Community Brag Posts

I built 4 planter stands, for Christmas. I finished the planter with a monlding on top.
 

From free Cummings workshop.

I got a request to build a taller version of the Tommy Bookcase. The only changes I made to the plans were switching the sides to 60" tall and adding two additional 40" shelves. To save on the cost of buying several 1x12's, I used a sheet of PureBond birch plywood. I didn't want to mess with the Kreg plugs or seeing the holes, so I countersunk screws into the sides and used 3/8" plugs to hide them. For the bottom, I trimmed down a 1x4 to the right width then added 1/2" moulding to the top of it. At the last minute she decided to add beadboard, and I found two quarter sheets at Lowe's on clearance for less than $8. I finished all the rough edges with edge banding. I really like how it turned out! It's a very solid, sturdy bookcase, and for $80 it's a fraction of the cost of the half sized PB one!

This was a super easy and fun bench to make.

I ended up having enough 2x4 and 1x4 scraps for the legs and only had to pick up a a couple of 2x4s.

TIP: Others pointed said that you should paint slats before assembly... I highly recommend it as well. It was a bit of a pain trying to get between the slats to prime and paint though would likely be easier w/ a sprayer..

Finished it with some oops paint in a nice color and a 3 coats of spray urethane.

Great beginner project for sure. It may take a couple of days to finish but most of that time is spent waiting for paint/urethane to dry between coats :)

This was a great / simple plan that mostly fitted my needs. i made a few modifications;

1.  wider 'human' well - extended the width by 6"

2.  Deeper desktop - Extended to 24"

3.  2.5x.75" trim piece around table top - simple MDF 

4.  plywood on top of 2x2 frames - for all shelves and table top.

(the dimensional modifications required 2 additional 2x2 @8')

I like a larger leg well to shift around in on those long days, so i extended the width by 6" all applied to the foot well.  I was still able to use only 1 8x4 piece of .75" sanded plywood.   I use 2 computers and a second monitor on one, so I deepened the desktop from 18 to 24" to accomidate my technology.  This then required an adjustment to all 15" 2x2s used on the sides, and the shelve stretchers. I prefered to use a Plywood on top of frame method for all shelves and tabletop, for stregnth and asthetics. This required me to make a notch into all 4 corners of each shelf. To accomplish, be sure to start with a squared piece of plywood cut to dimensions, and measure the from the insides of the cutouts for precise fit.  The under shelf frames were still affixed with pocket hole screws, the tops of each were screwed to the frame with 2" wood screws (pre drilled) and smoothed over with wood filler.  the top received the same, 2x2 frame around the perimiter, along with two additional 21" supports (at the same location as the inner legs from the towers). The top was the affixed with 2" wood screws, and smoothed with wood filler.  

For asthetic purposes, I put in a 2.5x.75" trim piece around the top (to hide the frame/plywood seam) This actually worked out great!!  It is mounted flush with the plywood top , 2" wood screws about every 12 inches and a healthy amount of wood glue. (be careful, these come pre-faced with a layer of white.. something.. this does not make a good glueing surface.  Sand down before glueing to the tabletop.).  Screws were countersunk, add wood filler to smooth.  the best part of the trim is that it extendes .25" below the wood frame (1.5" frame, with   .75" plywood on top = 2.25" total thickness). this allows allowed me to not screw the towers into the top.  The legs fit in underneath the top, butted to the top's frame, and the recess created by the trim holds them in place! This will make for super simple moving should I need to relocate my desk; just lift off the top, and it's in 3 pieces!!   this step adds a bit of work and $ (really not too much, 3 2.5"x.75" MDF trim pieces adds an additionan $12, and mounting only took an additional 20 minutes.)

I finished with a two tone top quality paint job, two coats of primer, 2 coats of paint, 2 coats of Polyurathane (3 on the tabletop).

All in all, it worked fantastically!!! it is incredibally sturdy.  The plans are simple to follow, and easy to modify, just do the math, and draw it out..

Thank You Ana!

-MikeG.

(ps. the white one is Winnie, the Brown is Henry).

The only thing I did different was I pocket hole screwed each slat together before attaching the top and bottom trim. Took a little bit longer but that's just the way I did it. Not sure if it made it easier or sturdier or just took more time.

First of all , a big Thank you to Ana for her website and plans. This has become our favorite site since we discovered it a few weeks ago.It took us about a week to build this sideboard.

We had to modify the plans a little bit. We reduced the length from 84 inches to 60. It made us change all the sections, drawers etc. The width and height of the sideboard were kept the same as the plan.

One good thing we did was to cut the pieces on a miter saw. I guess this is the most important part of the project(after cutting them to correct dimensions). If your pieces are cut square and accurate, half of the battle is won. During assembly, we focused on keeping the joints square (Thanks to many brag posts mentioning its importance.). After that it kept building on little by little. Every evening we would advance a little.

The drawers and the doors were made as per the dimension and fit OK. We got stuck on the hinge installation. We did not know how and did not want to cut mortises etc. After about an hour of browsing the web and videos we discovered non-mortise hinges and that hurdles was crossed also.

We used pine for 1x2, 1x4, 2x4,and 2x6s. for bases and shelves , we used 3/4" plywood as given in the plan. for door paneling and the back of the sideboard we used 1/4 plywood.

We used minwax prestain and minwax oil based Red Mahogany stain. We had to apply three coats of the stain to bring somewhat uniformity across the whole sideboard. For topcoat, we used oil based polyurethane.

Final thoughts: Do your homework well. Go though your plans to build a correct mental image. You will build a beautiful piece of furniture which will be better than your imagination and hold a different meaning. Cant wait to build another beautiful piece.

I basically followed Ana's plans that she laid out in her origanal post minus moving the ladder over to the other side.  The kids loved it since we surprised them while they were out of town with the grandparents.  In about 2 years I'll be building another set for the younger 2 girls! 

I wanted a coffee table with a rustic look...without the weight of 2x boards, so I modified this plan a bit and used 1x's instead. It makes it much easier to move around when I need to vacuum up dog hair or anything tracked in on the kiddos' shoes! lol

I customised the Anirondack stools so they are 600 high to fit under a 900 high desk in my Tiny Home.
Used a kreg jig - all up took about 2 hours on each stool. First ever piece of furniture I've made. Very happy with the outcome. Now to fill and oil them.
(I cannot recommend Ana White designs and Kreg Jig's enough to everyone who asks).

Some armoires look good in a bedroom. This one looks good in my garage storing my beer fridge and smoker. This took two pairs of repurposed shutters from the in-laws, two sheets of 3/4" plywood and some scrap lumber from around the garage. The best thing is with the Kreg tool, there are zero visible screw heads. 

Finally I was able to replace my wobbly little dining chairs with solid wood chairs, thanks to Ana’s Harriet Chair plan. For this build, I made a few mods from Ana’s plan: added a padded seat, made the chair 2” wider, and substituted a slatted back. Used select pine 1x2 instead of 2x2 (really liked that look in the inspiration chair) and used 1x3 for the 2 inner slats on the backs. Also added a few more cross supports. Instead of predrilling pocket holes and hiding the screws, I chose to use the round washer head self-tapping screws and left them visible. This saved time on having to pre-drill and fill screw holes, but also thought the exposed screw heads made a nice decorative element. The seats are covered with 1” thick high density foam, batting, and outdoor fabric. The first of the 4 chairs took longest to make (I made and corrected all my mistakes on that one). The remaining 3 went a lot faster (took about 11 hours total for building the 4 chairs, and 12 hrs total for finishing them). The changes/steps I used are documented in a .pdf file in the second plan post linked above. Ana, thank you for all your wonderful plans. You rock!!!

This was a super fun and simple project, and the planters can be used for anything!! Thank you Ana! I followed Ana's plans and used mine as an Easter Basket gift that could then be used as a planter. I also modified the plans to be the size I wanted for a smaller planter that I also gifted as an Easter Basket. I believe I made the smaller one measuring each side out to be 2 or 3 inches. Next, I measured the bottom opening and made a custom fitting removable piece for it. Like Ana mentions, I also did not attach the bottom piece as it already allows some room for drainage and simplicity for changing out soils. To attach the pieces together, it was not as quick of a project as it was for Ana because I currently don't own a nail gun. Owning one would definitely make this project a breeze! For the finish, I did sand the cedar posts with 80 grit as I didn't want anyone to get splinters (also because I was applying stain with a sponge and rough wood makes it sort of difficult). The stain is Rustoleum's Dark Walnut. I did not leave the stain on very long as the wood is very porous. This is one of my favorite projects thus far because it made gift giving and our Easter Baskets much more unique!

This is my attempt at the 2x4 outdoor sofa.  The entire sofa is made out of 2x4 Redwood, so the cost was a little high at $150 for the wood.  I'm still waiting on cushions, but I went overboard and bought them custom made so the total for those came out to $520.  Overall, I could have easily bought a complete set online but hey, this is more fun!

My one concern is the back support.  I'm thinking of building something angled in, but haven't thought of the best approach yet, that will still look good.