Community Brag Posts

I love the C&B Big Sur dining tables and was excited to come across these plans. I tackled making a copy of the Big Sur dining table using Ana's plans as a starting point with some modifications and custom dimensions (4' x 4' x 31"). This was my first major woodworking project and I wanted it to be as nice and strong as possible so I tackled joining the rails of the frame to the legs with mortise and tenon joints. The main reason I did this was because I used 1 1/4 and 1 3/4 red oak for the entire table and I just wasn't convinced screws could handle the weight of the top on the frame. I also wanted to learn how to make those joints. I used my plunge router to cut both the mortises and the tenons and it worked out reasonably well. Now that I have a table saw I will be using that with a dado blade for tenons in the future. I sanded to 320 grit and finished with four coats of General Finishes Gel Stain in Java followed by four coats of Minwax spray on polyurethane. The last step was to apply paste wax using 0000 steel wool and then buff with a clean rag. I love the way this came out and am now planning on making a bar cabinet with wine bottle holders in the same style. The total cost of the table was on the higher end than I'm used to because the wood was pricey but it was still so much less than the C&B Big Sur price tag. I'm lucky that I have a hardwood lumber supplier just a few minutes down the road that does custom milling of 100's of different species.

I finally have order in my garage! I built a mobile lumber rack using plans from the Rogue Engineer. My husband and I knocked out this project one Sunday afternoon. It can store a huge load of lumber and best of all, it’s portable. We are very, very pleased with the final project! Storing all our lumber on the rack has freed up a great deal of space in our garage.

Thanks for the free plans made some modifications.  Sharing for all....Have the assembly line going as gifts to my Oklahoma University friends...Personally I am Oklahoma State University....but was a Wine-A -Dirondack among friends....

This is the cabin single bed. The bookcase/drawers and desk are almost done and will be posted soon. This was a great project, very easy and my son is so excited! Thanks again Ana :) We used a green milk paint with Federal Blue milk paint over it, distressed it and then used a brown glaze and polyacrylic.

Wanted to utilize my daughters small bedroom, and give her a custom bed without a huge price tag.

Supply list...required an additional 2x4
Used a bunkie board bought at local furniture store ($50) instead of slats for mattress.
Cleats that were 2x2 weren't wide enough to keep bunkie board in- it kept falling out. (standard is 38 " wide) so I replaced those with 2x3s. Decking on platform is very sturdy- maybe a bit overkill for a 40 lb kid.

Overall a quick project. My mom and I built it- Lowes did all cuts for us (no charge!) except the angled stairs- which mom did.

Turned out great- were were brand new to this- so struggled a bit as instructions are somewhat vague (where to drill holes- step by step process out of order) Drill all your pocket holes in all pieces prior to assembly. I would have sanded and stained prior to assembly too- doing in a tiny bedroom was tricky. Staining and sanding took the most time.

Overall alot of fun- ready to do next project. Thank-you for the inspiration!

I am so happy with my work.. It has turned out perfect. I love them.

We bought a vacation home that has such a small kitchen. I knew we needed more storage. So I checked out Ana's plans and made this bad boy based on the Simplest Armoire plans.

The home is in the mountain/lakes area of northern New Hampshire, so I wanted to bring the outside colors in. I used Valspar Cabin Red paint and the Valspar Antiquing glaze over the top after distressing it a bit.

My husband and my boys built it, painted it, and stained it in a weekend. Great father and sons project. I used the same black paint and stain that Shanty-2-chic used. I LOVE it.. now on to the benches.

So many great plans on this website! I am constantly looking to Ana's website for inspiration for my next project around the house. The inspiration for this piece was that we needed something to fit an odd space in our home. Looking through the site we found the perfect fit. We based our design off Ana's planked wood sideboard table with a few minor changes. First since we wanted to do a two-tone finish, so I added an additional piece to the top of the face frame to keep the look symmetrical. I also used two 2x10's for the table top instead of what the plan called for and beadboard for the inset panel in the doors and sides. I decided to use tongue and groove construction for the sides of the table and for the doors. A technique for building inset doors that has worked for me is to build the doors to the exact size of your door opening and use the table saw to trim the tops and sides to fit as needed. This way I am to achieve a very uniform fit that can be difficult to obtain otherwise (unless you are a pro, which I am not!) I finished the inside of the sideboard table with satin polyurethane, the exterior base and doors with sprayed high gloss paint. The top was finished with min-wax ebony and 3 coats semi gloss polyurethane. Everyone in the family was very happy with how this turned out.

My hunny made this, love how it turned out! I couldn’t find one that I liked so he made this for me.

This was my first try at making a picture frame. I've used this same principle to make single framed picture frames numerous times since then. Thanks Ana! Such an easy build!

Second Project! Although the storage capacity of the Modular Bar is awesome, we needed a good workspace for pouring the drinks :)
I modified the "Simple Kitchen Island" plan a little:
1) Instead of using a 2'x4' project panel for the tabletop, I used the jig to put together two 1x12s, this made it a little bit narrower, but since I was staining I prefered the look of the edges of solid oak.
2) I didn't need the storage of the bottom shelf (and the dogs would get in anything I put there), however I knew people may put their feet on the bottom rails so I beefed them up to 1x4s instead of 1x2s and added a middle beam to stabilize them some.
3) I increased the total height some so we can pull the island up to our current 36" high dining room table to accomodated two extra people.

Country Table - dark walnut stain and satin polyurethane coat.

I saw your design for the queen and made the king for my wife. As you can see the mattress we have is not long enough because they are two small twins next to each other. We need a new mattress but it’s not in the budget yet. 

I also made some floating night stands of my own design to match so the drawers would still be able to open on the sides. 

This was the easiest project EVER! And I love the look! The wall space I have for it wasn't long enough to accommodate the width of the whole pallet, so I cut it right after the center brace. Used another piece of the pallet for the bottom. Did a little sanding around the edges so it wasn't rough. That's it! Just wanted a shelf for a few bottles of wine and a cookbook. Voila!

This is my first hand made project using reclaimed wood. I always liked the look of the wood and black gas pipe together.
Hope you enjoy it