Community Brag Posts

I had inherited some bed frame wood from our local Re-store and have been working it into projects here and there. We needed some actual night stands and I loved the look of the Reclaimed Look Wood Nightstand, but they were a little too tall for our bed. The height of the original plan is 28" and I ended up taking out one drawer for a total height of 20". I also found two sets of drawer slides at the Re-store and decided that an open shelf on the bottom would better suit our needs, so I crossed the reclaimed plan with the farmhouse plan to create a shelf on the bottom. The bottom is built the same way that the sides are, but attached so that the 2x2 is on the underside.

I didn't have enough wood from the bed frame to make two full tables, so I used Douglas fir 2x2's for the legs (the best the local big box home improvement had that day for my price) and white board for the table tops and every other board for the sides and shelves. This was my second real building project, so they were really easy to put together, but it was a lesson in making everything super square because of the drawer slides. The finish I used also goes great with a 130 year old dresser that you can see a bit of next to the finish table. The wood only needed one coat to reach the color closest to that dresser and it hid the fact that I used three different types of wood in this project. Overall they are just what we needed in this space. The bed frame is IKEA, but I am thinking about making the Reclaimed Look Bed Frame to match the tables in the future.

Wanted to make a Day bed for my daughter. Found the plans and found to be very affordable. Had a great time building it, and the reaction to my daughter when it was finished was the best

I had always wanted a kitchen island and saw this project. Seeing that the plans were well written I decided to tackle it. In addition I made a few small modifications to enhance the style of the island. These included using 4x4's on the corners and a IKEA butcher block top. The top allows for a larger surface area to work with and more space to sit under. The stools in the picture are from World Market and they were the perfect pair for the island. The island is great for family gatherings or just sitting with your morning coffee. I had family over for Thanksgiving and received lots of compliments. Thank you Ana!

I designed this off of the laundry basket holder.

My granddaughter wanted a lemonade stand and it had to be easily portable. I used Ana White’s plans, made it a little taller (30” counter height, 65” total height), added hinges so the top drops down, and wheels on the back side so you can tilt and pull it behind you like a suitcase. Added a hook for a cutting board and hooks for a bungee strap to hold the cooler, pitchers and supplies inside while you haul it. A sign for her and sissy, some painted wood decor and we’re all set. Just add lemons!

I bought my home a few years ago. The only thing about my bathroom I didn't like was the lack of storage. The cabinet only had one drawer with a panel below covering a large empty wasted space. I was told by 2 cabinet makers that I would need to replace my bathroom cabinets, but when I saw Ana's success, I thought "I can do this".

My woodworking experience is pretty limited, so things took a little longer than I would have preferred. The first weekend was spent popping the panel and building the shelf out of plywood & luan for the drawer bottom (thank you Home Depot cull section). The second weekend was spent making the drawers using a pocket jig and installing them into the cabinet. You WILL need a 90 degree clamp to assemble drawers, trust me. Third weekend was spent making the drawer fronts and staining them. I had never used a router so I practiced on every piece of scrap I could lay hands on. Since the cabinets were older and not made of solid wood, I had to play with the stains to ge the formula right; remember the scrap wood? It's baaack. The fourth weekend was spent pulling everything together.

When I show my family what I did, they look at me in disbelief. I know they're just drawers, but this is proof that I can make real changes to my home that has long lasting benefits. The bathroom still has a long way to go, but I know now that I don't have to hire someone to do it all.

My record obsession was growing rapidly so I needed a solution to store my collection and I wanted some room for growth. I wanted a setup where you could flip through the records like at the record shops. It's often difficult to read the artists and album names when you can only see the spines of the album covers. I decided to make a cabinet with 9 drawers which holds approximately 540 records (60 records per drawer). More details and photos on my blog: http://www.woodworkingfourdummies.com/blog/vinyl-record-storage Cheers, Ian

This is my second build. I used the Benchright plan but had to modify it for one drawer. The Dimensions are 39 long, 25 wide, and 19 tall. I have heard others comment on how difficult drawers are. I thought I would just jump in head first with the kind of drawer that closes flush with the rest of the table - really had some trouble with making it square. I ended up shimming the face onto to the drawer because even though it opens and closes smoothly, it isn't square with the rest of the table...

I had originally planned to make the 20 second tidy up table for my living room and begun purchasing materials. However, I was let go from my job last Sunday, so changed my plans. I took inventory of all the supplies and materials I had on hand and tried to find a plan that would not require any more spending to build... to sell... to pay rent.... and thus the new table was born. And I love it. And I hate to sell it.

I tried to copy the finish on the 20 second tidy up table, and this is how it ended up. I used Minwax Golden Pecan for the base color and Red Oak for the accent color. The colors got a little blended together through the staining process. I really love how it turned out though because it's a nice warm color. The only thing I don't like is the grain in the pine didn't take much if any color, so it's still a bit yellow, which seems slightly out of place when I look at it. I think it will darken with age and look a little better. Otherwise, this was a super fun project!!

I made this TV Stand for the family that bought the coffee table that I made before. I loosely based the design from a medley of things on the site, but ended up drawing up plans myself in Sketchup.

This took a while because I had to think through alot of the design things - like how to best do the glass panel doors and how to compensate in the plans for some bowing in the plywood.

It is basically a plywood box, trimmed out like most of the things we DIYers do.

My biggest challenge in this project was cost... I severely underestimated how much it would cost me to build it, so I ended up with only $50 profit on the job... Does anyone have suggestion.. if you are building things to sell them how do you price your products? Just curious.

"Cellar? What cellar? We don't have a cellar... Oh, you mean the new sand box! Here, let me get some shade too."

I'm not sure why, but I can never seem to follow plans exactly. I guess that's not entirely true. I CAN follow plans exactly, but I almost never do. Maybe it's some sort of passive rebellion or something, but I usually have to put my own spin on the things that I build. Sometimes it works out in my favor. Sometimes not. This build was a little of both.

I decided to only build one bench in our sand box. This cut down on a lot of supplies. By making it longer a single bench and making it longer, it covers about the same amount of square feet, just in a rectangle instead of a square. When pricing lumber, I noticed that 2x8's were cheaper than 1x8's. So I went with those instead. It can't hurt to beef up the sides a little, right? This required some easy calculations on the cut list. I also decided to use 1x6 fence planks instead of 1x4 whitewood or pine. The fence planks were cheap, and I figured they would look nice in the back yard. They are also naturally pest and rot resistant. They required extra sanding to take the rough off. However, this is one place that I'm thinking the modification didn't work in my favor. The fence planks are not as thick as the whitewood. This combined with the increased length makes the the top pieces feel pretty weak. I put a little support piece under the bench. I'm quite sure the bench would not have held up well without the support.

Because this is an outdoor piece, I dry fit everything, and then stained everything before assembling it, to make sure all of the edges were well protected.

Cost breakdown (not including canopy)
Fence planks $14
2x8x8 $11
hinges $9
handle $2
stain $10

I used the plans for the simple outdoor lounge chair and just made the arms wider, the cushions came from Target.............the dog loves it !