Community Brag Posts

I built this for my girlfriend who specifically likes french provincial finishes but colonial farmhouse structure. There is absolutely no metal/screws in this build, frame assembled with mortise and tenon joinery and drawer is assembled with splines. I finished traditionally with a danish oil treatment for the top, and the frame/drawer was painted with Aubusson Blue chalk paint, corners sanded, then graphite washed, then waxed with a traditional paste wax and hand buffed. This is the first time I've built without pocket screws or modern finishes and I am hooked! It did take me four times as long though, so it's not for every project. Just the ones that are for someone special ;)

I made this train/activity table for my niece's 2nd birthday. I did omit the bottom shelf to allow more leg room when sitting/kneeling on the floor. The one BIG issue I encountered was that I cut the top inset to fit perfectly. Then I painted it.... the pieces no longer fit due to the extra paint thickness. UGGGGG! So, I had to go back to sanding to get that nice fit again.

I put in a scrap of indoor/outdoor carpeting for "grass" for the train set to sit on. This is not glued in, so it can be removed if they decide to use it for something other than the train. I painted it using cabinet paint to give it a little extra protection against scratches and scuffs since it will be used by a two year old. I painted the inset white on one side, but I put chalkboard paint on the other side. This way, it's like three tables in one! An activity table, chalkboard table, and a train table! She loves it!

I need to get a picture of it with the top on so you can see the white and chalkboard sides. It was a really fun build!

I may build the smaller Lego version for my own house - not to play with Legos, but to keep the dog's tail from knocking over any beverages I set down! It also would be a nice place to store the laptop when not in use.

With another baby on the way in a few months, we decided to move our 2+ year old daughter across the hall into her first big girl room. I built big sister the Kendal Extra Wide Dresser, Traditional Wood Toddler Bed, Letter A Shelf and a Dollhouse Bookcase and matched the colors with her new comforter, lamps and princess canopy tent from the Land of Nod outlet.

This project was actually an afterthought. I built the other three projects, painted the room, installed all the accessories, and then we discovered that there was nowhere to put her books. Because I had been spending so much time building, after reading the plans, I really expected this bookshelf project to go smoothly with my Kreg Jig. However, different aspects of this project took some extra time. For instance, joining the A-frame of the roof took some trial and error with pocket holes, nails, screws and a lot of wood filler. Also, for the side windows and doors, cutting straight lines with the jigsaw, cutting, building and joining the 1 x 2 trim pieces, joining the trim pieces to the bookshelf, and then painting the trim took a lot of time and trial and error (again, thank goodness for wood filler). Notwithstanding, at the end of the day, the shelf is great, our daughter loves it, and it really completes the room.  

I've always wanted an Adirondack chair so I was excited to find these plans. I wanted a more rustic chair so I used fence pickets and 2 x 4' s that I had. to add some height to the back, I added some little feet to the ends of the legs with my Kreg jig. I love that thing. The markings on the wood are from the natural patina of the 60 year old redwood planks I used. Now I just need to make 3 more and a table for the back yard.

Used the Farmhouse Style bed plan and stacked them, two headboards for the bottom bed, two footboards for the top bunk bed

I LOVED creating this bench! It was quick and easy.

I really wanted an upholstered top with nailhead trim so even though the plans didn't call for it, I did it anyway :) I left off the top piece after building the rest of the bench, and upholstered it with 2" foam and batting. I used outdoor fabric because my dogs may be using the bench to get on/off the bed, and I figured it would be easier to keep clean! Luckily, my local Jo-Ann store just put out a plethora of outdoor fabrics, and they were 50% off (as was the foam!). After the upholstering was finished, I used nailhead trim because I LOVE the look. Then, I attached the top by turning it upside down and setting the bench upside down on top of it, and nailing the two together.

I decided to paint the bench white instead of staining, and I'm so glad I did. I feel that it gives the piece a certain sophistication, and it goes perfectly in the bedroom.

100% happy with this piece!

After viewing her project I decided to make a morphed version for my miter saw/router. It also houses most of my tools, screws,  jigs,  etc. Thanks for the idea Ana

We made the providence benches a little bigger to fit our space perfectly and painted them RED for pop. Soooooo many compliments from our neighbors!

Made whith Pine, Changing Table fitting with Kendal wide dresser.

This design was straight forward and easy to modify - made the bench deeper and shorter, and added a shelf.

I used pine wood and minwax walnut stain. I did run into a minor issue with a few of the slat boards being warped so I ended up screwing on (3) 1x3's onto the back, perpendicular to the slats, so the boards sat flat and their edges were flush. This also added more stability to the project. One coat of stain did the trick for the color we were going for. For such an easy project, this makes a big difference in the look and feel of our bedroom.

Since I am a very visual person when it comes to drawings and 2D/3D renderings, I have included pictures of the cut list shown on the boards you will need to use.  I hope this helps some people!  Keep in mind, if you use side mount drawer slides like I did, you need 3 extra 15.75" pieces for the slides to mount to.  I just used extra 1x3 boards I had hanging around.

We built this dresser plan to be used as a dresser / change table combo.  The guy at the home improvement store said to use oil based polyurethane so that it was more resistant to change table spills and traffic/wear over the years.  The oil based poly also added a nice amber color to the stained wood which I really liked.

This is the most complicated project I've made so far (because I've never made a plan with drawers), but after a couple tables and a desk from Ana's site (and referencing Shanty-2-chic also) I was confident that it would turn out well.

Change from the original plans --> We used 16in ball bearing "soft close" side-mount drawer slides instead of the euro style bottom corner mount ones mentioned in the plans. This requires adding the supports shaded in blue on the plans near step #7 pictures.  Getting the exact spacing width for those slides was a bit tricky and the drawer boxes had to be within 1/16" for them to work, so if you want simple you might want to stick to the euro style ones.  They allow for more "play" in the operation. 

Tip for attaching drawer faces:  For one thing, make the attahcment of the top and back of the dresser the LAST two steps you do on the whole project since it makes installing drawer slides and drawer faces a breeze.  That said, when it cam time for attached the front of the drawers I used 1/8" tile spacers all around the sides to make sure that gap was uniform and correct (see pic #4).  It was the simplest way I thought about of going about it.  Mounting the drawer boxes to the slides needed to be done before attaching the face boards for me.  And instead of nailing the faces on from the front and then screwing from behind; I put glue on the drawer box, put the face board in place using the tile spacers, and then added screws from the inside of the frame side.  It was a breeze. 

As the plans stated, I attached the top with PH screws through the side panels and six countersunk screws in the 2x2s along the width of the top using 2" screws.  It would have been a lot simpler to install the countersunk ones if I had a right angle drill or short handles screw driver, but I did not, so I made a normal one work.

If you have any more specific questions about my version of this project please let me know.  I was hoping to get to share more than 5 pictures, but that seems to be all the posts let you put up so I tried to included the most helpful ones.

got a kreg jig for mother's day and tried it out on that dead space in my broom closet.  I made $10 shelves, but in a "Z" shape instead of a "U" shape so I could attach from below and have more room on the shelf for cleaning supply storage.

 I used a 1x6 for the shelf and spray painted them black with some paint I already had.  So easy!  I used a 1x4 with a block of wood to hold up one end of the shelf so I could screw it into the cabinet.  Then leveled it and added second screw.  Awesome first project!  I learned a lot and got a place to put my spray bottles.

Sorry for the dark photo, my cabinets are black cherry.  

The cedar planters are ready and waiting for spring to arrive. I made three of these planters and absolutely love them. Thanks Ana for inspiring me to build. I love the third one but have to admit that it was a mistake. I made it for my father-in-law's 76th birthday. He loves gardening and shiny wood. So I used a polyurathane on it but it didn't look nice (my nail holes were very visible). So I sanded it with 220 grit sand paper and then used the steel wool/vinegar solution that I used on the first two. It turned out so different so I sanded again, then tried the solution again. I love it! It looks so old. I will be keeping that one and giving him one of the other two.

I needed a custom built printer table for the massive printer I just bought.  I figured if I was going to custom build it, I might as well add a couple storage areas.  Then I thought, I'm tired of having this VCR sitting on a TV tray to dub home movies to digital. So, I turned the top drawer area into a fold down face droor for easy access (and hiding) of the VCR.  Turned out great. 

I made this for my outside patio but since completing the project, it's been raining. So, it's inside the screen porch for the time being.