Community Brag Posts

We made these beds for my daughters, who were ready to pass on the bunkbeds to their little sisters. We have 4 girls in one room, so use of space is crucial! I originally wanted the hutch as well, but as you can see in the picture, we had to work around a wall cut out, so we modified the corner unit to have a larger shelf area to fit the space. We also left the sides open to be able to slide containers in to store out of season clothes and blankets, though the ends have a backing.

This was my first "by myself" build! I decided to make my daughter a pre-K graduation gift. She helped me fill the screw holes and painted the inside of the drawer with me. We called it "peek-a-boo pink" because she pulled it out and said it's a surprise. My only complaint was a lot of the pieces in the plans said they were 1x4's when they were in fact 2x4's, so I ended up building the desk top twice before I got it right. Live and learn right? I love, love, love this site and am so excited looking through plans deciding what to build next. Thank you Ana!!

This plan was pretty easy to follow. Apart from having to make some minor adjustments to the notches for the rafters across the top, and needing a couple more seat support boards than the cut list called for, everything went as planned.

I used green treated lumber and stained it with Minwax Walnut. I also sealed the entire piece with Spar Urethane.

I didn't use lattice work on the sides, but went with some horizontal lattice work on the back (a mix of stained and unstained 2x1 and 3x1 boards). I may install a couple of 2x4 for arm rests on each side.

The morning glory vine I planted behind the bench has almost reached the top of the lattice work. All in all, I'm very pleased with how this project turned out.

Thanks Ana!

I finally went back and finished the blog post of my diy oversized chair. Lessons learned.

We shortened the length of the table to 5 1/2 feet. Took me bits and pieces of 3 weeks to build working around rain days and napping children.
Around $80 in materials, not counting the new orbital sander (which I wanted for a while).
Looking forward to building 2 benches next month. A sturdy table for my family of 7. (Including 3 boys!!!)
This was my first project. I see the flaws, but overall, I'm very happy. I built mostly myself, but hubby had to help with the hauling indoors/outdoors, kids held wood while I used the saw, stood on boards while I attached. It was fun for all of us and we are thrilled with the results. Even the scratch in the tabletop photo below was done by my 2 yr old and I call that his little touch!

I modifed the Classic Bunk Bed and Cubby designs to create a convertible twin over full bunk bed. The bottom full-sized bunk can be rotated to be parallel to the wall (when my son sleeps there) or perpendicular to the wall (for when we have guests so they don't have to climb over one another). Changes I made were:

- I moved the ladder to the end of the bed to make room for the full-sized mattress.
- I added 1x2 treads to the ladder to make it easier on the feet.
- I raised the height of the top bunk. Finished height of the bed is 68" to add head room on the bottom bunk for taller people.
- I built 2 custom cubbies (full dimensions of each 37.5" x ~13.5" x 11.5") to support the added width of the full-sized bottom bunk. These cubbies can also be rotated to support the mattress in the perpendicular position for use as a guest bed (see pictures).
- I built an additional support that fits onto the back of each of the cubbies when they are turned to support the perpendicular guest bed (see pictures).
- I changed the end support rails for the bottom bunk to 1x12s that I painted to match the bed to be used as night stands when the bed is rotated to be a guest bed (see pictures).
- I used wood thread inserts and 1/4"-20 connector bolts (from Fastenal) to assemble the bed, so it would be easy to disassemble and reassemble.

Funny story - When we went to move it to the second story bedroom from the garage where I had finished it, the long sides wouldn't fit up our stairs!!! Our stairs have a tight 90 degree turn partway up. After all the hours I put in building and finishing it, I almost cried! Fortunately after using a straight edge blade to carefully cut through the paint, we unscrewed the upper most rail and were able to just barely get it up our stairs. I was so thankful I hadn't glued those boards on!

Project completed!

I loved the idea of the magnet wall, but I knew that something smaller would be perfect for this 12 year old girl's room redo- so we just framed it out in painted 1x2's.

I was searching online for plans for Bunk Beds and came across Ana-White.com. I found the Sweet Pea Bunk Bed and my wife and I both fell in love. My daughters are very "into" princesses right now, so I took the elements of the Sweet Pea Bunk Bed and modified it slightly to create a castle look, so that my oldest could "climb to the highest tower of the castle". They both love playing with their beds!

These chairs are easy to build and the kids love them. I wanted them to be colorful, fun, and personal. My son has been using his chair before it was finished for two years now. It was supposed to be used temporarily for a dinner party one night and we didn't want to part with it long enough to finish it. I built a second chair for my one and a half year old and decided to finish both chairs at the same time. With a little bit of planning and some painters tape this is how they turned out.

My hubby made this for me and I adore it! We handmade the hardware :)

I made these two pallet shelves to go in my living room to hold all of our magazines, coasters, and remote controls that were constantly getting left all over the place. They've been there for almost a year now, and they work so well!

I did this project as a Father's Day gift for my dad who is a photographer and has lots of pictures! I plan on making another one for my house because I like it so much. Mine took longer than it should have because I made a few mistakes, like not making sure the pocket holes were facing the right way before I screwed the main frame together. I also accidentally measured and drilled in the twine screws on the wrong side and had to fix that. So if i had done everything right the first time, this project would have only taken a few hours to complete. Fun and easy to do!

I originally planned to make the Lydia daybed as is, but we decided to make it with reclaimed materials after being inspired by redwood we found that had been salvaged from old pickle barrels. We ended up with chunkier posts for the legs (3 1/4" by 3"), and used a thick solid piece of wood for the front (2"x 7 1/2") , which did change the dimensions of our project a bit. We attached an old shutter to the plywood for the sides, and found salvaged bed post tops for the tops. We left off the scalloped edges because they seemed too delicate for the look we had going. Also, my husband had fun with his new router on the edges. We decided to use 1x8's for the slats under the bed b/c we thought it would give more support to the latex foam we had used instead of a traditional mattress. Because we move a lot, we wanted to be able to take the daybed apart if necessary. We attached the sides to the daybed with bed rail brackets. I posted more about the daybed on my blog. Sewing the cushions/pillows took much longer than making the actual daybed!

My mother had a cheap particle board sofa style table on her back porch that was coming apart. She said she'd like to replace it, so I told her I would her one.

I decided to make her a few end style tables to go with it as well.

Finally, I had seen these chairs and decided to make her a few of these also. I liked the Ana White plan, but I didn't like the idea of seeing all the screw holes, so I developed my own method using Kreg and my own assembly method that allowed me to make them strong, without seeing all the screws.

I (and my mother) were very pleased with the final project.

This was my first project and it come out beautifully. I did learn a valuable lesson - if you are going to build something in the basement, make sure it fits up the stairs. Not sure if you can tell from the picture but this ended up 6 inches shorter than the plans. Can wait to find my next project!