Community Brag Posts

We made eight of these benches for Christmas gifts this year. It was a lot of fun and we learned so much along the way. We made 5 benches in the standard 30" length, 2 in 36" and 1 42" bench on request.

Suggestion for building: Make jigs so that the legs and side boards are the same size. It doesn't exactly matter if the measurements are a little off from the plan, as long as they are consistent in each bench.
We chose to paint the bottoms off-white and stain the tops for an elegant rustic look. However, we fully stained a couple of the benches as well because we thought they would look best for a few of our family members.
It was hard to tell exactly how long each bench took because we worked on all eight at once when we had free time, but one bench shouldn't take more than an afternoon if you are new.

I also added a picture of the one bench we chose to distress.

A few months ago, I made a simple workbench to store my miter saw and other power tools when I'm not using them. I love it. It was a very easy project. I opted to do a full bottom shelf and added more 2x4s instead of the standard three.

I present the "Castle Loft Bed" with minor modifications. Finished in a "Frozen" theme.

It was time to upgrade my youngest to a "big kid bed" and she was insistent on a frozen bed. After searching for various options we settled on the "Castle Loft Bed" from the Ana White catalog of plans.

We left the slide off, due to available space. Also we changed the steps to be more of a usable toy box/storage and hamper area. I also modified the internal bookcase to have a small "secret" cubby for her "valuables". We also added color changing LEDs to fit the little princess's mood.

I hope you like my rendition and keeps in spirit the DIYers quality.

I shortened this table to fit the space, it works perfectly. Thank you again Ana for your wonderful plans.

Absolutely love this site. Built 2 of these for my living room. Now building the matching sofa table to match. Couldn't be easier and I think they turned out great. Thank you for all the great plans

I followed most of the instructions, but made adjustments on the sizing of the wood because I was using rebar.

We were looking for bookshelves for our children's bedrooms, but with 3 kids the cost was going to be astronomical. So I found a bookshelf I liked, googled the name and stumbled across Ana's plans. So glad I did!

A simple bench to try my first Kreg Pocket hole Jig. I designed the bench myself, but did not create plans. I used pine wood and 3 layers of varnish for protection. My wife wanted to natural finish so I preferred varnish over paint.

Surprinsingly easy project ! And my wife is very happy that the staircase if finally tidy. Happy wife, happy life ;-)

This project is so great! At first I put one side of the hinges on backwards but it was easy to fix and now it actually folds flat. I left the stabilizer feet off because I only have about four inches beside my fridge to store the tower in but it it's still completely stable. My son was "dancing" on it yesterday and it held up perfectly! Thanks Ana, I'm so excited to use this for years!!

Whenever I see vintage metal letters in antique stores my instinct is to buy them all…that is until I look at the price! I was determined to figure out a way to make them myself for a fraction of the price. Here is what I can up with. I am excited to try other colors and fonts.

For the full process check out the post on my blog.

http://re-storedesign.com/2013/01/14/faux-vintage-metal-letters/#

This was my first build and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

With our old kitchen crumbling to pieces, I decided to build a new kitchen.  I followed several of Ana's cabinet plans to build the entire kitchen(more than I could list at the bottom).  I was able to customize the cabinet sizes in order to maximize my kitchen space.  I made the doors myself, so I didn't need to worry about standard sizing.  It took me about a year from demolition to completion.  I had to buy a few new tools, all the wood, appliances, the floor, and countertop, and still spent around $5,000.  I learned so much from this project and we all love our new kitchen!  Thank you Ana for all of your wonderful plans!     

Rustic X End Table with a dark stain.

What new Mom wouldn't want this for a baby shower gift!!! Easy build

This farmhouse table I built is 40x84 and has 9" extensions on each end for a total of 102."  I opted to go with 2x4 extensions instead of 2x2s for a durable look and feel!