Community Brag Posts
Wedding Gift
This wedding present for Dan's sister's wedding present took us a very long time to complete.
We finished all the little boxes and sides in an afternoon, but logical problems meant putting it all together took ages.
The Bride had specified she liked white weathered (rustic?) paint (can't think if there's a better name).
We finished it with two coats of grey stain, then two coats white paint that we sanded off a few hours after painting.
I think it came out great ! The edges are a little uneven and of course the shelves aren't completely level... but hey - rustic!
Valspar Furniture Paint - white satin - 2 coats, then sanded a couple hours after painting.
Queen Farmhouse Bed with Arch
It has taken longer than I care to admit to finish this project, but life tends to get in the way sometimes. But it turned out great, there were little to no hickups during the process, and of course I had a lot of fun building this bed!
Thanks Anna for the plans!
I have posted pics of the process below.
Pic 1: All the wood. Nothing smells better than a garage full of lumber! Oh, and please excuse my bulldog mooning you. She doesn't mean anything by it.
Pic 2: Headboard and Footboard finished and leaning up against the garage.
Pic 3: Just making sure everything would fit right. I used the cross-beam from the original bed frame as a guide.
Pic 4: staining in progress.
Pic 5: Finished and installed!
Used wood pre-treater to prevent blotchiness.
General Finishes Java Gel Stain - 2 coats.
General Finishes Gel Poly (Satin) 4 coats lightly sanding in between with 320 grit for the first two and 400 grit in between coat 3 and 4. For the final coat, I painted it on with a foam brush to make sure there were no marks from rubbing it on.
What a Beauty!
This was a doozy! Being only our second project ever (the farm table being our first) it took us about 3 weeks of hard work on the weekends and light work on the weekdays to complete this project. We extended the guardrails in both height (using 3ea 1x4s) and length to span the entire backside and all the way to the ladder on the front on top bunk. We wanted to be able to have a regular height mattress on each, so that if we take them apart to use as two separate beds they'd have a decent mattress on both. We also made two regular length, but extended height guardrails for the bottom to accommodate a toddler. We used the mortise bed rail fasteners from Rockler (due to the design the non-mortised kind were not an option). That took a good chunk of time. We also did 1x2 slats,13 per bed,to act as the mattress support. As with most projects, the lumber was around $200! The other was made up of sanding supplies, prep, stain, finish, safety supplies (mask, gloves) screws and so forth. I bet we spent about $40 on screws alone as we wanted to be really sure it's solid for two monkeys. It's a really beautiful piece that would cost well over $1000 if purchased mainstream.
Mallet
My first wood working mallet!
Comments
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 18:12
This is cool!
I have one of these from when my husband was in wood shop as a kid! Also a pencil holder he made in school on the drill press, I've used it on my desk for 35 years! :)
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 19:38
That's cool!
I've been thinking about getting a wooden mallet for a bit now. Currently I just use my rubber mallet, in the rare instance I need a mallet, but being so soft, gets quite a bit of wear and tear. The video is a great!
Loft Bed
Built this loft bed for my tween girl who needed/wanted a hangout area and has always dreamed of having a loft. It may look daunting but it's actually quite simple. 2x8"s built to size in the shape of the bed, screwed into the studs in the wall with lag bolts. A 4x4" holds the frame up where it is not supported by the wall. I considered a pole or chain or other suspension method from the ceiling but decided that a nicely trimmed 4x4" would look nicer and it really doesn't get in the way since the ladder is there anyways. I built the bed frame bigger than I needed for the twin mattress to accommodate free space for clutter, e.g. books, pillows, etc. Once the frame is up I added supports for the mattress, with 2x2"s spanning length and width, then plywood. 2x4"s are screwed in vertically and then topped with a flat 1x3" and spanned with a 1x2" to protect her from falling. Since she's older I didn't feel that I needed to add as much support around both open sides. It has not been an issue at all and I am fully comfortable with it. I installed small LED color changing lights in the underside of the bed. The headboard was made from standard 5" t&g boards and has a small shelf to hold "stuff." A custom in-wall shelf holds more of her "stuff." The wood color is just a dark walnut Danish oil that I love working with.
Finally, I built the base for the couch with 1x3". The couch itself is two separate futon style chairs that open up into single beds, perfect for sleepovers! They are meant to just lay on the floor but I wanted to make it look more like a couch. We bought those from Walmart. I recommend! Hope you like. Let me know if you have any questions. I don't have formal plans but can try an answer all questions best I can! Cheers!
Elephant rocking hotse
My great niece was turning 1 and I wanted to make something original for her. I wanted to make sure she could use it and keep it to show her kids, hopefully. It took a few weeks of working and waiting for finishes to dry and working out the finer details to make it solid and sturdy.
Comments
tower
Teeny bathroom storage tower. Modified size to 12"w x 26"h x 10"d.
child Adirondack
Hello, I was looking for a unique gift for a baptism baby.I started this chair with great enthusiasm. Gradually after my job, I made one mois.Du cutting the pallet until making coussins.J 'I used paint 0% solvent. I am very happy for the first time. I will now make a model adult.Conseil: Paint before because after the assembly is much more diffcile.Faire just after retouching at the screws. Start you! Thank you Ana. PS: Excus me for my English , Im french
double chair bench with table
this was a fun build had to tweak the plans a little but turned out great!
First rustic build
My wife loves the farmhouse style, so this was my first build based on the X console plans for sofa tables. Its very "rustic" to say the least, but is very functional and was a great project to get started.
Modern Adirondack Chairs!
My mom and I made these together as our first Ana White project! So much fun making both these chairs and memories! Next up is the three pedestal farm table and bench!
Comments
Little Helper Tower
Built this helper tower for my munchkin so she has a safer place to stand when she wants to help us in the kitchen. Put a mosaic on the front and painted it to match the mosaic and the red color on some of the walls in our kitchen (hard to see in the photo). I am thinking of velcroing some ribbon to the sides to cover the screws and hinges. If I use velcro, then I can take it off easily to tighten the screws in the hinges if needed.
Step Stool
This cute step stool is my first build from Ana's book.
It is made of macrocarpa, and finished with "teak" water-based stain by Resene, danish oil, and clear furniture wax.
4x4 Truss Table and Benches - Modified
I took the plans and modified them a bit to build what we were looking for. - I used 2x8s for the top of the table so that the middle board could have two removable sections that could be used for ice buckets for drinks. I made those out of plastic planter boxes. I also used 4 2x4s across the top for support.
The last major change is that i used corner brackets and bolts or screws to attach all the pieces. I liked the industrial look it gave the table and benches.
Everything was sanded down and finished with a drift gray stain and seal.
The building part was easy, but sanding and staining prior to putting it all together is what took most of the time. It was probably an hour of cutting, an hour of building and the rest was sanding or staining.
Farmhouse bed
Just love your site so many great ideas
Comments
Vanity, Console Table, 2 End Tables
The Vanity was my first attempt ever at building any type of furniture. Then the console table w/ matching end tables. It was not hard at all I’m not even a carpenter. Just a guy who enjoys working with wood. I Just follow Ana White’s plans. This will not be my last builds bc my wife keeps finding things she wants me to build. Happy wife, Happy life.
Comments
Thu, 12/16/2021 - 13:39
Amazing first projects!
Thank you so much for sharing, those are all lovely!
Workbench
I have two little girls and two nieces...so I do not get to build boy stuff very often.
This was the second workbench I built as a birthday gift. I painted the first one white and did not round off the edges. There was some confusion as to what it was supposed to be. So, I painted the second one black and found a cardboard circular saw blade at Hobby Lobby that I painted metalic silver.
Texas size wooden cooler
I have used one of your cooler plans to create this one of a kind piece. Love your website - Thank you !
Comments
Wed, 06/19/2013 - 16:15
It was fun to do this project
It was fun to do this project on the Father's Day with my Husband! It was a gift for him!
Mon, 06/01/2015 - 12:20
God Bless Texas
Been thinking about making one of these. As a Texan this one definitely appeals to me !
Great job, it looks really nice.
Rustic X Coffee Table Sans X!
This was my very first build, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I decided not to add the X pieces because I didn't want the table to look too rustic. I did add clavos for an extra touch and I love it!
Comments
Thu, 05/28/2015 - 10:46
Great job! I wish my first
Great job! I wish my first build came out as nice as this!