Community Brag Posts

My co-worker and I built these planters from pallets that we had lying around at work. The only expense we had was the Kreg Jig I purchased (and love). It took us about 5 hours to put them together, including the time it took to cut the lumber to size. Then we used Thompson's water seal and stapled commercial grade landscaping cloth inside the planter. We made them for work and hope they will just naturally age. This was an easy project and we will definitely make more of these.

We had leftover screws, landscaping fabric and water seal from other projects.

I was looking for an excuse to use my new Kreg Jig and also Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. My entrance from my garage had a cheap two level shelf which never was enough for all our shoes so when I saw this I thought it would be perfect. This was my first Ana-White project and the left cubbies ended up being wider than the right. I loved the Kreg Jig. What's cool is I did it all alone, with the help of my husband watching my kids! It was a lot of painting to get the distressed look that you really can't see from the pictures but I am very happy with it and it is very sturdy. I ended up doing 4 columns instead of 3 but only one shelf...probably also why the measurements got messed up.

I built this bed step by step from the Mom's fancy farmhouse bed - queen sized. I have no experience of building things before this, but bought a miter saw and nail gun. Banged it out in a weekend. More time was spent painting than assembly. I reused the slats from my old IKEA bed. In hindsight, I wish I had a way to even the boards better before assembly, like a planer.

DIY Stocking Stand  - Reader build

I used the modifications posted for 2X4 wood.
I used pressure treated wood, so I will stain it next year!
The plans were easy to follow, this was my first project and went off without a hitch!!
I purchased 24X24 foam for 9 dollars a piece and sewed waterproof material to cover them! It took probably took just as long to make the cushions than to make the actual sectional....but well worth it. I just couldnt find the right cushions ANYWHERE!!!

This is the bedroom set I built for my daughter. The Bed is the "Emme Twin Bed" Painted white. It is the 1st thing I ever built off of this web-site. The dresser is the mostly the"Beach Cottage Dresser" also painted white. I just left the trim pieces off the sides. Also, this one has something "hidden" at the bottom that we thought was cute. The night stand was just modeled after the same style as the dresser. I just kind of made that one up as I went along. My daughter loves her bedroom furniture. Thanks so much for the plans.

This planter box turned-out looking great! I put it together the first go-round using all kreg-jig screws, but couldn't get the pieces to sit flush with each other, so I took everything apart...and used star-drive screws instead of nails). I have decided that I hate nails.

I used the kreg jig to attach the 4 posts, but then used brackets to attach the rest of the panels -- this worked well! Once I put the slats in the bottom, it was very sturdy.

TIPS: don't be afraid to alter the plan. If you like working with brackets, use them!

Made for my sons house. Just made a few changes to top with 2x6 and bottom with 1x6's.

No major changes to the design. Just took the overall height of the ceiling, subtracted the 4" that we wanted to keep off the floor (to avoid any mildew issues, as they are in a lake house), and divided the rest in half. That told us how much space to put in between the bunks. :)

My husband and I made this for our son since we were transitioning him from a toddler bed. The ones we looked at in stores were cheaply made and horribly expensive.

I decided to build the Farmhouse King Bed. I liked the look of the frame and am happy with the outcome. This was my very first piece of furniture I've ever built. Already started on my Farmhouse Bedside Tables!!! 

I ask my kids and spouses if they would like me to build something special for Christmas each year . Last year I surprised my daughter with a beautiful coffee table. This year she said Dad can you make us a TV stand that is a similar look to the coffee table. She provided me dimensions and had this piece in time for Christmas. Love your website Ana.

Thad

This is my first time ever building anything. I am so excited with the outcome. This site has so much to offer and I look forward to adding many more brags :)

Most of the “Lessons Learned” and “Building Tips” are in the last paragraph

I used to hate woodworking. I majored in engineering in college and my job as a pilot requires me to be a perfectionist, and I could never build anything "right," which frustrated me. Recently, my wife and I found a house that we really liked, but it had not been updated since it was built in 1978, so….it was going to need some work. We bought the house in December 2103 and have been slowly remodeling it. This was our first house that was not new. I realized at some point in this journey that there is absolutely no reason why I could not do much of this myself. I “allowed” myself to mess things knowing that I could mess them up quite a few times vice the cost of hiring a professional. So my DIY journey began. I started by actually getting some of the right tools - aka a Miter Saw (I bought a Hitachi dual bevel compound miter saw off of Craig's list for $100) and suddenly realized that accurate cuts were easy to make using the miter saw vice my circular saw (sans a saw guide – I did not know about that concept until recently). I have watched hundreds of youtube videos and read numerous books over the past few months, gained a ton of knowledge and am actually becoming quite proficient, even to my perfectionist eyes, at fixing things around the house – i.e. patching drywall, refinishing doors, building raised garden beds, etc.

Well all of this remodeling has taken up a significant portion of our garage, the homemade paint tent walls are one of the major culprits….so, we needed some more space. I would love to build a detached workshop, but do not have the budget and may not have the space for it. So we looked at sheds at the big box stores and they looked horrible and there was no way that was going to be an option. Then I looked at the garage again, and my wife and I were almost on the verge of buying one, accepting its ugliness for 2 years and then trying to sell it on the internet since we needed some more space and wanted to get our garden tools on the same side of the fence as our raised garden beds A couple of weeks prior this though, I had found Ana’s site and liked some of the furniture she had on it, but had regulated it to the “later” pile since we already had a ton of furniture and I was more worried about closet shelves then a new bookcase. Fortunately, I had the foresight to send it to my wife and told her to view it, because it looked cool. Well, while she was killing some time on a hold one day, she stumbled upon the outdoor shed design and sent it to me on a Wednesday night. We talked about it and even though we had “other” remodeling plans that weekend, I dropped everything a decided to build it.

Cedar fence pickets are virtually impossible to find in Florida. Finding Cedar 2x6s and 4x4s for our raised garden was difficult and the fence pickets proved to be impossible in 2 days. The big box stores (Orange and Blue) do not sell them in Fl, but Cypress seems to be the wood of choice (for natural rot resistance, etc). New Cypress fence pickets are difficult to find (I actually did not find any), but reclaimed ones are easy. So off to the fencing store I went on my way home from work the next day. I bought 7 panels of reclaimed fencing for $35 and took them home. Once I looked at them, I started to wonder if I had lost my mind, because they were going to require a ton of work and sorting to make them usable. I felt pot committed though, since I had them and no real idea what to do with them if I did not use them. Thus, I began to strip the pickets off. I sorted through them - long ones for the front and back vice short ones for the sides – and began sizing them. It turned out to take forever to utilize the reclaimed wood – since I had to strip them off the fence panels, sort them, remove the staples and nails, cut them, and finally pressure wash them before I could use them. I finally Pac Man-ed my way through it though. When I build my next shed, I am just going to use treated pine or find new cypress pickets. I literally spent 6-9 hours of time getting the fence pickets ready for use, and have a ton of junk ones leftover (that were cracked, split, rotted, etc) that I need to get rid of and have no idea how.

From there, the build was pretty simple, I ended up using treated pine pickets for the back (since I did not have enough good cypress) and was not willing to drive across town to get 150 more pickets (about 1 in 10 were good enough to use for the door) that I would have spend hours sorting and eventually have to get rid of. I was very hesitant to make all the cuts at once, because I did not trust myself and the plan, but that was never an issue. Overall, I felt the framing was pretty simple. The roof turned out to be a bit of bear to do by myself. I managed to wrangle the plywood on top without help, but the pitch was such that it would not stay up by itself. So if you find yourself doing it by yourself, a hammer will make a decent makeshift stopgap (see picture). I could not have gotten the roof on alone without the use of a friend of mine’s cordless framing nailer, however, the true moral of this story is – GET HELP WHEN YOU ARE ATTACHING THE PLYWOOD TO THE ROOF. Help would have saved me about an hour, but my wife was working and I was alone and unafraid. From there, the roof was pretty easy. I put drip edge all the way around. I put it under the shingles on the front and the sides and over the shingles in the back based on the research that did. Two great youtube videos to help are the “Lowes” one on how to shingle a shed and the “Ask This Old House” one on roofing. I used 3 pieces of 10’ drip edge (actually 4, because I messed one up) and 2 packs of shingles. From there, the doors were easy but tedious and I was done. We mounted ours on top of ¾ in piece of severe weather plywood (aka treated pine) since it was going to be on top of dirt and not concrete. That required some finessing on the doors with the jigsaw since the plywood was not exactly flat. Also, when doing the roof, I was specifically told not to use severe weather plywood. None of the roofing nails were galvanized that I could find so I used just a normal piece of plywood, just like they use on the roof of your house, and it worked great. If you use non-galvanized nails with treated pine, them chemicals will cause the nails to rot. Lastly I used silicone caulk around the aft drip edge to ensure that it did not leak. I used the same latch that Lady Goats and Ana recommended, however, my doors remain open approximately 2-3 inches, despite the fact that the latch is so tight it is difficult to open. I am going to replace the latch with two swing down levers from the top piece of trim when I get back in town. I will post pictures if I remember. I had planned to wait and post this until I stained it, however, that has been delayed by multiple trips out of town over the past two weekends due to work and I was afraid if I did not post I would forget some of the salient points that I learned.

Good luck and Cheers,
Cubdriver

My son saw a similar bed online that he wanted, but unfortunately we couldn't purchase it due to the 9' ceiling requirement. So, while searching for another store that might carry an 8' ceiling version, I found the instructions to build your own clubhouse bed on Ana's site. I have no idea what possessed me into thinking that I could build this myself, as I have never built anything before, but....I went for it. I bought all the tools and lumber, and took my time with building it. It was a great learning experience! As a divorced mother of two, I feel proud that I was able to build this completely on my own. My kids now look at me like I am some superhero that can build anything. (They are busy compiling a list of other things they would like me to build!) Thanks Ana for the instructions and the inspiration! 

Enteranceway Bench. Can be used indoors or out. 2 x 4 for legs. 1x10x 6 for top. Stained Expresso. Sealed for outdoor use.