Community Brag Posts

The inspiration for this piece came from an Instagram post. We decided on our overall dimensions (36" tall, 18" deep and 60" long), then more or less guessed what the size of the pieces for the face frame would be. We recreated it as best we could and I think it came out incredible. It has soft close drawers on top and the hand-made sliding shelves are also soft close. The raised panels for the doors were made on a table saw. The doors have soft close hinges. The cabinet is made from maple plywood, oak plywood, yellow pine and poplar. The top is made of cypress and stained with Minwax "fruitwood" color and semi-gloss urethane. Next step is to make the shelves which will be 48" tall overall.

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!!

The first of hopefully many more projects to come!

This was my first project building something from this site. I absolutely love it! We didnt add the X's because the miter saw was at my dad's house, which I was kind of sad about, but I think it still looks good. Not too bad for mine and my husbands first build! 

The potting bench was my first ever project followed soon by the essential Adirondack chairs. All were made with reclaimed wood salvaged from a porch and from my husband’s scrap pile.

Kelly

I’ve wanted a new island for awhile but wasn’t quite sure what I wanted it to look like, until I saw Ana’s cabinet plans for the Momplex kitchen! We wanted a fairly large island, so we did two 24” base cabinets “townhouse style” (from Ana’s Kitchen Cabinet Base 101 post) plus we added a little extra space at both ends, so Hubby could install some electrical outlets and we’d still have plenty of room for the drawers. The old island had power already, so he got the outlets wired pretty fast. Behind the doors are some deep pull-out drawers to hold all the stuff you’d usually have to bend down and reach for. Now it’s so convenient! I built a Farmhouse Table top for it and love it! We built flat doors and trimmed them up to match the island sides and back (also matches our pantry and dining room). This project took us about 40 hours to build and finish, and it was so worth it! Ana, you are a rockstar in our house! We now have a real showpiece for our kitchen, thanks to Ana White!

Using the Camp Loft Bed design. I modified for TWIN XL and created it to be taller so my son can grow with it. He has about 6 inches of clearance from his head. Also changed the angle of the steps but going back to the original design since space requirements are no longer consideration. I also used metal brackets to tie in the railing. The desk was built from Kreg Jig website.

I built this in a few hours using some wood leftover from another project. I was amazed at how long it took to turn a pile of lumber into something useful. I happened to be at Lowes, but was able to find $6 bins very close to the bins in the instructions. I had to add about 2 inches to the length and take a 1/4 inch off the width. 

Tools

Compound miter saw

18ga nail gun

Clamps

Paint brush

My daughter loves it!

Deck sofa from a Ryobi/Ana video a few years ago. End table is also from Ana's plan using leftover Trex decking. Special thanks to Jen for her assistance.

We made this table that seats 8. I loved the farmhouse table but we needed something that did not have cracks for food to seep into with 4 you kids this was a requirements. Much playing around with idea we made this table with out of Cedar 2x6's and a kreg Jig. The white spot is just extra poly we are filling a hole with. I did not want to use any wood filler We love it. We used legs I found on a old rusted table. In which I sanded them down and refinished them. The chairs we also found in the old storage shed on our property. We cleaned them up and painted them black. We do plan to make matching benches for the table.

I decided to dress it up a bit using oak for the surfaces. I then used Provincial stain by Minwax and semigloss poly. The legs/skirt are clear pine and both primed and painted. Rather than screw the seat to the frame from above, I used Kreg joints and secured it from below giving the chairs a smooth final finish.

I made two of the chairs using cedar 2x4's and then stained them cedar color. The cushions were on clearance at Lowes for 6.97 each. Super excited about that as well. For the back I did the three board suggestion versus just the two for more back support and I also added an extra board for the bottom seating. Project was pretty easy and the instructions were easy to follow.

Carrie

It seems like organization is always a work in progress especially in my one car garage shop. Honestly it took years to realize what I needed to customize my space in order to organize things. I've built bulky work benches out of 2x4s and plywood. I've rearranged the work space over and over again over the last few years and finally came up with my own system

The miter station is a life saver. I had one of the fancy ones with the foldable wings but didn't like it. The object of it was to be able to fold the wings down for storage but I never did and it caused other space saving problems. Now I can easily store all of my small tools and woodworking knick knacks all in one spot. You can find plans for these if you google miter station, but take my advice and custom make one that fits all of your needs. There's a spot for my vice and speed square too. Things like that make it count.

The router table is probably my favorite tool in the shop. You can do so many things with the router table. I started out with just a top and a base and worked from there. Now everything router is in the cabinet ready to go.

Everything is on wheels. Us military guys and gals have to move around a lot so we have to plan for that. Now everything can just roll up the ramp and in to the truck.

Take some time and think about the efficiency of your shop space. How does everything flow? Or do you even flow at all? I used to woodwork myself in to a bunch of brick walls and now I don't.

Thanks for checking it out
Patrick

Built these Ana White Faux Oars out of scrap pine. I experimented with the finish, trying to make a more weathered look. I used Minwax Special Walnut and Jacobean and white washed. I also rounded the edges using a router and orbital sander. Easy and fun project!

Ana White … we love our chairs. We did make our chairs out of cedar and a side table from some cedar scraps.

I started this Table and bench because, we have a one year old and we had a bar height table. Something a little shorter was needed, so I picked the Benchwright plans since they were most like our style. I used all white wood from Lowes and some pine 2x4's. Since the original plans made the table a little too large for our house I shortened the length on the table and bench by 15". This was the largest project I have done so far, but the plans are so easy to use, that the major time spent for me was getting the wood, and sanding and staining. I submitted the last picture here, because I originally picked out a Rust-oleum Sunbleached stain, or so it said. As you can see from the photo it just made everything grey, and was not the look I or my wife were looking for. I recommend very carefully picking a stain color out and testing it on similar wood before using it on your finished project. I spent two hours after this mistake sanding off the stain, and since it was grey it still shows through a lighter color. In the end we are both happy with the final product, and you don't learn until you try and mess-up a few times. I really had a lot of fun with this project, and can't wait for the next thing to build.

we recently used the plans for the farm house twin bed, and created it with our own little twist for our 3 year old son! Instead of the normal slats we used car siding to create the "blocks" for my Lego vision. The bed is stained with a black gel stain by min wax, and the slates are painted from colors I picked out a Lowes. I wanted him to have a matching bed to his dress. I got this really neat dresser from a friend and I stained the out side and painted the draw fronts bright colors like Legos. our next project for his room will be night stands and possibly a bookshelf

We have a very small laundry room and we wanted some additional room to put shoes when we walk in. We also couldn't have the pedestal be too tall or our washer and dryer would hit the shelves we put in over the laundry room. For this reason I modified the plans to remove the bottom and adjusted the height of the plans to just fit. I was worried about the stability, but made this super strong.