Community Brag Posts

We LOVE Ana's plans for the outdoor sectional! We just bought a house with a first patio and we knew this is what we wanted out there! We used one corner unit and four armless units to fill our space. I'm also planning to add a couple ottomans as a coffee table. Let the cookouts begin!
I don't know if it's true everywhere, but here 2x4s are about 1/2 the price of 1x4s so we made a couple modifications to the plans so we could use the much cheaper 2x4s instead. It saved us tons of money and gave the sectional a really chunky, sturdy look - a nice bonus!
When we finished it, the blue store employees suggested we use a deck sealer to make the cheaper wood last a long time. We were able to use a waterproofing stain to color and seal the wood at the same time which made the finishing go a lot faster than other projects I've done with stain and polyurethane.
This is the first time I got to use my new Kreg Jig, which was super fun, and made the furniture nice and sturdy!

If anyone is interested in using 2x4s I have the modifications here: http://morelikehome.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-new-outdoor-sectional.html
And info about my finished project here: http://morelikehome.blogspot.com/2011/07/patio-perfection.html

I enjoyed making this project! My wife loves the table and benches.

I had been asked a few times for these plans, but as someone else posted a similar one, I'll just stick to a blog post for now and describe my differences. I made this shelving unit January 2010, just after I found out of I was pregnant with my third child, and it's been a lifesaver since then. I desperately needed a toy storage solution (and purging), as shown in the 'eek' kids closet below. I didn't like the shape of triangular Ikea ones, as they spanned more floor space than I cared to give up. Plus, I wanted a place to put *almost* all of my kids toys, so I wanted it to be tall. I'm so glad we did, since we've moved twice (also, 'eek') since than, and it's made packing and unpacking the kids toys super (SUPER) easy. At first, I was afraid that the kids would go crazy and just tear down every bin at once, but it hasn't happened yet. Unlike the other plan that was posted, I used white sliders that ikea sold. I'm not sure if they still sell, as I don't see them online. It cost an additional $24 (they were $1/2), but seemed worth the extra money. I didn't have a router and wasn't particularly confident with our table saw skills. Plus the Ikea version had some really thin areas that made me nervous that it would break easily. I tried to keep it easy and just had to line up and screw the sliders in. Now that I'm a little more confident with a table saw, I'd give the router style a-go. I used two sheets of cabinet grade plywood, each costing about $30. I ripped down some pine boards to cover the front edges, which made the unit look loads nicer. However, I wish I would have used maple, instead of pine as they got dented almost immediately. Not a big deal though. The three shelves were sort of an afterthought, but turned out to be great for puzzles and other type toys. I didn't use backing or cross supports initially, but put some in after we moved. You can see them in the last picture below. The heater in our temporary house caused the slightly-bent sides to become very bent sides. That caused the drawers would spontaneously fall out, which was always quite the shock and disappointment. I put in some supports in the back, which I wish I did initially as it would have made manufacturing easier. Also, If I were to go back, I would put one cross support in the front-middle, as the boards are so tall, it needs something to help maintain the shape in the front. I've found that even in a perfect fitting slider, really heavy buckets would bend just enough to flex out of them to crash... so don't plan on filling one of the large buckets with matchbox cars and sticking it on the top. Regardless, we've learned our lessons, made it work better, and has been a huge success in our house for a while now.

My husband and I modified the lovely Miss Ana White's dollhouse bookshelf plans to create this awesome Barbie Dollhouse for our 2 and 4 year old daughters to Christmas. They love it, and I love that it will last for years! Thank you Ana, for your amazing talents and your giving heart...your sharing your talents means the world to me and my family!!

I used melamine for the top and shelf to get a nice surface for working on

Started off with the original design but enlarged it to fit an oversize single mattress. The mattress cost me $35 from a local faith farm, while the materials came in around $200. I decided to hang under my backyard pergola. Fun and easy project.

I wanted to make a built in storage bench for the breakfast nook in our eat-in kitchen, but wasn't entirely sure how to go about the process. After seeing Ana's "Mimi's Storage Bench" I thought the plan could be modified to fit our space, so I convinced my husband to give it a shot. We've done a fair amount of carpentry in our house, but this is the first piece of furniture that we have ever built. Thanks to Ana's plans and our new Kreg jig, it turned out better than I ever imagined. We absolutely love the new bench, where my toddler spends every morning eating his breakfast while staring out the window and giggling at the squirrels in our backyard.

My wife and I recently built this farmhouse table with her grandpa. It was a lot of fun and we are really happy with how it turned out. The table is 80 inches long, 43 1/2 inches wide, and 31 inches tall. The extensions are 15 inches long and 43/1/2 inches wide, and the bench is 61 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 19 1/2 inches tall. 

It tooks us about 4 weekends (around 32 hours) to finish the project and the included rebuilding the base of the table after our first one cracked. 

We modified the plans a bit. We used 4x4s instead of glued together 2x4s for the legs on the table and bench. 

We also used the plans on this blog (http://tommyandellie.com/?p=2582) as a guide. 

This was the first time my wife and I have tired a DIY project and we had a ton of fun. Her grandpa had some experience with wood working and had all of the tools we needed but you can certainly do this without any extensive wood working experience. 

Sorry for the duplicate post. This is my first time on the website and the first time I posted it came across as 'guest'

So... I am a pretty dedicated baseball card collector as well as a new found hobbiest in wood building. It's been an ongoing issue in my household with my baseball cards and boxes cluttering up our dining room. I decided to resolve the issue while still being able to keep my cards in the same room with even easier access without being an eye sore! This just might have saved my marriage! I searched for months for plans for some sort of baseball card cabinet but they just did not exist. The closest I could find for what I was looking for was a storage bench plan here on Ana White. I liked the idea of a top opening for hidden storage. It was too small for what I needed. I then came across plans on another site for an aquarium stand cabinet. I figured the combination of these two projects was what I was looking for. After a week of planing and drafting and 3 weeks of construction/finishing in the little spare time I have, I created what you see. People in the card collecting forums I'm a member of are begging for plans or for me to build them one! Problem is, this is the first thing I have built following my own design and plans. I could pass these on but no one in their right mind would be able to follow my scratches on paper but myself! I'm extremely proud of the outcome but am looking for a way to come up with plans I can share! Hope you all like, and if I can come up with a way to make follow able plans I will share! This was all assembled using the kreg jig system, wood filler to hide the knots and lines where the wood joined and lots of sanding!

In order to make this island a little beafier I used 4x4 wood for the X as well as the the top and bottom braces. Top is made up of glued up 1x3 maple wood. It looked really good raw, but decided to stain it to give a more uniform look. I bought the rustic handles and the bottle opener on Amazon.com. I used lag bolts and washers for the finishing accents...similar to the pottery barn island. Painted them with Rustoleum oil bronzed paint and then dabbed it with a paper towel to give it a rougher finish to it and then sprayed the casters as well. This was a fun project and are getting a lot of use out of it. Thanks goes to Anna for the plans and inspiration for this island. Rich

Used Ana's plans to build my floor to ceiling shiplap fireplace. Excellent guide made it easy.