Community Brag Posts

My first project!

This was my first furniture project and I simply wanted to hide all of the cords for my TV. My husband and I opted out of the drawers since we wanted a big area to store all of the other items (DVDs, playstation, etc.). We also did not put a back on the table so the electronics stored inside could properly ventilate without overheating.

We don't have a ton of space in our back yard thats in direct sunlight. Also we have an ugly old chain-link fence. I saw a lot of vertical gardens and decided that would help two issues, maximize sun space and obscure part of that ugly fence. It's super easy to put together and was pretty cheap as well. I took some inspiration from the cedar raised beds on the site and built all the planter boxes out of cedar fence pickets. I added some extra supports so that the weight of the boxes wouldn't rip down the planters.

I'm so excited. I have my very own work bench! Thank you Ana for the sturdy work bench plans. I've added drawers and some curtains to keep the dust out. My brother did most of the work on this but I did some of the build at the end and all of the painting. Even though this will be stored in the garage, I wanted it to look like a piece of furniture found inside the house. I love the distressed look and I think I've succeeded in making it look old. I've made a few of your projects which I will post later. Right now I'm enjoying my new (old looking) work bench and I think it's really cool that it looks like it belongs to a girl.

I always wanted a raised planter box, but never took the time to try building 1 and certainly didn't want to buy 1. My hubbie saw these plans and decided to make it for me. He used wood from our deck that we just pulled up, so the only cost was for the 4x4s and the plywood used for the bottom shelf.

Parents wanted an outdoor table on the deck. They had scrap wood in the basement from when the house was built. Found the design from Ana White, inspired, and adapted it. It was a small project, but the success of this inspired me to get back into building furniture. It doesn't have to be complicated and the satisfaction of building something from materials that exist and working with what one has in terms of tools and skills is very satisfying.

My daughter's school needed a personalized item, (a class gift) to be auctioned off at the annual Spring Gala. The project needed to be personalized by the children in the class. I used the plans from Ana's toy box project plan, changed the footer to bun feet, and added a lid. The lid is also an upholstered top that can be used as a bench. I used two slow close hinges, one on the left one on the right, then two regular hinges to hold the lid on. We sent in blank tiles for each of the children (4 year olds) to paint in class. They turned out pretty abstract but cute. The tiles on the front are supposed to be bee's, the school's mascot. It turned out great! Having a hard time uploading other pics of it, specifically how I did the lid inside and attached it to the box.

I built this piece from ana white's plans. I modified the shelf design and also the dimensions to meet my needs. Instead of using 2x6 douglas fir for the top, I built the top out of hard maple. The top is built by ripping down several strips of hard maple 1.75 inches wide, turn the strips on there edge and gluing all the strip together. This is what is known as a edge grain cutting board. I finished the top with mineral oil and bees wax. The top is food safe and knife friendly. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. - Brad

I made some modifications for bigger spice containers. The big ones you get at Sams/Costco are too big for the original design. The top portion was made with 1x6 sides to take care of the bigger containers.

This is my very first project. I have no other tools yet besides the drill, so I had to make all the cuts with the hand saw, but it worked out well :) As I am in Europe, the imperial metrics mean nothing to me. The wood they sell here is of different sizes. That is overall not an issue, although I had a tough time calculating the holes for the legs. Luckily, only one error hole, and all came out level on the first try. No waste of wood! I also had a good helper.
Thank you, Ana

Ventsi

We ended up going with a combination of pine, cedar (posts - from Ace Hardware) and regular ole 2xs. We ordered our hardware from Rockler ( http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10).The bed can be easily disassembled down to the headboard, footboard, side rails, support beams, and platform. It's a quirky combination of woods, but overall we are happy how it turned out. We thought of painting it, but have really been enjoying it as is.

I was inspired by an A shaped shelf I saw on this site. My wife and I were expecting our first child on January 18th of this year and I decided that I would make a shelf for her nursery. We decided on the name Laney so I figured it would be very easy to make. And it was.

I started out with a couple sheets of 1 x 6 x 8s of pine from Home Depot. Not very expensive. I decided on a size and then cut the pieces to length.
I then set it up to see how it would line up and once I saw it lined up I cut each ends to 45 degrees to match up nicer.
I glued the ends together and then hammered finishing nails into the ends.
Once it was together, I added to shelves, put L brackets on the back side to add stability, and attached some hangers.
Finally, I painted it white to match her nursery.

Laney was born on January 23rd and we are so excited to have her in our lives.

Only change in the plans was decreasing the width by 6 inches to fit our room, turned out to be 48x32in. I used old wood floor we tore up to make the table top. Glued it over plywood. 

My sim went off to college and needed a coffee table for his apartment- so I made him the farmhouse coffee table! I just love your plans!

Terri M

Miniatures are a cute and easy way to see your project before you start the full sized version. And if you know someone who likes minis, you have a nice gift for them later! (or you could start a new hobby)

http://www.the-art-of-dollhouse-miniatures.com/miniatures-scale-calcula…
This is the link I used to find my measurements in mini. Just in case you guys might enjoy trying a smaller scale.

Its a good idea to very lightly sand your pieces, I used a metal nail file.
After adjusting your measurements, follow Ana's instructions for the desk. For the drawer to actually work, I used mini 1x's and made old-style slides that are mounted to the underside of the desktop. these support the drawer and guide it also. Similar idea used for the extra desk space via the pull out. For the hutch doors, I made simple paper hinges. Make sure you use cardstock or layers of regular paper.

The full size hutch is screwed to the desktop, but the mini needs more support, so spare parts make good braces. I also used spare bits of wood for the handles on the doors, and half a wooden bead for the drawer handle.

After making this mini version of the Channing Desk, me and my husband were able to adjust add-ins like the pull outs (my full size will go above the drawer) and even thought about making the whole section of drawer/shelves detatched for more manuverablilty in a tight corner space.

I can't Wait to start the full size version!!

This was the first project my husband and I built from scratch. We experimented with our brand new Kregg Jig for a little while until we felt comfortable with it, and then nervously got started. Surprisingly, the only mishap we had was that we (ok, I) accidentally bought 1X10's instead of the 1X12's. Nothing a quick trip to Home Depot won't fix! We followed Ana's directions exactly, and definitely recommend the Kreg Jig! Our neighbor is a contract worker, and he was pretty impressed at how sturdy the bookcase was. The only part that gave us a little trouble was that our planking on the back (from Lowes), was a little too wide, so we had to trim it down a bit. This was also my first time staining, but thankfully I was going for the rustic look, so I just sanded off the corners and any weird spots.

This storage bench is perfect for our entryway. It has both hidden storage and easily accessible cubbies that we use for the kids' outdoor accessories. We modified the dimensions to fit the space, added moulding on the ends and made the French tufted cushion from http://anoregoncottage.com/diy-tufted-french-mattress-cushion/.

Thanks for the pattern Ana.