Community Brag Posts

we put a few bolts in the legs for a bit of added strength, and extra back supports.

My church was getting new pews and asked if anyone wanted the old ones so I decided to take one and see what I could do with it! The second picture is what it used to look like. I had to take it all apart and cut it to the shorter size that I wanted. I then recovered it with some fabric I found for about $10. I then made legs out of a 2x4 and supported the legs with some 2x2 across the front, back and sides. I painted them with some black primer/paint that I had. This was so fun to do because I had to figure it out as I went along. It was a bit of a challenge at times and I learned a lot from this project. I really love the finished product.

I built this stool for my son of three years.  The wood is from Red Alder trees that blew down on my farm a few years ago.  I milled the logs with a friend and, while alder can behave badly, I always love working with the wood.  The end upright in the image was quite cupped and it cracked when I screwed it down - but it's still rigid and solid.  The wood takes an oil finish beautifully!  Chose to drill and plug the screws, instead of using pocket screws.  Gives it a nice rustic look, and is easy to recoat when a touchup is required.

Had to change it up a little..

I used the plans Ana offered as a starting off point for this project. I loved the photos of the exact plans, but it was too long and too short for the space I wanted to fill. I ended up building pull out drawers from pallets instead of installing the apothecary drawers in the plans. I used the bottom cubby to place a dog bed (which they love) and still have one one bin to build to fill the center hole. I used a solid piece of butcher block style wood on the top that I sealed Polyerathane. Thanks Ana!

I loved the husky farmhouse talbe and after using a small round dining table for years, I figured it was time to get a larger table. What a great build! I definitely appreciate Ana's plans and ideas. I finished it right before Halloween as you can see and my 4 yr old son loves the new table for our sit down meails.

This table is the perfect length for our dining area.  Pretty easy to build if you aren't new to building furniture.

We eventually will build the rest of the bed, but for now we needed a headboard. Hubby helped me with this one, since it was large, I loved having an extra pair of hands. This headboard is reversible, so if our tastes change, we can unbolt it and flip it over to the side that is just stained and polyurethane. Pretty neat! This headboard is extra tall, because we have our bed frame up on risers, and we wanted a picture shelf but didn't want it interfering when we sat up in bed to read or what-not. Hubby used the router to make grooves in the top before we attached it, so our pictures wouldn't be crashing down on our head! Our metal bed frame comes just shy of the outer edge of the legs of the headboard, so when we build the rest of the bed, the side rails will meet the edge exactly. We placed the headboard behind the bed frame to mark where to drill the bolt holes and attached the headboard to the frame with 4 inch long, quarter inch wide bolts with washers and nuts. Two on each side.

This was my first attempt at building a piece of furniture. It's an outdoor table based on the providence table plans. I used old 4x4 pressure treated posts from part of my fence that was no longer needed for the base. The posts were fit together using lap joints and secured using fastenlok screws. The base was then painted with french grey chalk paint (first time experimenting with chalk paint) and then covered with a thin coat of brown briwax. The top is made of 8 foot by 1 inch ipe boards that are 4 different widths but the overall width is about 42 inches. The ipe was purchased rough sawn and needed to be planed to uniform thickness. I used a natural stain meant specifically for ipe and other tropical hardwoods.

Keep on building on! This is the second peice I've built for our dining room - built a bar first. I opted to only make 2 pedestals instead of 3 that was on the plans. Dimensions are a tad smaller to fit our room nicely, measuring 90in x 40in. My wife and I absolutely love this table! I used Red Oak for the top and Doug fir for the base. Hardest part was lugging around that dense oak and looking for chairs! The stretcher was also a bit of a task as well. Had to go out a buy a rubber mallet to bang it in enough so that the slack on both ends were even. We particularly like this piece because it will be used often and many memories will be created around this table! Thanks again for the inspiration!

When we made the decision to get a Great Dane puppy, we knew she would need to be crate trained.  The idea of a metal XXL crate wasn't terribly appealing so my wife suggested I build a piece of furniture.  My skills are above beginner level but I had never built a piece of furniture.  I started with the dimensions for the metal crates (54"L x 37"W x 45"T) and put pencil to paper.  We agreed we wanted somewhat of a rustic look for the finished crate.  I decided to use pine 1×4's, 1x3s and 1x2s, pinned and edge glued together.  For ventilation I chose the black metal banister rails.  The bottom of the crate is a sheet of sub floor covered with sheet vinyl.  I lined the inside of the crate with hardware cloth to deter chewing on the wood.  The top is made of tongue and groove carsiding, I had left over from another project.  The 4 sides are finished in Dark Walnut Stain.  The top has the same stain plus 3 coats of Satin Urethane.

I have always loved the entertainment center from Pottery Barn. When I saw that the sale price was still $900, I knew my husband and I could build it for way cheaper. This took about a week (with a lot of breaks) and the total cost was around $250. I think the biggest expense was the all the knobs, but I feel like they make the piece!

This is a great way to double up on space & creativity! My dad and I built this dress up storage/puppet theater for my daughters using Ana White's plans with added inspiration from The Picky Apple's post about their own top shelf and theater hacks - you can view it here: http://www.thepickyapple.com/blog/2011/03/24/dress-up-storage-bin-and-p…. We added hinges and magnetic catches to the front so that the storage center can be turned around and opened to lay flat for access to the puppet theater.

These are such fantastic plans! I found my 7yo niece lying across the bed under the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve. She loved it so much she wouldn't let anyone carry it out to the car for her, she had to carry it herself! I think the picnic bench might be her birthday present...

Modified the plan to create an 96”L x 18”D x 36”H buffet with:

• Wine storage
• adjustable shelves
• 3 pull-out drawers
• sliding barn doors
• copper counter top

I recently found this plan and decided to build it for my front porch. I am so happy to have finished this project (my second build) and look forward to decorating it for each holiday! I did not angle to the top of the bench because I wanted it to match my first build, the $4.00 chair.