Community Brag Posts

Needed a table for our deck, but didn't want to spend the $400-500 on sets at the store. Followed the plan for the most part and it was fairly easy to build. The only thing I did differently was in building the ends was put the "X" supports in after making the "I" shape in case I was off with my cuts.

Spent an hour cutting all the pieces on a Friday night and about 3 hours assembling Saturday morning. Table was ready to eat lunch on!

-This is a gorgeous table and I am very happy with how it turned out. I could not possibly pay for the turned legs at $40 each! Even if I did, it would be worth it, as this is a piece of furniture that will last several lifetimes.

-I used very rough 2x6s for the project, so I had to do a lot of work to get them square and smooth

-I did not purchase the legs, I purchased a 8 ft piece of the best cedar Home Depot had, which actual dimensions are only 3.5x3.5, so the legs are not quite as chunky as I would have liked.

-I turned the 18" legs on a brand new mini-lathe I purchased from Harbor Freight, $150 after coupon. For the price of the legs, I chose to buy the machine and make them myself!

-I also used 1x4s for the lower shelf rather than a sheet of plywood, I felt the smooth bottom did not match the planked top. (The bottom is not done yet)

-The assembly was very straight forward and easy

-This is the first project I made it a point to stain completely PRIOR to assembly! It turned out so much better, I also glued and screwed all joints with my Kreg Jig.

It's quite a massive heavy table that will last generations, my children dance, climb, sit etc all over it and its been in use about a month now. Two coats of the poly have held up very nicely so far, and the matte finish does NOT show dirt or fingerprints, where a glossy finish would!

Was a quick and simple project, i mainly worked off the pictures rather then the instructions. The best part was that the project required me to go out and buy a Kreg Jig to get the nice pocket hole finish, which i now wish I had done years ago.

Teepee for the grandkids.

I needed a sturdy place to hang clothes in my laundry room as I took them out of the dryer. I saw the dress up center and it was perfect (just needed to be altered to fit adult clothes)

My first project, not directly from Ana White but combination of Ana White and benches I've seen on other sites.

I built this for my granddaughter. I made a couple of design changes because I worked with wood that I already had in my shop. It's select pine with acrylic paint sealed with UV-resistent acrylic laquer. Great plan! Thanks!

Hi! I love Ana White's plans! I used the chunky leg desk plan and added drawers and a flip-up vanity top! :) https://www.instagram.com/bow_and_timber/

In search of a sofa table for the sectional we found this site and plans and upgraded using wood instead of MDF and using back splash tile on the top to give a custom feel.

This was the easiest and fastest project ever! We built it out of 2x12's instead of 1x12's but i wish we had done it with 2x16's because baskets are a little hard to find in these dimensions and I would like it a little deeper. But I still love it!

When we bought the wood, we had Home Depot just make all the cuts for us. so when we got home, we just had to assemble it. It went together in about an hour {we did have to make a few adjustments because we used 2x's instead of 1x's but nothing too hard}. We decided to add some screws to the 1x4 back and side rails instead of just nails so that they would be more sturdy. We have 3 kiddos and know that they will be pulled on, walked on, ran into a lot.

The finishing took me about a day to do with lots of breaks in-between.

We stained the seat with Minwax Dark Walnut and then taped it off so that I could pain the rest white. After 3 coats of white paint, I sanded the edges and rubbed the same stain all over it. It made the edges dark and make the paint an off white. Then we put two coats of clear coat on top.

We used some scrap beadboard that we had instead of plywood. I love the finished look!!!

It cost us about $50 or less for the wood. I don't know exactly because we had a few other supplies to get there too. But it was cheap!

I am a beginner diy'er and this was one of my first projects.  Also it was my first time using the Kreg jig and I loved it!  My shelving system was around 8 feet tall, 12 feet wide and 30 inches deep.  I added some extra cleats to support my deeper shelves (30") and also used thicker (5/8") plywood.  This was a fun and easy project to do!  Thanks so much!

Such a darling bed and plans. I'm so glad I found it! I built it with a friend for her little boy, so he could use it as a couch later on, and it is just darling with the black pleather and nailhead trim she picked out.

I marked it as an intermediate project more for the upholstery part of it. I'd call it a beginner building project, though. :)

Thanks, Ana!!

Pretty much followed the plan, except I raised the height of the platform. I intended to make the legs longer, but I forgot and cut them to the length on the plan. It looks like the sides of the basket aren't supported as well, but the basket stays in just fine.

I also added little wings on the end to support the ends of the basket. I wanted to be able to remove the basket from the cradle without screwing it in, but also wanted the basket to be secure so I added the little wings. It was easy.

Overall a pretty easy project, except the rockers are time consuming. They're not hard to make, you just need to take your time.

This is the first project my husband and I tackled since we were in middle school, (when you built things like clocks and puzzles). We had virtually no tools, a limited workspace, and a compact car to transport lumber in. Believe me when I say - if we can do this, anyone can!!!! 

We bought a circular saw and sander, and had a power drill on hand. We were working on a very tight budget, so we bought a Kreg Jig mini instead of a full  sized jig. I also borrowed a few hand clamps from our parents. I thought the Kreg Jig mini would be a MASSIVE pain, but it actually worked really well (as long as you have hand clamps).

We used regular SPF lumber for the planks and aprons and cedar posts for the legs, all purchased at HD. Best advice - take your time looking for boards that aren't warped. Even in the end, we had a couple of imperfect boards, but it didn't inhibit our construction at all like some previous posters experienced. We did all the cuts at home EXCEPT the cedar posts (We got the people at HD to do this for us. They did it for free).

The build was straight forward. We had to do a few modifications (as our table is just over 5ft in length), but if anything I think the smaller size made things easier. We measured twice and cut once. As long as you take your time, it's easy. We even modified the plans so we can add an extension leaf should we need more room in the future.

We sanded every inch of the table. No joke - this step played a HUGE roll in making our table look and feel good. Some of the planks on the table top were a little uneven, so at the last minute we invested in a cheap hand planer - it still isn't perfect, but it definitely helped a lot.

To finish, we used Wood Conditioner. I'm glad we did. I've stained other things in the house without it, but the wood conditioner definitely gives the finish a richer, more professional look. We used Minwax dark walnut, and we topped it off with Waterbased poly (just what we already had hand). 

For our first project, we are very satisfied. It took us about 3 days (off and on). We will be making a bench for our table soon. I look forward to doing more projects in the future! Thank you :)

We wanted a shallow table behind our sofa where we could charge our phones and laptops while relaxing in the evening. I used three 1” X 6” pieces of cherry, connected with pocket holes, and put a small gusset in the corners. With a couple of power strips inserted in the top and plenty of polyurethane, that was it!

His Hands

This is a simple shelf to hold the reference books I keep on my desk at work. That's now how it started out though. It was supposed to be a laptop stand, but a small mistake turned it into this. Rather than toss it as scrap, I decided to make lemonade.

I'd love to link a plan, but all you really need to do is take a 1x10, cut legs (mine are 8 inches long), and join them to the ends with pocket hole screws.