Community Brag Posts

This was a super easy and fun bench to make.

I ended up having enough 2x4 and 1x4 scraps for the legs and only had to pick up a a couple of 2x4s.

TIP: Others pointed said that you should paint slats before assembly... I highly recommend it as well. It was a bit of a pain trying to get between the slats to prime and paint though would likely be easier w/ a sprayer..

Finished it with some oops paint in a nice color and a 3 coats of spray urethane.

Great beginner project for sure. It may take a couple of days to finish but most of that time is spent waiting for paint/urethane to dry between coats :)

We have a small rustic cabin that needed a clean, functional outhouse.  We followed Ana's plans, but with a few modifications to include a Solar gray polycarbonate roof to let in light.  We also decided on cedar board & batten for the siding.   We look forward to many years of use. 

The only thing I did different was I pocket hole screwed each slat together before attaching the top and bottom trim. Took a little bit longer but that's just the way I did it. Not sure if it made it easier or sturdier or just took more time.

First of all , a big Thank you to Ana for her website and plans. This has become our favorite site since we discovered it a few weeks ago.It took us about a week to build this sideboard.

We had to modify the plans a little bit. We reduced the length from 84 inches to 60. It made us change all the sections, drawers etc. The width and height of the sideboard were kept the same as the plan.

One good thing we did was to cut the pieces on a miter saw. I guess this is the most important part of the project(after cutting them to correct dimensions). If your pieces are cut square and accurate, half of the battle is won. During assembly, we focused on keeping the joints square (Thanks to many brag posts mentioning its importance.). After that it kept building on little by little. Every evening we would advance a little.

The drawers and the doors were made as per the dimension and fit OK. We got stuck on the hinge installation. We did not know how and did not want to cut mortises etc. After about an hour of browsing the web and videos we discovered non-mortise hinges and that hurdles was crossed also.

We used pine for 1x2, 1x4, 2x4,and 2x6s. for bases and shelves , we used 3/4" plywood as given in the plan. for door paneling and the back of the sideboard we used 1/4 plywood.

We used minwax prestain and minwax oil based Red Mahogany stain. We had to apply three coats of the stain to bring somewhat uniformity across the whole sideboard. For topcoat, we used oil based polyurethane.

Final thoughts: Do your homework well. Go though your plans to build a correct mental image. You will build a beautiful piece of furniture which will be better than your imagination and hold a different meaning. Cant wait to build another beautiful piece.

First, this table came out amazing because I started with amazing plans.  I went off the plans for a few minor tweaks and also added some accents that are not part of the original plans.

Our table is 100" long due to the size of the room.  This allowed me to keep the three pedestals and still have the table look appeasing to the eye.  Kept it at 40" wide and 30" high give or take a 1/4".

The two tweaks from the plans I can remember at this point are my long rails at the sides of the table do not extend the length of the table.  The two end pieces are 40" instead.  This is because I didn't buy long enough 2x4s and only realized this once I got to those cuts.  Not a big deal, I'm actually happy with the result.  The second tweak is no inner rounded edges.  2x4 lumber is rounded on all four edges.  Within the interior of the table, I wanted flush contact with all pieces.  Since cutting one edge off of a standard 2x4 would bring it to about 3.25" wide thus effecting the overall width of the table, I decided to rip down and plane a 4x4 then route the out edges to get that round edge back, but on one side.  

As for the the add-ons that the plans didn't call for...  For one, I added accent lag bolts spray painted to a similar color of the table at the four corners of the top and two on each leg kicker.  These bolts are for esthetics only.  The six bolts going through the legs into the 2x6 lock the 2x6 and the legs into place so they can't slide apart.

Lastly, I created wide wire wheel using a lag bolt and 5 5" brass fine wire wheels to give the table a distressed weathered look.  This is difficult to see in photos but in person looks really nice.  My favorite feature of the table.

Lastly, I stained the table with White Wash Pickling.  As soon as I finished spraying and wiping, I went to the briarsmoke then vigorously wiped it away to bring out the white underneath, especially on the knotted areas.  

Overall, I couldn't be happier with the table.  I want to thank everyone who posted photos of their tables.  They were all an inspiration me and my build.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me any time!

Thank you,

Jerry

I wanted a coffee table with a rustic look...without the weight of 2x boards, so I modified this plan a bit and used 1x's instead. It makes it much easier to move around when I need to vacuum up dog hair or anything tracked in on the kiddos' shoes! lol

I customised the Anirondack stools so they are 600 high to fit under a 900 high desk in my Tiny Home.
Used a kreg jig - all up took about 2 hours on each stool. First ever piece of furniture I've made. Very happy with the outcome. Now to fill and oil them.
(I cannot recommend Ana White designs and Kreg Jig's enough to everyone who asks).

This basement storage room was packed with 10 years of junk and smelled like funk! Divided into 3 piles, burn, donate and keep. Now with sealed and painted walls and epoxy'd floors we hope to use this as a storage/craft room. Next on the list is a craft/storage/wrapping station for the other corner. I also built a small stand that the artificial tree is sitting on. Due to condensation (humid Michigan summers) we don't want anything to sit on the concrete.

Made the Farmhouse Bed to fit our new adjustable bed. Thanks to Ana White and all her free plans, I’ve been able to build SO many things!

Finally I was able to replace my wobbly little dining chairs with solid wood chairs, thanks to Ana’s Harriet Chair plan. For this build, I made a few mods from Ana’s plan: added a padded seat, made the chair 2” wider, and substituted a slatted back. Used select pine 1x2 instead of 2x2 (really liked that look in the inspiration chair) and used 1x3 for the 2 inner slats on the backs. Also added a few more cross supports. Instead of predrilling pocket holes and hiding the screws, I chose to use the round washer head self-tapping screws and left them visible. This saved time on having to pre-drill and fill screw holes, but also thought the exposed screw heads made a nice decorative element. The seats are covered with 1” thick high density foam, batting, and outdoor fabric. The first of the 4 chairs took longest to make (I made and corrected all my mistakes on that one). The remaining 3 went a lot faster (took about 11 hours total for building the 4 chairs, and 12 hrs total for finishing them). The changes/steps I used are documented in a .pdf file in the second plan post linked above. Ana, thank you for all your wonderful plans. You rock!!!

This was a super fun and simple project, and the planters can be used for anything!! Thank you Ana! I followed Ana's plans and used mine as an Easter Basket gift that could then be used as a planter. I also modified the plans to be the size I wanted for a smaller planter that I also gifted as an Easter Basket. I believe I made the smaller one measuring each side out to be 2 or 3 inches. Next, I measured the bottom opening and made a custom fitting removable piece for it. Like Ana mentions, I also did not attach the bottom piece as it already allows some room for drainage and simplicity for changing out soils. To attach the pieces together, it was not as quick of a project as it was for Ana because I currently don't own a nail gun. Owning one would definitely make this project a breeze! For the finish, I did sand the cedar posts with 80 grit as I didn't want anyone to get splinters (also because I was applying stain with a sponge and rough wood makes it sort of difficult). The stain is Rustoleum's Dark Walnut. I did not leave the stain on very long as the wood is very porous. This is one of my favorite projects thus far because it made gift giving and our Easter Baskets much more unique!

This is my attempt at the 2x4 outdoor sofa.  The entire sofa is made out of 2x4 Redwood, so the cost was a little high at $150 for the wood.  I'm still waiting on cushions, but I went overboard and bought them custom made so the total for those came out to $520.  Overall, I could have easily bought a complete set online but hey, this is more fun!

My one concern is the back support.  I'm thinking of building something angled in, but haven't thought of the best approach yet, that will still look good.  

So living in Japan makes some of these projects interesting. 1) The largest pieces of plywood are 36"x48". 2) Paint is only sold in pre-mixed colors, so choices are limited. 3) Everything is expensive. 4) Packaging is impossible for me to read. That being said, I set out to make a playhouse loft bed for my daughter's birthday. My wife and daughters were in the states so I had nothing else to do in the weekends and evenings. I modified the plan for a full size bed and did not follow the sizes of windows and doors exactly since I was actually piecing it together since the plywood is not the full size.

That is not exactly true, I did climb Mt. Fuji one Saturday. Also found some interesting Wasabi Kit Kat at the store.

So this took a little over a week to complete, working whenever I could. I painted the inside pink, and the best color they had at Homes was basically pepto bismol. My daughter won't mind, but I did not want to see that on the outside everyday. The outside is purple and trim is white. The purple was an oil-based paint that smelled worse than any paint I have ever used before. I decided to make cubby storage stairs so that my daughter could get to them from the inside. I just finished this last night, and my family returns today for the surprise.

I began looking for creative ways to combine storage with a bed for our new guest room. My old office used to take up this room, we needed a Cat free guest room.

I have never really built anything. I figured why not start with something large to give me to confidence to try other projects. My rationale was; the bigger the project, the larger room for error without it being too noticeable. I assumed I would have some trial and error periods throughout this project. I was right.

I have a table saw I inherited from my grandfather. I quickly realized how many more tools were required to build a bed frame. I need a hobby so I bit the bullet. I purchased a brad nailer, circular saw and sander.

I decided to make this project during the spring time, I don't have a garage to work with so I was moving a lot of tools outside for cutting and sanding and then back into the basement for paint. It was a lengthy process and took me a good month with my free time (an hour or two every couple days) to get this project complete.

I followed the original Farmhouse Queen Plans and also a post from another helpful member BirdsandSoap which was labeled Farmhouse storage bed with hinged footboard.

The boxes that rest on the floor were actually my biggest challenge. It was not easy cutting the plywood to size by yourself without the proper instruction. I figured it out and made it work. The main issue I found was when I put on the side panels and middle inserts, the wood was not completely level... again perhaps I should have been a little more patient and careful with my construction but I had no assistance so keeping everything exactly where I needed it to stay was difficult. You cannot tell in the photo but the box bows up a little on either end... maybe a quarter inch at most.

The headboard and footboard where a breeze. After my box issues, I made sure to pick out some of the best Pine wood I could find. I bracketed the headboard and footboard to the boxes with no issues.

The most time consuming part was the sanding and painting. My wife wanted it white, I would have probably preferred to have it stained. Either way, for my first project, I believe it came out well (enough).

I think for my second project I will pick something smaller in order to give my self a second shot at leveling and being a little more precise with my cuts.

Loved a shoe cabinet at Mobler Furniture, but hated the 300 dollar price.

Figured Ana would have a plan: She Did. We used the Shoe Dresser plans but I built the gables in one piece to eliminate the need for separate feet. The overall length is only 38 inches. I built it counter height.

Because we used wood that we had laying around from previous projects, the drawers, and the unit are made of pine, while the top is made of oak. Total cost for the wood was 30 canadian dollars.

Rather than buy catches, I ran an extra support rail under the top, which made attaching the top easy, but also served as a "bump" for the closing door - it adds a satisfying clunk when closing the doors. I did the same for the second door too.

The handles were purchased for a project in our previous house and used here instead.

We used paintbrushable Tremclad matte black for the interior (23 bucks - used less than half the tin.)

We used 1.5 cans of spray Tremclad red enamel for the exterior (8 bucks a tin)

We hit it all with two coats of Zinsser sealer first  - 14 bucks, used half. 

Total hit was well under a hundred bucks.

Took me a couple days to work out the details, a day to construct, and about three days to paint, one for the undercoat, one for the black, one for the red.