Community Brag Posts

I modified the Rolling C Cart Plan to build this center console for my home theater. My dimensions are a bit different than Ana's. 24" long and 19" high. In order to keep the center of gravity back I doubled the center splines to give it a bit more heft aft of the cup holders. It was made from 1x10's as to not be too wide. I skipped the rolling wheels as it isn't going to be moved once in place. I used 2 coats primer, 3 coats semi-gloss black, and 3 coats of Minwax PolyCrylic to finish it off. All with light sanding with 240 grit paper on my Bosch Oscillating tools to smooth out each layer. It took about 4 days with all the painting, sanding, and drying time involved. I love this build and plan to build 2 more for the back row of theatre seats.

We couldn't be happier with our outdoor lounge, and the plans for the 2x4 sofa and chair couldn't have been easier. Most of all, I'm so proud to have been able to make this myself! Thank you Ana!

I made this for my daughter for Christmas. She has done nothing but sit at it and play and put on "makeup" for hours! It is a hit! Thanks Ana!!!!

I did add a support with pocket holes in the back to make it more sturdy (you can see it behind the stool). And you will notice my top trim is not 2 inches like it should be. I used all free wood that I had collected . I did buy a 2x2 for the stool because mine was too warped. The top of the stool is not round because I only have a miter saw. I found a great little cupboard door from the restore for $1 that I cut square for the top. Since I am new to this it took me a little longer than some people, plus the time I put is including making the stool as well.

I was looking all over for the perfect desk to hold my large computer and give me some crafting space. Not finding what I was looking for, I stumbled upon Ana-White.com and I was so excited when my husband agreed to build me this desk! It's perfect and beautiful and I absolutely love it! The plans were easy for him to follow and we had fun making it together.

It took a while to come together and made several modifications but it is a great coop and was a major selling point of the house when we were relocated.  I had added a main tray under the roosts and a door to srape the poop out.  This made keeping the coop clean very easy.  

I saw this project and thought it would be a perfect project. My daughter has a Christmas birthday so I wanted to do something big that she would remember.

I didn't want to be rushed so I started this project in the fall. I built the basic "boxes" in a day but took my time finding accessories and doing all the finishing touches(sanding, painting, adding handles,etc). For the sink and stove I used Ana's plans but for the fridge I took a short cut and started with a shelving unit we already had, cut it to size and added doors.

It was fun a fun project. I loved having a great starting point and then being able to make it my own with paint and accessories. My in-laws live on a farm so scrounged their junk piles and found the sink faucet and the stove knobs (free, gotta love that)!

I built this to fill a large space in our new kitchen. I extended the plan to 6ft. and added a drawer. We topped it with a beech-wood butcher block from Ikea and I used 2 6'x18" pine boards for the shelves.

It was time to upgrade our daughter's bed to something bigger. I have always loved the idea of platform beds and went searching the Ana White site for ideas. Needless to say, I made several modifications to allow for a huge amount of storage. The bed is designed to fit up to a queen mattress, but we went with full size since her room is a bit tight. Each drawer is 24"x24"x12" deep and mounted on 100 lbs. full extension slides. This allowed us to eliminate both dressers in her bedroom plus the hamper since one of the drawers is now for dirty clothes. I built this as two 80" cabinets and used a 3/4" plywood spacer to bridge the gap. What you can't see is the six 24"x24"x12" cubbies on the far side of the bed which allowed us to remove her bookcase and toy box. Once in place, I measured and built the footboard panel with 1x4 dimensional pine and beadboard and it is attached with screws from inside the cabinet. The headboard was last as I wanted to give her a shelf for her chargers, remote, phine, ipad, etc. This allowed us to remove her nightstand. Her small bedroom feels much larger now that this is the only piece of furniture she needs once I get her tv mounted on the wall.

So, this project started out years ago with my oldest daughter. She was in daycare and frequently came home with her latest drawing or art. I wanted to make something from her art that would be a gift for mom and the grandmothers. Mother’s Day was coming up soon and we needed inspiration. Her mother said that she would like a ring post to keep jewellery on her dresser top so we came up with this. 

First we outlined the daughter’s hand and about 3 inches of wrist on a piece of white paper. (We had a similar example from Thanksgiving, the daughter brought home her hand outline on a paper plate decorated as a turkey). Took our outline to the printer and photocopied it. One of the nice things about a photocopy is you can place it face down on a piece of wood, then use a hot iron (cotton setting) and iron the image onto the wood. 

Once the image was transferred, we cut it out on the bandsaw, then sanded all the rough edges. As my daughter was very young, I did the bandsaw work and she did the sanding. Once the hand was ready, we needed a base which we found in the scrap bin. We cut out about a 3 1/2” circle and using the wrist end of the hand, we marked and cut a notch for the hand to be glued to the base. We cut it off-center to allow room for a message to mom. We found a local guy who could engrave a message make us a brass tag for our base.  The tag was large enough to engrave the child’s name below the Mother’s day message helped to identify the sweet little hand that made the gift. 

Again, more sanding and fitting the notch to match the sweet little wrist followed by staining and finishing. 

We left the hand natural and used wipe-on polyurethane (2-3 coats), then glued everything together with a piece of felt for the bottom. It was pretty tough keeping the project a secret until Mother’s Day, but somehow we managed. The grandmothers and mom loved their new ring post which has a place of honor on their dressers. 

Fast forward 30 years. My son is a kindergarten teacher with a class of 20 or so looking for a great project for Mother’s day and this is what we did. It took a bit of work to get everything ready so the kids just had sanding to do. Attached are some pictures of the ring posts dry fitted and ready for the kids to finish. 

Can’t keep secrets from home in daycare, but you can have great surprises. All the moms love their new ring post and all the kids are proud of their work. Since the completion of this project, we think we have a great idea to adapt it for a dad gift as well. 

My husband built this for me while the government was shut down and he was furloughed. He rocks. The frames are from ikea.

Thank you Anna for designing such beautiful plans, and making them available for free. My husband likes the chair so much he doesn’t want it outside! I guess I’ll have to make a few more for our deck.

We used the plans from this site to build this for our daughter. We did however make the bed part a bit more sturdy to ensure that no one would get hurt and to make sure it could support any weight. We added 4 2x4s across the bed like rafters and screwed the slats on top of them.

Love my new leaning shelves and desk I knocked out in one weekend. My office mates want them too. 

This is my second bed built it was build for my daughter. I enjoyed building it Great Plains I added a border around the headboard. For the paint we used chalked paint aged gray we also painted the nightstands to match the bed. Thanks to my wife for helping on the painting.

Made a princess bed for my little peanut. We adapted the idea of the stairs with storage and then added a slide. I hung LED Christmas lights underneath with a foot switch so she has light in her play area.

I was inspired by the fancy hall tree project, but what I made is a total modification/inspired by with salvaged materials, I loved the idea of having wood backing for the mudroom bench and hooks. I had some leftover vintage door knobs from our interior refurbish, so kept them raw metal (sandblasted the metal and clear coated it with polyurethane to keep from rusting). I found some amazing old mahogany bleacher boards from a local high school and a great slab of fir for the bench. I've been building several of Ana's plans and using some of the projects for inspiration when working with salvaged materials ;)