Community Brag Posts

I started creating the furniture for my new craft room by making the Easy Three Cube Benches I found here.  I modified them so that my cats could lay on top and look out the windows.  The cube benches gave me the confidence to design a printer stand.  Using Ana White's technique of "build the box" and then add the rest, I designed a custom printer stand I am so very proud of!  After the printer stand, I moved on to the final piece that would complete my craft room, a modular desk with plenty of workspace to complete any craft I want.  I modified each module a little to keep with the theme design of the room.  I created three modules.  The last one being a bookcase that is a modification of the Modern Craft Table bases.  I used better quality Oak plywood for the desk top, and good pine and whiteboard plywood for the modules.

So my son needed a bunk bed and we came upon the sweet pea bed. It was too girly for him so we decided to go with a theme that would be timeless, something he wouldn't mind having when he is 18 (or older, he is 10 now). What is better than Mario! (We are a house full of gamers, my 17 year old is super jealous of this bed lol). The build was fairly easy and the plans were straight forward enough, the time consuming part was the painting (without all the painting we could have probably build this in a long weekend). We changed a few things, like not arching the top windows, adding the 4 inch 2x4 squares to the top to give the castle look and stairs are made to look like stairs from the side so we stepped out the banister instead of angling it.

I remodeled the main floor bathroom for my parents. My mom had seen a vanity she like at a home center. Then she thought about doing an open vanity. Then I showed her the one Ana did for the Momplex (48" Turned Leg Vanity). and she loved it. This is what we came up with.

It has bead board panels on the ends and the doors. V-grove planks for the bottom shelf.

The top is made from 100 year old ship lap siding from my brother house. The sink is hand hammered copper with a venetian bronze faucet.

Coped the design almost to the "T." I loved this design because I only have a small shed to work out of and this stand for my miter saw was much needed.

The major difference between the original and my design are the folding arms. I was working within a very small budget and couldn't afford the fancy folding arms so I was able to do a little creative thinking and decided to go with a removable piece of 1x3 that is wedged under the arms with a block installed on the "leaf" and the main table. I used the old pythagorean theorem to figure out how to make it a level 45 degrees. With a little playing around I have both arms completely level and the stand is perfect!! I am excited to get some other projects on the way now that I have somewhere other than the ground to work with my miter saw.

I didn't use any pocket holes, but am picking up a Kreg jig set from someone this upcoming week and am looking forward to putting that into some use on my next projects!

Chose the small firewood shed project as a "template" if you will .. built this to house our garbage cans and eventually put a gate on it to "help deter" the Florida black bears (we do multiple things to keep them at bay) but this will also just be a nicer looking way to keep the cans outside.

I modified the floor since the firewood shed had a floor that was suitable for, well, firewood but not so much for rolling garbage cans. Had to leave the one slat off the back for the depth of the can which I didn't completely account for in the beginning. Overall, still need to paint it and water seal it but happy with how it turned out.

I’ve been in need of a bed side table in my room for quite some time now. I need storage for things like my keys, wallet, the remote, as well as other little items that seem to get kicked around and lost. I figured it would also be nice to have a place to keep my alarm clock, I’m guessing it will be a lot more convenient to hit the snooze button in the morning if the clock is closer to me.

This playroom set was inspired by the plans you posted.  I was forced to make some significant modifications due to the fact that our bonus/playroom has angled ceilings.  We have a rock climbing wall, ladder, crawl tunnel with windows, trapeze bar, monkey bars, miniature baskeball goal and a slide.  My boys are 6, 3 and 19 months and they love it!  Thanks for the inspiration.

Jim and Caroline Sparrow

Our bedrooms are 9' x 9' so when our girls needed to move in together, we needed a bunk bed that would be short enough to fit under the fan, have a place for drinks, books, an alarm, and tissues, and also have a place where our youngest could have a dark sleeping space while older sister stays up later.

We're not going to be in this setup for long, so I used common board to keep the cost down as much as possible. The whole bed cost about $200, but I would suggest staying away from common board. It was really warped and couldn't be sanded smooth. We ended up going with a dark, thick paint to cover the wood imperfections. To deal with the warped wood, I made an outline of each end of the bed with painter's tape on the garage floor and used weights to hold the wood where it was suppose to be. I also modified the plans to make the bottom bunk a bit shorter and made the whole thing only 3 inches off the ground. All put together the bed is very sturdy and everything lined up well.

I used some scrap wood to make the holders for drinks and tissues and a holder for the iPod and speakers. These just rest over the railing, so we can move them around if need be. The book racks are Ikea hacks....they're just spice racks painted to match the bed. The curtains are just hung on a 1" dowel set into the same cups that closet rods are put up with. I also added some flower knobs from Target so that the girls can hang a robe when it's cooler outside.

Thanks for the plans Ana! My girls LOVE this bed!

We used the Build a Simple Bed plan and the Bunk Bed from Simple Bed. I modified the plans to build a double bunk bed. We needed a way to fit up to 6 small children in a long, narrow room. Although we haven't built the trundle beds yet, each bunk will also have a trundle bed. The kids especially love their "privacy" curtains!

I'm a better plumber than a carpenter.

My husband and I worked together to build this spice rack with the plan from ana-white.com. The instructions were very clear and easy to follow.

As you can see from the photo, we haven't hung it on the wall just yet. We have a narrow galley kitchen in an apartment, and I won't be able to get a good photo of it once it's hung.

Thank you, Ana, for inspiring us! We have picked out several more plans to build.

Sarah Hughes