Community Brag Posts

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.

I followed the instructions at 517 creations to make this: http://517creations.blogspot.com/2011/04/ruler-growth-chart-pottery-bar…. It was relatively quick and easy project that I made to chart my daughter's growth on her second birthday (and our little ones' future birthdays). I printed the numbers off my computer, made an indent with ball point-pen and then traced with a paint marker. It took a little patience and concentration, but I drew the lines and numbers without barely making a smudge.  

Great project! I'm new to wood working and have been looking for simple but challenging builds. Needless to say this fit the bill... This grill cart was a great starter build and ultimately became a Father's Day gift!  My Pops loved it! 

I did add a couple of custom pieces: a foldable table top extension and towel bar... things Dad will undoubtedly need as he's an outdoorsman who loves to BBQ!

Thanks for the idea/design plans! 

My son had a 'lightning Mcqueen' toddler bed- but we needed to get him into a little bigger bed.  We had a spare full bed, and Batman is his current favorite... Since there aren't Batman full race car beds- time to start planning and building from sketchup!  Took me about 2 weeks of evenings (after the kids go to bed) and about $110 in materials.  The model is available in the sketchup warehouse at:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=u6b750a53-37a4-4d52-9d31…

For the wheel covers I ordered online at Amazon for $25 for a set of 4.

For the Wheels both HD and Menards make a 18" wood table top for ~$7 that I just cut the middle out  with my router to fit the wheel covers.

The slats to hold the bed (made to fit both box spring and mattress) were just 1x4 pine boards from menards.

The body was made from 3/4 MDF, though you could of course use plywood. 

I used a projector to project the image from sketchup onto the board to get it transferred- else it would have been 50+ pages if printing..

For the logos I just used a minila folder as my stencil and cut out the logo.  Needed to touch up the 'tabs' to hold the logo in the circle after pulling off the stencil.

We used old dock wood for the surface of our X table for a nice beach house beverage center (sand bar!).  We adjusted the size to fit our space (a little longer and wider) and used additional studs for the shelves instead of 1" shelving, glued and PH/PS together.  To cut the X pieces I just held the 1x1 on the end of the table where it goes and marked the lines. Then I clamped a guide board at the correct angle on the table saw to make all the cuts, starting a bit long and shaving off until it just fit.  

With all the pocket holes and screws I wouldn't consider this a beginner project. Some additional steps and pictures in your description would help also.  End result is really nice.

We recently had our 6th child and needed to rearrange our kids' rooms.  We decided to put our 3 oldest girls together and wanted a triple bunk.  We used the classic bunk plans, but increased the height to allow for a middle bunk.  We wanted L-shaped to give each child some headroom.  We used pine wood, common board and select pine.  We finished it off with two coats of Behr interior latex paint/primer in one, satin finish.  Finished dimensions--height from floor to base of bottom bunk, 10 in.  from floor to top of top rail, 79.5 in.

Love getting to watch my daughter play with stuff that i made her.

I was looking for a bed for my daughter, and a project for my sister and me. I looked at a well-known children's website and fell in love with their cottage loft bed, but didn't want to pay $1,300 for it. My sister found Ana's website with plans and everything for the same bed! We built the bed, (with the help of our husbands) that weekend. Abbi loves her bed! Thanks, Ana!

This cabinet was inspired by an Ana White project. My wife wanted more storage in our new home, and we had a sofa table at this location. But it was just a top, no shelves. I custom fit it to be flush with the window sills at the top and ends so it takes on a bit of a built in appearance. The top and bottom are oak faced plywood, all edges covered with iron on oak facing. As I was short of the expensive plywood, the ends, shelves and kick are doug fir plywood with a light oak stain; while not a perfect match gave a pleasing result that guests have not caught. The doors are 1/2" MDF, with a 2" solid oak end glued on where I routed the slots to open them. Slots are 1/4" +, 3/8" apart, and the top and bottoms of the doors routed to leave a 1/4" rail. The bottoms of the bottom slide slots have a slick poly tape in them, which really helps the doors to slide easily.

Sides and interior are brush finished with 3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane, while the top has 5 coats. The MDF on the doors has one sprayed coat of white primer (oil based to avoid bringing up the MDF) with a final sprayed coat of mat finish enamel. I need to do one more step, light sand with 320 grit and paste wax the top to get that really fine finish.

While not as easy as Ana makes it look, it turned out pretty well. That hard part on a piece this size is getting all the pieces cut precisely, and I mean with less than 1/32nd difference, to provide a good fit. As it was I had to custom cut the oak opening ends on the doors to account for the small differences in widths at the top and bottom to obtain a nice fit against the sides. Next time I'll triple check all finish dimensions to make those small adjustments in parts before assembly, then triple check again for placement during assembly.

While I'll always see the small "errors", my wife is very pleased with the finished cabinet.

 Ana, you're the BEST!! Thank you so much for sharing these plans. This was a very simple build ... my problem was trying to decide how to paint and decorate it. There's a lady in our little town that cut out the letters for me. I think it turned out so cute. I'm working on a Christmas collection for our church auction next April and thought it would be fun to have Christmas in April :-). Thanks again Ana!!!

I searched hundreds of faux mantles online for just the right one to build! I ended up coming back to the very first one that inspired me...Mimi's! I revised it to make it deeper by using 1x8's for the depth. I used 1x6's for the inside box depth so that I would have some space behind for extension cords, etc. I also decided to insert wood ledges above the box (on the inside) so that I could put Christmas lights in for a soft glow, which I love. After building the top trim as shown in the plan, I decided that I wanted to "beef up" the mantle portion so I screwed 1x3's along the front and sides of the mantle top. I love how it turned out! I even ended up building a duplicate one for a friend that saw it and loved it! I am pretty new to woodworking and have 4 kids, so it took me much longer than it should have, but it was well worth it!

I’ve wanted a new island for awhile but wasn’t quite sure what I wanted it to look like, until I saw Ana’s cabinet plans for the Momplex kitchen! We wanted a fairly large island, so we did two 24” base cabinets “townhouse style” (from Ana’s Kitchen Cabinet Base 101 post) plus we added a little extra space at both ends, so Hubby could install some electrical outlets and we’d still have plenty of room for the drawers. The old island had power already, so he got the outlets wired pretty fast. Behind the doors are some deep pull-out drawers to hold all the stuff you’d usually have to bend down and reach for. Now it’s so convenient! I built a Farmhouse Table top for it and love it! We built flat doors and trimmed them up to match the island sides and back (also matches our pantry and dining room). This project took us about 40 hours to build and finish, and it was so worth it! Ana, you are a rockstar in our house! We now have a real showpiece for our kitchen, thanks to Ana White!

Our very first DIY furniture piece my husband & I made. We absolutely love it & will definitely be doing more DIY projects together.

Perfect little playhouse my husband built for our girls.   It took about a week to build by himself, but worth every minute.   He did a wonderful job.   Such a good daddy!