Community Brag Posts

Me and my husband had only a hollywood frame forever and just never wanted to spend the money to buy one, then I found this website!! This is the first thing that I ever built I'm pretty proud of my self. Espically since I had the help of my one and two year old it took a little longer but i got it done.

This project was a true labor of love by a first timer. We are first time homeowners and built our home, which was completed spring of this year. Like most wives, I wanted all the bells and whistles in this home. The bells and whistles add up, and next thing you know, we're eating most of our meals on our granite island upgrade, instead of a new dining set. My husband took it upon himself to purchase tools off of Craigslist and research online for modern farm table plans. He came across Ana's site and loved how she broke everything down in her plans. This was the plan he used http://ana-white.com/2009/11/plan-modern-farmhouse-table-knock-off.html The cutting, sanding, and putting the table together took about four to five hours, but staining and waiting around made the project about twenty hours. Also, everything cost $50 on our end, whereas, the West Elm table I wanted is $700. I'm one happy lady, especially since I think our table looks way better than the one from West Elm. I'm excited to report that my husband is currently refurbishing chairs to go with this beautiful table! Thanks a million for your easy to comprehend plans, Ana. You're the best. Here is a post where I featured my favorite piece of furniture http://www.AnnieAtoZ.com/2013/09/diy-modern-farmhouse-table.html

American Girl Doll House

I had to rescale the Ana White plan to an overall length of 72 inches. All joints are Kreg pocket holes.

The most difficult component was engineering the barn door slides. I used:
1/8” aluminum flat bar for the door mounts
1/4” aluminum flat bar for the fixed bar
Polyurethane spacers from Lowe’s
Lind Kitchen Mute Pulley block from Amazon.com 4 each

The pulley blocks were disassembled and only the wheels and axles were used. Thin poly washers from Lowe’s were used as shims to take up play after being mounted to the flat bar.

I absolutely loved Michaela's Kitchen Island (http://ana-white.com/2010/03/plans-michaelas-kitchen-island.html), so I modified it to suit my needs of having a table to place my cacti in the winter months. I modified the size, removed one of the shelves, and left the drawers out so that I could put my Texas stars.

Fancy X Desk goes Entryway table. Built this with instructions for the Fancy X Desk. Shortened the desk down to 4 feet. Love the way it came out - mixed my own stain color for the top and used homemade wood filler made of the planed wood chips and gorilla glue. The stain on the top is so amazing you cannot even tell where the wood was joined. Loved the plans Ana! Will be sharing later on my blog www.HelloILiveHere.com

My parents needed a table for their newly expanded dining room at our cabin. I love the look of butcher-block, and wondered how I could design a table with the thick chunky look. I decided on using 4x4's for the majority of the build. This project took me a while to complete because in the middle of it, I twisted my ankle while lifting the table! Ha, building can cause some damage. Although, the ankle did slow me down, I was still able to deliver the table and benches to the cabin in time to give it to them for their anniversary present.

X frame farmhouse tilt trashcan. 

I built the storage step using my own measurements as it's designed for adults. It is used for reaching the very highest shelves in my floor-to-ceiling wardrobe system.
It was my first project using my jigsaw and am very happy with how it turned out.
I added some rubber non-slip mats stuck down so no one goes flying when stretching for clothes!
Have a look at my blog for more pictures and information.

I was able to construct this art desk out of scrap wood I had after breaking down an old futon and dresser from which I decided to add a nice piece of molding to create the more "elegant" essence that my daughter likes. I had been given some purple chalkboard paint and bought some black chalkboard spray for the front and freehand wrote her name. I also decided to add a pencil holder and "gutter" (a place for them to rest while in between colors - like on a school desk). She absolutely loves it and I find her creating more art since I gave it to her, plus she is able to do her homework here too. Thank You Ana for the awesome Ideas and plans you offer us! It saves me a ton of money and enables my household to have things when we'd otherwise have to do without. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I love this table! Thank you Ana for the plans! Everyone who sees it says it came out incredible. I used my birthday money to buy the Kreg Jig for this piece and I'm glad I did! I'm excited to continue building. This was my first real build and it was fun! I painted it with a mixture of Barcelona and Graphite Chalk paint to make the brown and then I used that brown mixture to paint it as well as Graphite so it has two tones of colors. Chalk paint from Annie Sloan. I then clear waxed for protection and finished with dark wax.

Had to change it up a little..

So about a month ago I had planned for people to be over for a casual evening of story telling, snacking, casual beer drinking and the exchanging of a variety of craft beers. All in all, a good time, no biggie.

Fast forward a little bit after making this commitment, the roommate tells me he and his girlfriend are getting their own place and therefore moving out. Great! Now I don't have to put on pants when I wake up to pee at night.

Fast forward to the first of this month, he's moved out. Gone with him is much of the furniture and things in the house. Not really a big deal except now it looks like I live with nothing but a bed, a couch and some milk crates. Not the image I want conveyed to a group of people who are going to see where I live for the first time.

Of course maybe a more normal person would go buy some things to fill the gaps, unfortunately for a 24 year old making not nearly enough over minimum wage, that isn't an option. Besides, even if I could afford it, furniture markup makes me ill.

So I had two weeks to make enough furniture to make my house appear respectable with a limited budget. To my favorite medium it was, pallet wood.

Everything featured here is made with reclaimed pallet wood, leftover paint and leftover screws/nails/sandpaper.

Except for the beer bottle shelves which were simply painted the paint was all worn down to look aged by using worn out sanding pads on a random orbital sander(seriously, leftover sanding pads). They were all left that way then with the exception of the shelves for the glassware which were rubbed down with ebony stain.

I'm listing my time for all these at just 3-6 hours even though it took two weeks because the time was spread out between other projects at the same time and most nights I only had a couple hours to work on them after work. Plus the obvious time for paint to dry.

I helped a buddy redo his entry way into his house by putting up pine boards, brick for stairs, and oak steps.

Keep on building on! This is the second peice I've built for our dining room - built a bar first. I opted to only make 2 pedestals instead of 3 that was on the plans. Dimensions are a tad smaller to fit our room nicely, measuring 90in x 40in. My wife and I absolutely love this table! I used Red Oak for the top and Doug fir for the base. Hardest part was lugging around that dense oak and looking for chairs! The stretcher was also a bit of a task as well. Had to go out a buy a rubber mallet to bang it in enough so that the slack on both ends were even. We particularly like this piece because it will be used often and many memories will be created around this table! Thanks again for the inspiration!