This was the first thing I have ever built, and I loved making the playhouse! I took pictures of every step I did! It was very rewarding to see the look on my girls faces with it was done!! They absolutely love it!!! Thank you for posting the plans.
Just moved to Germany and needed an entertainment center. Looked at furniture stores and everything was either extremely expensive or IKEA particle board junk.
My husband and I found out about Hornbach, basically Home Depot or Lowes of Germany.
Found all the materials and some tools with the help of the English speaking staff.
Used some pretty cool looking butcher block type wood they had that was reasonably priced. Didn't recognize any of the stain brands so picked a color and crossed our fingers.
Overall one of my easiest projects and a fun experience here in Europe.
My kitchen is huge but has little counter space since I pulled out two oversized peninsula(6'x3') island things in my kitchen that had no storage. I also found out there was an outlet behind each one. The only outlet on the wall I am showing was covered. I was relieved to find it. I decided to build the Farmhouse Kitchen Island & Bar Plans and put a few shelves over it for coffee and tea. I made one drawer and one flip down drawer face. I put a large bowl in the cabinet below the drawer to catch coffee grounds. I alos made the cabinet 4 feet instead of 6 due to the space. I also trimmed a 1x3 down to cover the bottom foot plate so stuff doens't collect under it. I also added wheels so I can move it out if we have a lot of company for extra seating. The drawer faces are recycled barn wood from my sisters property. They are clearing out what was a 100+ year old barn that had fallen over. The shelves are from the same wood (I used bronze spray paint to paint the brakets on the shelves). I sanded it down just enough to get the splinters off. I used 4x4's for the bar side and bought a pre-made butcher block from Menards for the top. I stained it with carrignton stain from rustoleum except the barn wood I just clear coated. Oh, I added 12 in drawer slides to the drawer. The mail sorter plan is from http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2016/02/rustic-chalkboard-mail-organizer.h… I made it bigger to fit the space. The organizer took a day the shelves to a couple hours and the Island took a week off and on. The secretary is an antique passed down to me along with the chair. I am planning on making the full size Island later on, with a few adaptations.
Love, love, love your projects and plans! I have made 3 of the Modern Outdoor Chairs so far, as well as the Modern Outdoor Loveseat and they are amazing. I purchased both the seat and back cushions for my chairs before realizing that the back cushion had nothing to lean against, so I modified the design and gave the chairs alittle more personality. Keep those plans coming, I can't wait to try more.
My husband is an aeronautical engineer and reads plans all day as a part of his job–even he thought your plans were fantastic. Great job! He did the building and I did the painting of the shelves. I did request that he add a back onto the shelves, so he left the trim off the backs of the shelves and fit in a piece of 3/4 MDF. It worked beautifully! We spent $75 on these two shelves–it would have been more like $50, except the additional MDF (for the shelf backs) added to the cost. Our only suggestion after doing this project is to go to a lumber yard for the pine. Ours is from one of the big box stores and, even though my husband went through a lot of wood, all of the choices were pretty bad. We went ahead and used this subpar wood, but I think our end result would be even better with better quality wood.
Thank you SO much for designing these plans for us. We’ve been planning on bookcases for quite awhile, but my husband hadn’t had time to come up with plans. When I found these plans on your site, I informed him that this was our weekend project! Soon he’ll be building a bed and trundle for our little boy–using your plans, of course!
Santa decided to get come to Ana this year for some help with a train table instead of getting one from (insert big box toy store here). It ended up being pretty easy and a lot of fun, and our boys loved it! Santa decided he needed as much room on top as possible to put train and didn't need it to hide away so we skipped the cutting the top piece of plywood in half and left out the middle peice. We then added a track set and a few extras and painted the top. Thanks for the plans Ana! -(Santa)
I changed the height of the Connor Side Table to that of a bathroom vanity and added an apron to hide the underside of the sink. I carefully built the vanity to be level, then discovered that the underside of the sink surround is wavy (apparently they are made by being poured into an upside down mold, hence the wavy surface). I added trim at the top of the vanity to hide the shims stabilizing the sink top. Thx to Rogue Engineer for the well-written plans, and thx to Ana White for your Kreg pocket hole jig video. It made me feel confident I could pull this off!
I've very happy with the results of my "Fancy X Farmhouse Table" project. I modified the dimensions to fit our space; this meant making the table thinner and re-sizing the "X's" proportionally. Also, for trimming the edges of the "X's", I came up with a combination of base board pieces at the end of the 2x4's. I hadn't used wood stain in over 20 years because I had gotten such blotchy results. This project reintroduced me to stain and I'm glad it did. Turns out, the secret is proper sanding AND the use of a "pre-stain" product that sets up the wood for good(even) absorption. Polyurethane was used as a sealant, while the base frame got white semi-gloss. Cheers, good luck on all your projects!
-Robert
Bellingham, WA
Cedar planter boxes made largely from fence pickets.
Tue, 10/05/2021 - 11:09
Wonderful way to dress up the yard, those look amazing, thank you for sharing!
I wanted to build a cleaning caddy. Normally when I go to clean – I want to do it all at once. We have a bigger house – so I’ll be upstairs in the kids room – and realize I left the Windex downstairs – get upstairs – I left the paper towels downstairs….SERIOUSLY. So – hopefully this will stop that from happening!!!
So – here we have my Cleaning Caddy!! It was actually pretty easy to build. I had everything on hand. I had the dowels from another project – so that is how I based everything.
I took two left over pieces of MDF and made a design, cut it out with a Jig Saw. I wanted to make sure it was tall enough for the cleaning bottles.
Then I screwed the dowel to each side of the MDF sides.
I then measure the length I needed for the sides – I used scrap base molding we had laying around – I don’t even know where it came from!
Then came the bottom – I measured out the sides – and then I wanted it long enough to hold a roll of paper towels.
Glued and nailed everything in with the nailer (always use glue too – this thing is kind of heavy with all the cleaning supplies)
I screwed the dowel in from the bottom for the paper towels.
I painted it many times with white trim paint – used many different types of wood so I wanted it to look uniform.
Then for the finishing touches – I went to my abundant scrapbook paper collection – Mod Podged it all up. Love that stuff!!! On the front – I cut out “Cleaning Caddy” with my Cricut. And on the sides I trimmed it out with cording I had on hand, just used hot glue and did about a 6 inch section at a time. I hot glued buttons where my screws were on the outside tops. My counter sink bit was the wrong size, so they stuck out a little. Now it’s a nice decorative element.
We needed extra garden space this year and I thought adding one of these planters would be a great addition. So far it has. It allows me to easily weed, which is my most despised gardening job. Added bonus that the dog can't dig it up, and bunnies can't nibble on my plants. It also makes a great art canvas for my son's chalk drawings.
Wed, 04/20/2016 - 12:55
Hi I live in north Dakota we get about 10 ft of snow every January, I am planning on making the counter height garden boxes, but how do I keep the snow in winter from crushing them. Patty
Wed, 04/20/2016 - 12:55
Hi I live in north Dakota we get about 10 ft of snow every January, I am planning on making the counter height garden boxes, but how do I keep the snow in winter from crushing them. Patty
My friends are all having kids these days, and I had a lot of scrap 1x6 kicking around.
After applying a stain on the boards, I printed the letters and numbers as large as I wanted them. I used ''French Script MT'', size of font 185 and I cut them out to make a template.
I happened to have some chalk board paint, which gives it a nice mat color.
I recommend to leave enough space for baseboards, in my case Ive started numbering the charts at 8'' high. A picture hook is set in the back to hang it on the wall, you could also simply screw it on the wall.
Its quick to make and doesnt require a lot of cutting!
Wed, 04/01/2015 - 22:04
very nice :) I think growth charts like these are a wonderful gift!
This was an easy project. It turned out great. I made my own hardware from using the video on Shanty 2 Chic website. That's for posting the plans.
Loved your plans for building a bed frame- easy to follow.
This was my very first project I tackled from Ana's site. I wanted to see if I could do it, so started with something easy. I think it turned out great and looks great in our flower bed in front of our house.
I built these side tables with a friend. We under estimated the time it would take by a long shot! We estimated that with the both of us it took 15+ hours to complete. We spent $120 on all the wood, paint and hardware for both. It was a lot of work and the most time consuming part was the finish (sanding, painting, sanding, painting, clear coat, sanding, clear coat, sanding, clear coat). In the end, it was worth it! They turned out so cute!
Tue, 05/14/2013 - 08:31
The Ebony finish really sets these tables off. Great job! This plan will go on my to do list≥
Queen sized storage bed in width for a full sized mattress. I wanted this against the wall, so i put both sets of drawers on one side and hinged the footboard for access underneath.
Fri, 04/03/2015 - 11:17
This looks fantastic, love the hinged foot board, thanks for sharing!
Wed, 07/13/2016 - 08:13
Do you have plans for this design upgrade?
Thu, 04/08/2021 - 08:26
I just finished building the same bed and designed it with a second set of drawers above... I WISH I HAD SEEN THIS FIRST!! What an ingenious design with the step built in. I made a step stool for my daughter to get into the bed, but this was really a fantastic idea. Well done!
We needed a large dining room table for our space and couldn't find one we liked that didn't cost a fortune. We adjusted the plans to make the table 9 feet long. Also, around the edge of the table we added a 1.5 inch frame.
We were in the need of a set of tables for our living room
Thanks to Ana, I was able to make two coffee tables, a center table and a console table as well
This is a variation of the cabin collection nightstand, I have a wall that needed a catch all, so we throw keys on top of it and junk in the drawers!
X- console
Sat, 05/18/2013 - 05:23
My first Ana White build. After this one,mi was hooked. I built the matching coffee and end tables too! I'll post those pics soon.
