I love how sturdy and beautiful these planter steps turned out! They were easy to build and work perfectly with the new deck/front porch I built this summer. I only needed one step and I used the same 1x material for the top of the step as I did the deck. I just added a couple more supports for the 1x material, as it isn't as sturdy as 2x6's. Thank you so much for the wonderful plan!
I chose to go with regular plywood, and I used thin pieces of wood to cover the screw holes in the corners. I just rounded the edges of the corner pieces to make them meet up with the molding better. Then I routered the top to smooth it out. I stained and clear coated it instead of painting it. For the lettering I chose to router it out instead of drawing it on.
I have a small mud room and this bench was perfect for keeping shoes organized on the bottom shelf, as well as storing hats and gloves inside. The storage area isn't very deep but it holds a decent number of hats and gloves.
The coat closet in our entry was always cluttered with too many coats, oddly placed mittens and hats, and shoes were piled on the floor. This was our solution. After this picture was taken I attached several hooks I found at a local antique store along the rail for the coats or sweaters we wear daily, and shoe bins were added below for each of our three daughters.
I built this bookcase for some office storage.
My grandson is in his second year college. He just got his first apartment and needed a table for homework and eating and folding clothes. We made a scaled down version of a farm table and it turned out exactly the way we wanted it.
Roger H
I had a bunch of extra wood sitting around the garage, so I decided to build this. Reclaimed wood 41 1/2 long by 17 1/2 wide and 19 inches tall. I used natural stain so it could keep it's beat up charm.
My first project!
Fri, 01/24/2014 - 22:16
Congrats on your first project! Looks great. I will start my first project as well in the next few months. I am guessing that the edges were well sanded to avoid splinters?
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.
Wanted to make a Communion Table for church found these plans here on Ana White and just had to use it. I modified them to make the table 24 inches wide and only 52 inches long. I had fun making this and had help from all five of my kids with the oldest being 11 and the youngest 3. Thanks for recommending these plans they were awesome. 👍
Bedroom DIY Suite
Paul Burdine
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.
Sun, 07/08/2012 - 10:32
Thanks for this great idea and the photos of the details. What did you decide to plant? (Btw, all you need for that fence is a few cans of black spray paint!)
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.
We've been desperate for more storage in our little house and this build really helped. The whole bench is 103“ wide and each drawer gives us 24"x17" of usable space. We had to do some custom shaping for the benchtop (two joined fir 2x12's) fit as the walls are not square but in the end we were really pleased.
The hardest part of the project was getting all of this built and in place while working around a busy family as this is our only meal space and the majority of cutting/forming was done either on the weekends or after bedtimes. If I were to do this again I'd prioritize sending the kids to grandparents for the weekend and know king everything except for paint out in one go.
We could have spent less time with the benchtop by using plywood like in the plans but we wanted the look of a separate benchtop. We may replace the fir with stained oak down the line but this should be plenty sturdy for the next several years.
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.
Fri, 12/07/2012 - 10:36
I love the addition of the lid! Do you have those plans to share?
Fri, 12/07/2012 - 10:51
love the lid! would you be willing to share your plans for it?
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
Tue, 01/28/2014 - 18:42
Did you use a planer to level your top and bottom surfaces here, or just lots of sanding? I've been told not to attempt butcher block construction without a planer...but I'm thinking of maybe going for it!
In reply to Butcher block question by romanweel
Fri, 01/31/2014 - 23:01
I did use a planer for this top. But because my planer is only 12 inches wide I had to glue three individual boards together leaving two seams that I could not plane but instead had to sand out. Just sanding those two seams took a long time, I cannot imagine sanding 20 seams. I would not suggest attempting without a planer.
Mon, 04/10/2017 - 18:45
is it possible for you to share your measurements. I need a smaller island. Thank you.
Wed, 02/05/2014 - 17:25
I'm curious how you joined the stretchers to the legs. The construction appears different from the plans. Did you use pocket screws or something more advanced like mortise and tenon?
In reply to stretcher joinery by Biff Loman
Fri, 02/07/2014 - 16:58
I am not sure exactly what you mean by stretchers. If you are referring to the shelf frame, yes it is different than the plans, I modified it. I felt the shelf design on the plans was not enough for the weigh that was going to be place on top. I used simple pocket holes to joint the frame to the legs. Hope this helps, have a great day.
Fri, 08/12/2016 - 10:41
Thank you Brad. This is a really nice piece. I recently picked up an old table from a college. I discarded the base and plan to use the heavy butcher-block-style top to build something similar to this. Do you have plans you could share? Thanks again, Brian
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.
My husband and created this bed using a plan we found on the website. We were doing the One room Challenge and wanted to redo our room on a budget. It was our first major build and it turned out really well. When my husband said we were going to use wood shims I was skeptical but the end result was awesome! We made the headboard and footboard and all the other pieces in our basement shop and then moved them up to our second floor and assembled them in the room. If you have any questions check us out on Instagram @ home_on_the_bluff
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
