Community Brag Posts

Taking the plans for the full sized Murphy bed (http://ana-white.com/2010/03/plans-a-murphy-bed-you-can-build-and-affor…) I added a few inches to convert to a queen and raised it off the floor 5 1/2 inches with removable fence post toppers.

The yellow head board lifts up and stores inside the frame when up. If I had it to do over again, I would sand and paint as I built. Thanks to Ana, I now have a guest room!

Needed a small "homework" table for my 6 year old. Looks more appealing in the living room than the Disney Princess table she's has since she was 2. Super simple build and very affordable!! This is my 3rd project from Ana White and definitely not my last.  

After seeing my daughter's bed. A guy I work with asked me to build his son one. He told me it could be just like Lillians, but if I could make it pirate themed that would be great. So here we are and the first bed from "Chris' Custom Beds" is done.

Custom cornhole boards, made with pocket joinery

Childrens chair 

We love our sectional...

The Harts

My husband made me this table after me seeing and falling in love with your drop leaf storage table.

I've been wanting to build some built ins in the recessed area surrounding our fireplace for awhile now. I wasn't really sure how I wanted to tackle this and at first it was just going to be shelves from the floor up. After browsing around, I stumbled onto Rebecca's media center and could see how I could turn this into my built ins!

The whole thing is mostly boxes placed next to one another with trim that covers all of the seems. The bottom left and right cabinets were inspired by her media center side base and the middle of the bottom row is a modified version of the center console piece. For the top I combined the console side and hutch piece to get something that would work for me.

I learned a lot on this project and tried to take my time. Using trim across the entire project help make it look like one big piece of furniture. One thing I would do differently if I was to do this again is to use higher quality trim, such as hemlock as the pine required lots of wood filler, sanding and time, all which exceeded the cost difference between the two types of lumber. I used the Kreg drawer jig for the first time, which was nice and also used the Kreg shelving jig after I decided to make all of the shelves adjustable. It to was a nice and easy to use tool. A must for anyone who makes adjustable shelves.

I sanded, sanded and sanded some more and than put two coats of high quality primer (57$/gallon) from Rhodda, which was a God send. It hid all of the imperfections and created a nice smooth area to paint, which I used foam rollers and the Renaissance paint also from Rhodda. They said it went on and dried like a oil paint, which I love, but cleaned up with water. It was awesome paint to work with, but we'll see if it gets that hard eggshell layer that oil paint gets. It's already pretty hard the night I painted it!

The hardest part for me was going to the local Woodcraft store and deciding what hinges I need and how to adjust them perfectly! This was so hard as the tolerances were minimal and I wanted everything to be uniform. I could probably adjust them a little more!!

I included a picture of what the area looked like before!

The idea I had, which was the best, was when it came time to decide on a color, I had my friend who is handing in Photoshop, show me several colors on a picture I took. This changed the planned several times and save a lot of money in paint. In the end, we decided to paint them the color of the walls to make them look like they were always there. It also worked with the stained mantle next to them!

Finished it with two coats of shallac and used black iron hardware.

I built it for a cabin I am building. Thank you for the palns, they were great!

This project my husband and I started together. We live in a very damp and rainy area where cushions would just be more of a pain than a comfort outside.
We decided to add slats on the back so the sectional would stand alone without cushions.

Well, after the first corner piece, I got busy and every day my husband would add another piece to it.

I did do much of the sanding and painting. We sanded and painted these before assembly, made life tons easier.

It was white pine with out exterior house paint color. We really love them!
Thank you Ana!!!

I modified the plans to fit my space. I needed a shorter wide shelf. This project was easy and fun. Turned out great

We added a small porch on the front of our house last summer, but the only seating we had out there were our porch rockers. So- I had been checking Ana's plan catalog for something we could use. I came across the Weatherly Sofa- but with the back on it would cover some of our picture window... plus we wanted someplace to put the cushions while we were not on the porch.

I designed this using those plans- but enclosed the bottom as well as stopped the backrest at the point where our picture window starts...

The W-Mart here in town had their summer end clearance on pads at $10 a piece and voila- completed project.

ou cannot see the bench top- but it is pieced together from 1x4s. The remaining bench was made from 2x6 and 1x2s.

Built two of these over the weekend. The first one took 7 hrs to build and the second one only took 3 hrs. Things I learned:

1) Do step 3 before you do step 2. It was a nightmare trying to fit the 1x12s into the rectangular opening. Once you get the 1x12s in there, you can sandwich the 2x2s neatly onto the sides without having to shave down the 1x12s trying to get them to fit.
2) Check for square as you go. This will be important when you get to step 4 and 5.
3) I don't know about other folks but the 2-1/2 PH screws were always screwing all the way through to the other side so I used 1-1/4 PH screws for most places.

And that's it folks! A gorgeous and easy side table. =)

First table my husband and I have ever made, and it turned out beautifully!

I made this bed for my wife using the plans found on this side.
I worked out great and she loves it!!!! Very east project. It took one week end to complete. I altered it slightly and added decorative side panels.

This was my second big DIY project ( I should say DIO for Do it OURSelves) since my husband had to help me with a few things. Anyway, I chose to paint the whole thing the same color as my office/craft room; BM Revere Pewter. Then, I stenciled some flowers in different colors of gray and white on the top. I had a piece of thick glass cut for the top. When I need to do anything heavy duty (like the open shelf console I did next) I simply put a bath rug on the glass. Even so, it's pretty tough as I've dropped lots of stuff on it without a crack!
I made this from the plan in Ana's book. Before we tackled this, I pulled all the carpet out of my office and put in a plywood floor (ripped into 6" widths).
I just finished the console which was made with plans from Ana and Shanty. Looking to move onto the next big project; a bar cart with doors or a dresser. Yikes! This is fun!
P.S. Love my Ryobi One Plus tools!
Thanks Ana, for the inspiration!

First of all I want to Thanks Ana for such a great website and projects and all she do. Its amazing how a person can do all of that for free. If all Americans were the same we would be the greatest Nation by far (anyways we still great!).

     I wanted to make this bed full so I had to re-scale the dimensions and I wanted to share leasons learned.

First: The legth for a full size is the same.

Second the width for a full size will be 52 inches (I would make it 53in); if you are going to follow Anas design and use a 2x6 as a side rail then then the width of the header could be 53in.

I made a design change at the last minute (and paid for it at the end :-s). Instead of follow Ana's design I decided to use railing hardware in this link to be able to take the bed appart without any problem.

 Using these mortises I was able to change the side rails for 1x6 which in my opinion look way better. The problem is that now with those mortises the bed frame is going to be wider (56in), so instead of an extra 1in for play with the boxspring I have 3.5in :-(

My wife is nice enough and tried to gave me moral support and she insist that is not a big deal because the gap is toward the wall and my doughter can't care any less; she has her big girl's bed and thats all she wanted; but I know is there and I hate that gap!

Summary:

If you stick to Ana's design 53 inches for headboard is perfect; but if you want to use the mortise then 50.5 should work fine.

To paint the bed I did two coats of primer and two cotas of semi-gloss white paint; in my opinion for furniture I probably would go gloss next time, but this doesn't botter me.

I used prime pine wood so the price went to the $300, if you choose mid-grade pine (it has a lot of knot) you can probably drive the cost down by good 25%.

Time: took me one full day to build the bed and since I had to go to work every day and I was doing one coat of paint every afternoon after work (so "five" days total); maybe you can do the painting it in one day if don't have to go to work and the weather is right!