Community Brag Posts

I wanted to build a small shower bench. I used the Providence Bench Plans and just made it a bit smaller with a few adjustments. This bench is 35" long and 18" tall. I did not use the cross supports on the bottom because it was so short. Also, you will see that I turned the bottom stretcher and side supports flat/horizontal. I put the screws for the seat boards through the top down just because this was the easiest way for me to do it. The plans did not show in detail how to attach the seat boards from the underside. It just said "finally, the seat boards." I guess they probably used a pocket jig. I bought a pocket jig and used it in the couple of places, but this was my first time using it. I used brown, coated decking screws in the places I did not use the pocket screws. This was my first attempt at building anything and my first time to use a pocket jig. I used a natural wood stain and Behr Weather-Proofing since it will be in a wet area.

What started as Ana's workbench console for my dining room ended up as a media console for my living room. I shortened the width by 10 inches, and then I added a shelf for our DVR and Wii console. I made a few mistakes, but I'm not talking about those. ;)

We had the Upside-Down bed from IKEA for our little guy, but my husband continued to complain on how he had to "crawl" into the bed. Okay, scrap that. No problem. I just searched Ana's plans for a nice bed I could make. And add a trundle. There you go.

I did modify the height of the headboard, as I plan on moving Jack to an upstairs bedrooms that has slanted walls. I wanted this bed to fit in any configuration, so I had to take 10" off the headboard. Also, due to the impending moving, I wanted the bed to easily be taken apart. So I attached the side rails with surface mounted keyhold brackets from Rockler Woodworking. They work great.

chest  size   60" long 22" deep  22" tall

   made with pine

  painted white with a walnut stained top

This was my first build and I learned A LOT and watched A LOT of youtube diy videos. The main take-away from this project is not to build in the freezing cold if the finished project is for inside. I finished this project in below freezing temperatures and I noticed that the wood expanded (increasing slightly the gap between the finished boards on the top) when it was brought inside.

I built this from the original farmhouse table plans with no kreg jig although I did buy and use a pocket kreg jig to make the extensions. The main modifications were using 4x4s such as were used in the Country Living magazine spread that inspired this build and also making modifications to allow the addition of 15" extensions at each end of the table's bread boards.

My first challenge was figuring out how to build with the 4x4 legs instead of the 2 2x4s screwed together. In order to accomplish this i had to use a chisel to create the corner lip that the table top frame would sit on. I added photos of this so I hope it will help someone. Chiseling these 4 corners (one on each post) only took an hour or two and was so worth it for the look of the 4x4s. Just measure carefully and work carefully with a sharp chisel. I actually removed half the wood by sawing off the corner at a 45 degree angle. Remember when cutting your boards for the table ends that a 4x4 has different dimensions than 2 2x4s screwed together. Compensate for this in your cuts.

Another challenge was hiding the screws on the table legs and table top. I was leaving the finish natural so didn't want to use wood fill. I accomplished this by getting a countersink bit and then buying wooden dowels the same diameter. For these screw holes, after finishing screwing, I put a dab of wood glue in the countersink hole, inserted the dowel as far as it would go, used a fine hand saw to cut off the dowel flush with the table and then used a hammer to make sure the dowel was in tight and flush.

I had trouble figuring out how to attach the table top frame to the table legs with the long screws from the plans so I included a picture of this step. Its really easy but I was not able to use three screws as the plan calls for. I used two instead and it has been very solid. I used the long screws as proscribed.

Finally, I wanted to build extensions (2 2x8 boards kreg jigged together) so I could increase seating up to a max. of 12 persons, so I needed to cut out 2x2 gaps on the table ends. I also included a picture of these in place. To make room for the 2 2x2s that extend under the bread boards and table top to brace the extensions, I left out one of the 2x2 cross beams at each end of the underside of the table (the boards that the table top boards screw into).

I hope this is helpful to you!

Ana White's plans are super easy and fun to do! I made these for my mom and I really enjoyed doing it. It’s an antique white water base stain.

David Marks

I made his Barn door out of the wood that was left in our garage when we moved in. Using (7) 2x6 boards and adding stain sanding and hardware, it became a super functional industrial rustic (is that a design style LOL) door! (I added a cat door to for our cat ;))

I made this coop twice as wide like Ana suggested since I have 4 chickens and wanted to make sure there was some extra wiggle room in case “chicken math” got the best of us. I made a nesting box to mount on the outside. I also used plywood for the sides like Ana did in the video. I installed a Run Chicken automatic door that opens at sunrise and closes at sunset. I added some hasps and clasps to make sure all my doors would close tightly. I put hardware cloth across the top before installing the roof panels. I stapled and buried hardware cloth around the perimeter for predator protection. I also spray painted the hardware cloth flat black so that it would be easier for us to see inside the coop. I stained the rest of the wood with Varathane Semi-Transparent stain, color “Carbon Gray.” I also added some roosts and cedar shingle siding for some extra protection during our New England winters at to match our house. Working 2-4 hours a day, off and on, with a bum shoulder and weak hands, this took me about a week! Thanks for the great plan, Ana!

My wife saw something like this on Pinterest and desperately wanted one. The one she saw was hexagonal in shape. We didn't need as many swings so we went with just a plain square shape. We used 6x6s for the legs and posts across the top and used 4x4s for the angled support pieces. We built the swings using the plan from this website. All the materials can be picked up at the blue and orange stores. However when it came to the springs for the swings, the blue store was 1/3 of the price of HD. The legs are 12' long and buried 4' under the ground and cemented in for strength. Luckily I am retired military and was able to rent an auger for 1/2 the price of HD or the blue store. You could do it by hand but it saved us hours and lots of back pain. We found our dimensions for the size we wanted and spray painted dots on the ground where the posts were going to go. We dug the holes and stuffed the 6x6s in them. Using a post level we made sure they were plum. We braced them and added the quickrete and left them to setup over night. The next day we had to make sure all the tops were level with each other. This is where having some knowledge of physics paid off. I took clear tubing and screwed it above the height that I wanted on one post and then screwed the other end to another post. Fill it with water until the water level on the first post is where I wanted it (8 feet high) and it will automatically fill it level on the other end. There is a picture of this above. Water will always level itself out. I had to do this because my yard is at a slight down hill grade. We marked it and cut the tops off to make it level. After attaching the 6x6s on the top with 8" lag bolts it was time to paint. After painting was done we built 3 swings from Ana's plans. We shortened them by 6" to give room to walk between the legs and the swings. All in all it was a great project that only took two dedicated weekends. My wife still has to paint the swings though.