knocked together today
![](/sites/default/files/kids%20bench.jpg)
Easy project . Two year old is going to love it.
Easy project . Two year old is going to love it.
Built this using the Anna White's "MIMI'S FAUX MANTLE" but instead of using crown molding I elected to use STONE TILES in a neutral tones and finished the surround and mantle in white giving the piece a nice soft appeal. The building plans were easy to follow and took about 2 days to complete the whole process (because of drying times) not to mention how reasonable the cost was. I already had the tiles, adhesive, and paint from left over projects.
First build was a train table for Christmas for my 3 children. They loved it! And I love that it has a top and can be closed. I also painted the base and secured the track to the bottom plywood so we don’t have train pieces everywhere. I used 1” screws from underneath and we can take them off in the future if they want to start building their own tracks. Hope this brings years of fun for the kids!
I needed to recover the desktop space occupied by two printers--one a black and white laser printer, and the other a multi-function color printer, scanner, and copier. There are also two routers that were taking up space. The L-shaped oak desk with return I purchased from a furniture store had a full-size hutch available, but it wouldn't really help store the printers since they would be too high to use.
When looking around for plan ideas, my first stop is Ana's page. The schoolhoouse desk hutch dimensionally matched what I was thinking about. I liked the ideas of the cubby-holes to get papers and other items off the desk but readily available.
I trimmed it out a little fancier to match the desk and included feet simlar to a an oak hutch we have in the dining room. I think this feature, along with the trim, helps break up the straight lines.
I prefer to use biscuits in lieue of pocket screws so I don't have all the holes to fill. I think it makes a cleaner cabinet but clamping time adds a little to the assembly. I attached the face frame with brad naile--18 ga for the face frame and a 24-ga pin nailer for the upper trim.
I also leave the face frame slighltly proud, about 1/8", which when sanded ends up about 1/16" We had some kitchen cabinets like this and I prefer the look to flush. Plus you don't have to use a flush-trim bit all the way around the cabinet.
The cabinet is oak 3/4" plywood and solid oak pieces while the back is 1/8" birch. I couldn't find 1/8" oak panels at our local yards. The back is recessed in the cabinet, and next time I will be sure to cut the rabbit for the back before assembling the case. It was much harder with the ribs for the cubby-holes interfering with the router bit bearing.
I like the way it turned out and is functional without over-powering the room. I also added rope lights underneath and on the back for task and mood lighting.
My husband and I needed a new coffee table. While browsing this website we found one we liked. We changed it up a little to make it taller. Hubby also added more wood inside of the table to make it heavier.
I always wanted a fireplace. Living in Puerto Rico, obviously a real one is not needed. I saw the fireplaces on Ana's site and decided to make myself one from materials I had on hand.
I started out with Ana's Fireplace anywhere but when done I thought it needed a little beefing up for my purpose so I added a few more 1x3's and made the top 12" so the dvd theater system would fit on top.
Finished it off by sanding, priming and black glossy paint. I wanted the panel gold but the metallic paint I had was too watery so went with silver, I am planning on adding a monogram or such on the panel also but haven't decided on what exactly yet, I made a few faux cardboard logs, made a few wholes in them and wrapped red and gold christmas lights in them for a fire effect. It really adds a nice touch to the living room. The wall behind it is made of brown craft paper, painted with brown, silver and gold, torn into pieces and applied with glue mix. I did it last year and gave myself a year to see if I still liked it. I do, so this year I gave it a polyutherene gloss coat and did a similiar treatment with different colors to the front porch.
My first coffee table.
I love how this bed turned out. I made the footboard panel the same size as the headboard because I wanted my footboard above the mattress.(just use shorter 4x4 post for the legs than you do the headboard) I also added some molding inside the panel to give it a little extra flare. The boards on the panels are connected with pocket holes and pocket hole screws and the trim I put on covers them completely so there was no need to fill them in. I ordered some bed rail brackets from Rockler and attached the side rails right onto the 4x4 legs instead of the panels and it worked out perfect and it's very easy to take apart if I ever need to move the bed. Thanks Ana for the plans. Any chance you will be doing nightstands to match?
Mon, 12/15/2014 - 17:21
Very nice build. The finish is very pretty. Here is a link to, I believe, the farmhouse bedside table plans you were looking for. Many people have shared their builds of this, so you could check them out to get ideas to modify if you wanted to. http://ana-white.com/2011/01/farmhouse-bedside-table
Tue, 12/16/2014 - 00:33
Thank you so much Linda for the link to the night stands. I'm going to get started on them first thing in the morning
Tue, 12/16/2014 - 08:07
Just love this mantle. I love the Primitive style & this is just perfect. Went over to Mimi's site so I could get the paint colors she used, the color is perfect.
Thank you both for posting. My husband is making the mantle for me for my Christmas gift. I'm going to put faux brick panel behind it & dirty it up with some black paint to make it look sooty.
I used to live in Cordova,AK., beautiful little town. I miss it alot.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, Linda Storey
Sun, 08/21/2016 - 16:54
Your bed is beautiful! Nice job!
Can you share a link to the bed rail bracketts you used and how you used them?
I decided not to use the wheels to keep my son from moving it around, stained it.
Awesome project. Very simple, doing the sanding and finish requied more time than the cutting and assembly.
This table is a dream come true. I have always wanted one of these but could never find one I absolutely loved. I have now.
Wed, 12/17/2014 - 16:04
I really like the look of the tabletop. How did you achieve that finish?
Tue, 12/23/2014 - 15:32
My husband painted the top with white paint, let it dry and then randomly sanded it all over and then put a coat of walnut stain on and rubbed it off and then put three coats of minwax polyurethane.
Tue, 12/23/2014 - 23:58
The design of table seems to be simple. However, I do like the color that you made for this. How can you mix the color like that?
http://www.proweb365.com
Fun project that turned out pretty good, we also made the matching end table
We loved the shanty sideboard and corresponding hutch. We painted the project in an offwhite with a brown glaze (consisting of 4 parts Behr faux glaze to 1 part minwax espresso stain). The only modifications to the plan are 3/4" trim pieces in the top part to hide the plywood, remove 1/4 inch from the sideboard shelves to allow room for doors to shut, and apply trim to the cabinet doors to dress it up a little.
Thu, 02/14/2013 - 08:59
I so badly want to build this! But other projects are the priority right now. You did a great job!
Thu, 02/14/2013 - 11:16
You did a fantastic job on this. I love the finish - so "expensive" looking!
Fri, 02/15/2013 - 05:25
You did a wonderful job on this project. Keep it up and let all of us learn from your experiences.
Mon, 04/20/2015 - 17:50
How did you attach the Hutch portion to the sideboard?
We didnt include the stairs on this bed as there wasnt enough room in my daughters bedroom. We are very happy with the finished product, and so is my daughter. We didnt quite make it as high as the plans as we were worried out the fan in my daughters room.
The wood total was about $200. We added some height to the headboard for the build. The frame is done by screwing 1x2 boards along the side rails and laying (4) 2x4s across for the box spring to sit on. Absolutely love our new bed!
Sat, 11/30/2019 - 03:34
It looks AMAZING! Do you happen to know how much height you added to the headboard?
My first project using Ana's plans and they were easy to follow! I feel great about the project and plan to expand on it. I may double the width and make a little Adirondack bench seat!
Very simple plans and project. Cost about 30.00 to make and about 2 hours to build. Painted it matte black and sanded for a distress look.
Snooker and Pool ball cabinet with lift out ball storage trays.
Wanted somewhere to store the differnt balls and wanted lift out trays so the balls could be easily carried to the table.
Apart from the top the cabinet is made from Poplar. The top is made from Pine and the sides are 1/4 inch Birch ply.
Used full extension drawer slides.
Actually made the ball trays first and then made the cabinet to fit based on the width of those and the depth they needed to fully extend by to allow the trays to be lifted out.
Made a couple of mistakes on this one and had to scrap the first drawer I made as put pocket holes on the pieces for the sides not the front and back. Kept the drawer though to use for another project. Lesson learnt!!
The poplar legs were on offer at Home Depot and only $2.50 each. Bargain!!