Community Brag Posts

Iowa cabinet Spring fix up!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/05/2017 - 18:51

Loved the design when I saw it and jumped on it the minute my husband said we needed something under the wall mounted tv! Took us 5 or 6 hours on a Sunday to put the cabinet together and another day for my husband to build the doors which turned out exceptionally well!! Used pine with a dark stain followed by Annie Solon old white chalk paint and clear wax giving it a nice aged look. Will be looking for 16 x16 bins for some grandkid toys and a few spots for pretties. Ordered hardware on Amazon and had to re-order additional set of wheels as the kit comes with only 1. Thank goodness I have prime 2 day delivery!

Estimated Cost
$250-$300 all in.
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Small Pantry Renovation

Submitted by dcampnrtp on Sat, 02/27/2021 - 07:53

We had a small walk-in kitchen pantry with wire shelving. The shelves were packed.....and so was the floor! We lost things in the clutter and I built base cabinets that were 40" tall x 22" deep and installed full extension pull-out drawers. Bottom drawers are tall enough for canisters, tall boxes, etc. The top drawers contain all of our cooking spices so that we can see each and every item. The full extension drawers makes things easy to access and organized. Next step is removing the 2 remaining wire shelves. Pleased with the transformation with the base cabinet!

Related: How to Install Full Extension Drawer Slides

Estimated Cost
$350
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
White paint and Early American stain for the drawers
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Benchwright Table

My wife loved the Benchwright table at pottery barn, and I did not love the price. Got a lot of ideas from this site and tried to make it my own. The outside and legs are made from 5"x5" Cypress, purchased from a local saw mill. I used a kreg jig on the entire thing along with lag bolts and glue. It is very heavy and I can jump up and down on it. Bought the hardware from Fastenal. Fun project, took about 16 hours total.

Estimated Cost
$400
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax Poly - 3 Coats
Recommended Skill Level
Advanced

Comments

jbayer80

Sat, 03/02/2013 - 20:21

This is by far my favorite table I've seen on here. Wow...its all I can say. I wish it was not in the $400 range.

BTW, that is some serious saw dust. haha

In reply to by jbayer80

chasekirby80

Sun, 03/03/2013 - 05:50

Thank you,
I helped a buddy make on shortly after I made mine. He used 4x4 pine, it looks a little smaller and the pine did not stain as dark, but it is still a very nice looking table. He made it for under $150, so that might be a good option.

jbayer80

Sun, 03/03/2013 - 07:37

That is a great option. Hopefully when its time for a table like this I can afford the 5X5's.

What a statement that table has!

Vegetable Cupboard Bin

Addition of chalkboard paint to the doors to label contents. My mother-in-law loved this for X-mas. 

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Time Investment
An Hour or Two (0-2 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax Natural with a tsp of Varathan Chestnut added (my mother-in-law's choice)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Workbench Plans by Ana

Submitted by chadbadow on Sat, 03/06/2021 - 14:10

Thank you for the plans for this workbench. I’m new to this and they worked like a charm. The scraps I had, fit perfectly for upper and lower shelf backboards. In doing so, I did square up and nail the full sheet of plywood to the table. Then cut with a circular saw with guidance from a fence. Doing this on length and width gave me perfect backboards for the top and bottom levels. The only scrap was the 2x4’s and they were minimal. Thanks again. It turned out perfect!

Ellery's loft bed

My 7 year old daughter LOVES her new loft bed!!! It was a fun build. Plans were very accurate and simple to follow. Took a weekend to build and about 5 nights to paint.
Next I plan on building a desk and some shelves under the bed. More pics to come!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
about $300
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Behr Premium Plus
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

I-beam

My wife loves this shelf. Thank you so much for the plans! I made mine using Aspen and an Early American stain. Now I need  to make 2 more. 

Estimated Cost
$10-15
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Pre-stain conditioner, wait one hour, then Early American stain. Let sit overnight, very light sand ( I used 600 grain) and stain again. Let dry and I put two coats of semi-gloss urethane to give slight shine.
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Twin Farmhouse Bed

I've been looking at this bed plan for several years, wondering if I had sufficient skills to scale up from small items to furniture. I finally did it! It was a family project, with 2 of my 3 kids getting involved. My son has been sleeping on it for several months now, and it's still rock solid. Now to settle on a desk plan for him. Thank you for all the great plans and inspiration!

Finish Used
Varathane weathered gray and worn navy.

Comments

Standard Kids Table Design + Lego Top

Submitted by JenBerter on Thu, 03/07/2013 - 10:46

I used the Clara Table design then decided to make the table top into a lego table. I bought (4) Lego Plates from Target at $15 each. Then super glued the Lego Plates onto the tabletop.

*** Note- Make sure that the spacing between Lego Plates is correct. I used different Lego's to connect the different plates to make sure that the spacing was correct.

Thanks for the ideas Ana!

Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Modified Wide Cabin Dresser

Submitted by dbwalk on Mon, 01/12/2015 - 20:02

This build was for my daughters.  They needed a new dresser and I figured I could pull this one off.  

 

I used regular boards from the Big Blue Box store.  I went a step up for the birch playwood because it would take paint better.  The drawer pulls are stainless steel.  

 

I modified the given plans so that I could add two more large drawers.  I made a few modifications to pull it off and give the dresser more support.  For example I added some supports under the top plywood board and in between each row of the drawers.  You can see that I added a middle support under the bottom set of drawers as well to keep the weight of the drawers from saggin in the middle.  I also had never installed drawer slides before.  This was way harder (and frustrating) than I was expecting.  My drawers don't have slides but they still work well.

 

All in all this was a moderately challenging build for me.  However, the paint and finish ended up being super nice.  My girls love it and I think it is going to last for a long time.  I am now working on modifying these plans to build a matching side table with drawers.  I hope to have pics of that soon as well!  

Estimated Cost
$275. The wood cost around $200. The handles and paint cost about $75.
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Teal colored paint and primer in one. Before and after each painting I sanded the wood.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Platform Bed

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/14/2017 - 19:01

We couldn't fit our box spring up our stairs in our house so this bed worked perfect. It took about a week and I followed the plans exactly, except just using all 2x6's for the headboard. I felt it would look more appealing. Thank you. 

Estimated Cost
100
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Minwax Walnut and Jacobean
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

My projects.

Submitted by isabel8131 on Tue, 03/16/2021 - 13:58

These are my finish projects, I made with Ana Whites plans. Thank you very much Ana White.

Estimated Cost
100.00
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Home Depot building department has scrap wood with some flaws but still great too use for projects.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Reclaimed wood full size headboard

I really enjoyed building this headboard. I had all of the wood cut at Home Depot saving some time. Putting the headboard together was pretty simple. First I applied wood conditioner then I used an expresso stain. I then sanded everything and used Rustoleum satin fossil colored spray paint. After the paint dried, I sanded again and applied Minwax express color in walnut. That was it! I love how this turned out.

Estimated Cost
$40
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

kshat

Mon, 07/15/2019 - 18:43

This is gorgeous!  I wanted to ask if you used pocket hole screws or not?  The product list calls for them, but never saw them mentioned in the actual plans.  Thank you!

Mine craft toy center

Submitted by Tjkelly on Fri, 01/16/2015 - 15:37

Easy to build toy center for mine craft figures

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$30
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Paint
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Ana's Loft bed w/o the stairs

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/18/2017 - 12:38

I fell in love with the loft bed but thought the stairs stuck out too far for my daughter's room so I revampd the plan just a bit to add three 'stairs' in the platform rather than the standard stairs in the plan.

I got started on the project on a Friday night, got my cuts made, my pocket holes drilled and pieces sanded for an early start Saturday morning, everything went together like a dream - though it would have gone MUCH faster if I had had a second set of hands; I had to balance all of the long peices on other peices to try and get them attached and it took much longer than it had too! 

It was all together, the holes filled and first coat of primer on by Saturday afternoon - I used Zinsser primer so the knot's did not bleed through. Sunday morning I was painting and it was in place and decorated by Sunday night!

Great, easy to follow plans (as always) Ana - thank you, I have one VERY happy daughter!

Estimated Cost
Approx $150
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
paint
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Mastering Pocket Holes

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/20/2021 - 19:01

I made this DIY 2x4 Cart without the casters, but added a middle wood bar to the sides. I edited the dimensions to fit the space under a window. I cannot wait to put the felt pads on the bottom and get it into the room. My goal was to accomplish/master pocket holes and I am very happy with the results.

Finish Used
All oil based carrington stain color and 2 coats of oil poly with a slight sand in between coats.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Rustic X Console

Made a bit shorter to fit our decorative arch and opted for more different hardware.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$100
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Rustic Oak Stain with a wax finish.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Cedar Fern Planter

Submitted by janmade on Thu, 04/20/2017 - 13:08

Great plans as always. This was a quick build. I had most of the wood already and bought furring strips for the sides. I painted it to match the shutters on my house. I love it!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
less than $20
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Bronzetone paint to match my shutters
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner
Seasonal And Holiday