depth without the face frame came to 11 3/4".  I built it exact to the plans, Thank you Ana!  I did modify the height to 36" and the rails of my face frames are 2 1/2" to accomodate the trim at the top and lighting at the bottom.  I have never built cabinets before and never made a pocket hole before either!  But I couldn't invest the $15,000 that Lowe's quoted me, this house is too old.  So I found a really nice set from craigslist and went from there.  I built all my wall cabinets to a custom height of 36".  The doors came from FastCabinetDoors and they are great quality doors.  The door I chose was "Camden" in oak frames and panels.  I used Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations in Pure White for the finish.  I hope to be finished in 5 weeks.

Finished building my son's shop by enclosing an existing carport and adding these hand built carriage doors to the front of the shop. Sorry, not built from any plans here but used the techniques learned here from many of the other plans.

Gary

The benchwright table.... This is my 3rd project. I was very intimidated by the angles and bevels but they turned out to be not nearly as bad as I expected. This table is not made to Anna's dimensions.... i wanted the table to be able to fit 8 chairs so I added 10 inches to the length measurements, I also wanted it to be wider so I added 11 inches to every width measurement (which equaled 2 extra 1x6 boards for the table top) In hind sight i think i would have either made the table a little taller or used a 2x4 for the stretchers instead of a 2x6 because the space for your knees with the 2x6 is a little tight. Before finishing i distressed the table with chains, nails, hammer, and screwdriver gouges. I still have to add some details...... I want the stretcher to have the turnbuckle like to pottery barn version and I have not found the right size pipes or turnbuckle yet so that will come sometime in the future. I also still have to add the bolts to the breadboards. Now to find some great chairs (don't mid my awesome patio folding chairs that are currently in use lol) I think im going to go for the mismatched painted chairs, maybe in a fun color like blue or red?

When we first moved into our new home one of the first things that I built for it was this custom gate that resides at the top of our stairs. We needed this to keep the baby from falling down and keep the dogs out when need be. Overall it was a great way to separate the two areas. It is also inexpensive and easy to build. I used a pneumatic nailer for all of the joinery on this one so it was quick to build as well.