I built this bench for my niece on her birthday. It as easy and fun to build. My niece and everybody at the party loved it.
I found this oak character slab at a local lumber yard and fell in love with it. I loved it so much I bought a second one. After torching the slab using the Shou Sugi Ban method, I scraped away the charred surface and used tung oil to complete the finish. I added two more coats of tung oil allowing at least 24 hours in between each coat. The legs are made from rough cut pine from the same lumber yard (these guys take good care of me!). I also used the same charring method on the legs and feet along with tung oil. Check out all the detail and character of the edges! This bench could easily be used as a coffee table. It is approximately 6 feet long and 30 inches tall.
I love pallet shelves! Here I have three different sizes with three different finishes. It is amazing what 10 minutes, a jig saw, and a piece of sandpaper can do!
We wanted a bench for our daughter for our front porch, both for sitting and for storage of her rain boots, outdoor toys, etc. I'm definitely a beginner woodworker so I wanted something easy I could tackle in a couple of days with only basic tools, so I chose the Kids' Country Bench project. I liked the version posted here by a user named Jenny Anne, who modified the bench to make three cubbies rather than two on the bottom shelf, so I did the same thing.
It was easy, and the bench turned out great! I used no power tools except for a cordless drill to do the 40+ pilot holes & woodscrews. I don't own a jigsaw and I want to learn hand tools anyway, so I used a coping saw (a kind of miniature hacksaw) to do the curved cuts on the trim & the legs, and used heavy-grit sandpaper to smooth out the wobbles (there were a lot of wobbles).
For the rest of the cuts I used a Japanese-style pull saw (a cheap one from Ace Hardware). Cutting all the boards to length with a handsaw was probably the hardest part, and I had a tough time truing the edges. Next time I would probably use a miter box and miter saw to get perfect 90-degree angles, but I got better as I went along, and was able to finish the edges pretty well with a wood file and sandpaper.
I wanted to stain it a deep red color, but my better half insisted on a clear stain, so I used clear Polycrylic, four coats on the top & outsides, and three coats on the inner & undersides.
The bench feels pretty sturdy and is definitely strong enough to take my 3-year-old's weight. The trim on the front and back acts as a brace, so it's got some structural integrity. I don't know that I would trust it to hold an adult's full weight for very long -- I probably won't be dancing on it or using it as a stepstool or anything, but for a kid's bench it's solid and level.
The whole build probably took me four sessions in my "workshop" (i.e. my basement), at probably 2-3 hours per session. With woodworking it's definitely true that you learn by doing -- I gained confidence as I went along and am excited to try some more advanced projects!
I made this all by myself, using a borrowed R3 kreg jig. It took me about four days, working several hours a day, in between babysitting sessions when the grandparents had my kids. I'm proud of how it turned out. I planned to put a back and solid sides on it because I need it to function as a bookshelf for the kids' books, but I couldn't figure out how to attach my panels and in the end I liked the airyness of the X sides.
I modified the plan I got from this site to better fit the size we wanted (a bit longer) and to fit the style we wanted (without angled picnic table style legs). Sorry pics are sideways or upside down. They weren't on my end...
I left for work one morning, and came home to a coffee table and two end tables that my husband made while I was gone. They are absolutely beautiful and complete my living room. He found the plans easy to read and the projects themselves not hard at all.
This is a great beginners project. I wanted something that would match my living room and still be functional for my daughter to get her toys out . We have a full tutorial at our blog.... www.Ahouse-2-Home.com Also , if you have any questions please feel free to leave us a comment! Thanks!
sand box with seats
This is a queen size mantel bed with storage as cubbies only (also Ana White). The paint is Eider White from SW (white with grey undertones, no yellow) and water-based poly since I really didn't want any yellow in in.
This table turned out exactly as I had envisioned. I've gotten so many compliments over it. I'm now ready to build the side tables. I like how simple and clear the plan is for this table. Thank you Ana for such a simple but amazing piece of furniture. I'm a newbie at woodworking :)
My husband and I put this together to fit a spot that was just slightly off of what standard furniture would accomodate. Looking for something simple as a first build, we went with the Kids Country Bench and made some changes along the way.
We made 3 cubbies on the bottom shelf for extra storage and a little extra stability, since our boards were more bowed than we preferred. We also removed the front and back aprons. In the front we just attached a 1x2 that we ripped into a 1x1 as a trim piece. In the back, we centered a 1x2 to give a slight lip in the back.
I don't have a jigsaw, so we used my FIL's Scroll Saw. That was interesting ... but the sides turned out ok. Not perfect, but ok.
I was hoping to finish this with a high gloss product, but since the boards we ended up with more 'rustic' than I anticipated, I decided to embrace that and go with a distressed finish. I used a spray primer, and then one coat of Sherwin Williams yellow, covered with a dry brush of Sherwin Williams blue. I then sanded the corners and edges and finished with a spray top coat.
We had lots of fun, although it took us a long time. We were only working in small shifts, in between naps. If we had managed to get, say, 3 straight hours to build, I think we could have finished in in that time period.
This was a great starter project, and it's nice to know that we can make MINOR modifications to a plan and not have it fall apart on us :)
Thanks for the inspiration Ana!
We wanted a farmhouse dining table but didn't want to be confined by 4 corner legs or supports at the end of the table so I combined the farmhouse top from this site with another farmhouse table base that I found at shanty2chic through a link on this site. We couldn't be happier with how it turned out! I didn't follow any of the plans exactly but adjusted them so we had a table that fit well in our dining room, still fit several guests and was a good eating height. The bench was also modified from the plans I found at shanty 2 chic.
Wed, 04/29/2015 - 12:28
Here is a link to the plans I used for the table base: http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2014/05/restoration-hardware-inspired-dini…
And for the bench: http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2014/06/diy-benches-for-my-dining-table.ht…
I made some modifications to the table length/width to fit our dining room space better which is just a matter of preference. I then changed the length of the bench to fit our table. Other than those small changes which didn't effect the integrity of the plans, these are what I went by.
Wed, 04/29/2015 - 13:34
Thank you so much! This is exactly what we've been looking for. I love that the legs/base are completely under the table so not to interrupt or block causing wasted space.
Fri, 05/08/2015 - 14:56
We are going to build this same table for our house. I'm curious where the chair came from that you used with the table? Thanks!
Coffee table stained in Jacobean, and finished with Minwax satin Poly.
I took the plans for the out door bench and using wood from a friends deck remodel I build a indoor bench. My wife was going to paint it, but we like the way it looks. We still want to add pads to the bench.
I built this doll house bookcase for my little girl for her Birthday. And she loves it!
I used white pine. I did not want to use paint. I did 5 coats of clear stain. I like the look of the natural wood and the knots to show.
Bar height table witb 4 chairs and 2 benches. My mom wanted a new table big eight to sit 6 to 8 people, I think it can fit 10 though!
I made this for the April Cent-Sational Salvage Challenge where you had to incorporate a kitchen utensil that you purchased at Habitat ReStore into your project and spend no more than $15! I used a kitchen sink- it's the only kitchen utensil my ReStore had! I used 2" x 4" for the entire project and left the sink unattached so that it can double as a kids water table later. For the finish, I used a light blue latex paint, gave it a sanding to expose the wood, then wiped with Dark Walnut stain. This gave it the old barn wood look. This little stand allows us to pot our plants somewhere other than the dining room table, push the dirt into the sink and down the hole into a bucket. No mess! Plus, it's pretty cute and I made it for a total of $5! $5 for the sink at Habitat ReStore and the 2" x 4"s I saved from a construction site dumpster. Win, win.
Really cute and simple project. I left one stained for the rustic bathroom and painted two white for the beach themed living room.
My wife and I were expecting two grandbabies (a boy and a girl) in the Fall (about 2 to 4 weeks apart). We were asked by one of our Daughter's-In Law to make a changing table. We decided to do it for both grandbabies. These photos represent the result of the inspiration we got from Ana White's changing table design on her website. We liked the basic design but wanted it to have a shiplap look. We also wanted the top drawer to be a full drawer across the top and the middle shelf to be a pull out shelf with a drawer front. We were ecstatic with how they turned out, and so were the parents!
Fri, 10/08/2021 - 10:38
Congratulations on two grandbabies! Love the color choices, wonderful job grandma and grandpa:)
