Community Brag Posts

So why did I decide to build my own bed?

1. Cal King Frames are hard to come by in Canada and if purchased from a store, they cost an arm and a leg.  Also I wanted a new mattress made of solid latex - very spendy -  so our budget was already maxed out from that.

2. You come across a Kijiji (canada's craiglist) listing for 200sq ft of 3/4" solid oak flooring

3. You know Ana's plans will help tremondously and it gives you the boost to finally decide - yes I can build my own furniture.

So the upcycling made this all doable!  Some random Kijijier thought to pass along the left overs from a flooring install (the other option was burning it he said)  I said thank you very much and took all that wood home.  Now he had bought raw rustic grade oak.  Only $1.89 a sq/ft to buy FYI) 

So it was not perfect, with many pits, wormholes, cracking and complete holes. But the raw oak was great for a number of things - the distressing was real - no extra effort required, also the raw oak was easily stained with my homemade iron acetate stain (steel wool and vinegar) and I was able to bevel the edges without ruining an existing finish.

Thankfully I only needed a few long boards for the framing and was able to use the better short boards for building out the foot and headboards.  I improvised the posts on the end with a clever mitered 4 board combination.  Cutting just the tongue and the inside edge of the floorboard created a inset detail on the post that is very forgiving to my crappy cuts and ended up doing the trick.  I also saved my sawdust from cutting to mix with glue and fill the major holes and pits in the wood.  This took the stain very nicely and didn't add any extra cost to the project.  Anyways if anyone wants more suggestions on making use of cut off material just message or comment below.

By the way the plan is awesome and I much appreciated it during the process.  I did complicate things by making the drawers 24" deep vs 16" and having to upcycle a product rather than just buying material.  

To make use of the depth with a cal-king I decided to go with 24" deep drawers - fyi this means more material, more dollars,and more weight!  Huge amounts of weight, once since I decided to go with 3/4" Birch ply for the build.  I lift for fun and fitness so I managed, but beforewarned - the plywood frames are awkward and heavy.

I ended up needing 4 sheets of 3/4" Birch ply b/c of the upgraded sizing.  Even at 50% off (lucky me) this still was $160 in plywood + $50 for Luann for drawer bottoms and closing the back of the frame behind the drawers.  I also used full extension drawer slides so that I can actually access all that storage so set me back another $180.   I got the lights from Lowes for $60 for the pair.

Total cost $500 + free oak floor cast off + time = a priceless project

Ready to grow my own vegetables.

Jeff DeVries

I used the project plan for dress up storage to make a place to put my girls dance things! I have five girls and they are all in dance. We had all the dance leotards, ballet shoes, tap shoes, tights, etc... stuffed in one box! Thanks Anna for sharing this plan! Its so useful, and a great addition to their room. Not to mention sooo cute!

Made this Pallet from scratch with standard 2x4's and 1x4 pine boards. Stained the 2x4's a medium dark and used white chalk paint on the 1x4's. Project came out very nice and the wifey loved it. Happy Wife, Happy life.

Made some size modifications. Loved the end product!

After buying materials for a not so baby friendly antique factory cart coffee table, which I unhappily had to veto, my husband was able to quickly assemble this table and it sat unfinished for a few months. He painted it a black semi-gloss inside and out.

It fits the boppy, lots of blankets and 4 fabric cubes to hold toys, rings, burp cloths... perfect to hide at least some of the baby stuff that has taken over our home.

And now I NEED the apothecary trundle coffee table for the den!

This project was so much fun. I had to make adjustments for the size of my systems, but it was well worth it. I will be adding the doors later after our baby is old enough to crawl. Thank you so much for sharing this project!

I saw this table and nesting grill station on your FB page. I changes it up a little bit, but the concept is perfect for my back yard deck.

Dharris

I started looking for a farmhouse table months ago at antique stores and on Craig's list but never could find exactly what I was looking for at a reasonable price. A friend had pinned an Ana White plan on pinterest. I sent my boyfriend a link to the plans for the fancy farmhouse table and he decided to build it for my birthday!!! It took him a few afternoons and turned out exactly how I wanted it. It was fun to build and not too hard. We shorten the length to 6.5feet to fit in the dining room. I used Minwax dark walnut 2716 as the finish. I topped it with two coats of poly. It fits perfect and looks amazing!

I changed the size a little smaller to fit the area but turned out great

Hard Maple waterfall edge coffee table.

Scott

I Got my inspiration from ana's website here. I have a 200+ year old house and I just redid the dining room so I figured now would be the time to make a table for it. I did not use standard pine lumber, this was done all in Vermont walnut that was cut about 4 miles from my house and milled on site. I like to keep a stock pile of local lumber (mostly red oak and walnut when it pops up). My only advice if you are working with rough cut lumber is to invest in a good planer and joiner (I know easier said than done). If anyone would like the exact plans I used I would be happy to send them to you.

I built five of these bookshelves for my living room. I wanted them to fill the one wall, so I just divided the length of the wall by five to determine how wide to make each shelf. Also, because I was building several to be pushed together, I didn't want the bulk of 2 by SPF, so I used laminated pine shelving. Two eight foot boards were needed for each shelf, and that left very little waste. I love how they turned out. I blogged more about them (including dimensions) here http://skonkers.blogspot.ca/2014/07/home-is-where-shelves-are.html

These turned out AMAZING, for more minor details see my blog Link.  But in a nutshell i needed some chairs for a pub table i built and these plans worked like a charm!

I did use PT lumber for the frames, as these are meant for my patio, so i had to use stainless steel hardware which is a bit pricy, but well worth it unless you want to fall on your butt in 2 years when the normal screws corrode away. Modern PT wood is no joke on hardware!