Community Brag Posts

My very first piece of furniture.  Same dimensions as Ana's but I used pocket holes instead of nails and glue (excepts for the plywood backing panel).

My son was about to turn 3 and I really wanted to redesign his bedroom as a birthday surprise. We went with a Toy Story themed room, he just loves Toy Story.
I started off by painting the walls blue with yellow stars like Andy's room in the movie. I added some custom painted art work and then it was off to find a cool playhouse bed. My husband and I were shopping around and we could never really find what we were looking for in the store. So we decided to build one ourselves using plans from this website.
I used the playhouse loft bed and the playhouse loft bed stair plans, for the bed and the stairs. I used the castle loft bed plan as inspiration for the slide. The project took us about 5 weeks from start to finish. We both have full time jobs and we did most of the work on the weekends. I looked at each plan very carefully and made notes. I had to modify the stair plans slightly to fit the space where we wanted to put the bed. The stairs look narrow, but they work just fine. My husband and I can both use them to get up in the bed. The stairs feature hinged stair tread with built in storage. We built them like that at first, but then later decided to make them stationary stair treads, with plywood. I didn't like the way the hinges looked and the top stair was so deep that I was worried my son would fall in there and get stuck. The storage idea was neat, but his safety was more important to me. The bed turned out really nice and VERY sturdy. Both my husband and I are able to get up there with my son (not at the same time).
Another modification that I made was instead of slats to hold on the mattress, I used a piece of plywood. I wanted the roof in the playhouse to look finished, and I didn't want to see his bedding hanging down from the slats. I painted the top of the plywood white, where the mattress goes to blend in with the slats, and the other side was painted blue to match the walls inside the playhouse.
I did modify the playhouse front facade to have 2 windows and one door. I like the symmetrical look. The total project cost about $400. I used birch plywood and select pine boards, and about 6 quarts of paint. I noticed AFTER we had finished the bed using the birch plywood, that Home Depot had cabinet grade plywood on a random end cap, that was just as nice for $12 less a sheet. If I could do it all over again, I would definitely use that!. I wanted the paint to have a nice smooth finish, without having to do a lot of sanding or patching.
We had Home Depot cut the plywood to the dimensions we needed. I had my husband cut the rest of the wood dimensions listed in the plans, and then I painted all of them before we put the pieces together. I used a small roller and self priming paint. The paint finish looks great. After assembling the bed I can not imagine what I would have gone through trying to paint it after the fact.

The slide was a bit tricky, I looked at the plan for the castle loft bed and attempted to use those dimensions, and for the most part they worked. But when we went to assemble the slide, we did end up recutting some of the wood to different dimensions. I used a piece of the melamine coated closet shelf material for the slide.
It is already finished in white and its nice and slick, like a slide should be! I hate MDF, but for this it seemed the best fit. We cut the top edge at an angle to meet up with the slide platform. PLEASE BE CAREFUL with this material. After it was angle cut the edge was razor sharp and I sliced my fingers up. Once it was installed it butted up perfectly to the slide platform, and the edge was hidden and not a danger. But use caution during the install.

Clamps are your friend! We used Kreg clamps for everything. They kept the wood in place while we were screwing the parts together. The coolest thing that my husband came up with was clamping two identical pieces for plywood together, and drawing the template for the slide support walls. Then he used his circular saw to cut them out. We ended up with two mirror image pieces. They looked awesome. I left them clamped together when I sanded the edges as well.
We really didn't have any building experience other, than building tables and chairs for children, We got the deluxe Kreg jig kit and a miter saw on Craigslist for $50 each and they were both practically brand new. This was the first time we had ever used a Kreg jig and we are both addicted. That thing is the bomb.

We locked my son out of his room for a week while we assembled everything. We had the big reveal at his birthday party and all of the guests were excited to see it after seeing my facebook teaser posts of our progress. There were 8 kids up there at one time and the bed did not budge. They all enjoyed the slide. I did the planning and paint and my husband did an awesome job making all of the cuts and sanding everything. We are both very proud of the final product. My son love his new big boy bed.
DISCLAIMER: This bed is not recommended for a child under 6 years old. My son is mature for his age and we monitor him carefully.

First big build with my boyfriend. We wanted to build this bed for his daughter's 14th birthday, so she would have something hand made from us to keep for a long time. This bed is solid and turned out amazing. The pictures don't do it justice as you cannot see the paneling on the head and foot boards. We used the kreg jig on the side panels attaching the head and foot board in order to make it easy to take apart and move when she goes away to college.

I've needed a console table for under the stairs but everything I've looked at has always been too long. l took the plans for the Rustic X Console table and modified them to fit the space perfectly. I love the look that I was able to get by adding the 1x2 Xs to the top.

This is my version of the washer/ dryer pedestal. I changed a couple of things and made it smaller to fit in my closet but I am very pleased with the outcome. This is my very FIRST project to do in my home and although it brought tears a couple of times, it is very sturdy and extremely useful. It definitely makes a difference and my husband hasn't stopped doing laundry since we put it in so I am SUPER happy!
A few things about the project, it took me much longer because I am a beginner but it was definitely worth taking my time. It is not completely perfect but it goes in a closet and it for laundry so the main thing was sturdiness for me. I spent quite a bit of time painting it and researching and trying different techniques. I believe she used MDF cover for the final touch so hers looks more flawless. I need to go back and fill in a couple of scratches from where we knicked it with the dryer but it serves the purpose.

This was my first attempt at a bigger project. As with most, the finish took the most time. I modified the size of the table because I made it for my sister. It was also the first time I used a belt sander, and I loved it! It made the top nice and even. I did have a huge debacle when trying to fill the gaps of the table with clear silicone...that is definitely something that requires practice! I ended up removing all of the silicone and just allowing the top coat to sink in. Luckily, it just peels right out, although it did leave some clumps that took a little extra care to remove. But overall, I loved how it turned out, and my sister loves it too. I made the bench too.

We bought this house about a year ago and we finally got around to removing this pointless niche!  The center divider and bottom were removed.  The cabinet and hutch were assembled seperately.  

This is still a work of progress.  I am looking for a nice decorative molding face for the top.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!  We will most likely paint it white to match the fireplace mantle.

I built the queen sized version of this bed and love how it turned out! I decided to use two 6" bolts on each post to connect the side rails. The reasoning behind this is so that it would be sturdier and easier to disassemble/reassemble.

I also made the headboard larger than the plan. We may add finishing touches to it to make it more polished.

Daniel

This was the first bed I built from Ana's plans... Actually it was the first thing i have built since 7th grade shop class in 97' (ew) .. It was fairly easy, but I still had my up and downs! I actually held back tears a few times and almost gave up... BUT I didn't, or you wouldn't be reading this ;) No, I pulled up my big girl pants and I finished this bad boy up, and am now laying on it while writing my brag post, holla!! Anyway, after doing it once, I think it would be super easy to build another, if I decided to. It was all worth it though, this bed is absolutely stunning and everything I dreamed it would be. In short, if you're thinking about building this, do it! It took me almost a year to work up the courage, and that's just dumb :)

Building:
I pretty much followed the directions to a 'T', but I did use 3 an 4.5 inch LAG SCREWS and did not have a nailer so I used an old school hammer. Advice: if your lumber yard, or hardware store will cut your wood for you- LET THEM! Even though I did it myself an it was easy, it would have saved me soo much time if I let them do it right there at the store (sigh). If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll help as much as possible!

P.S. this thing is a mammoth, so be prepared for that.

Benchmark Table, built out of pine and stained with dark walnut and a flat finish!

Thanks for the plans! My wife loves the table that I built for her using them. Only change I made was that I used my Kreg Jig to screw all the table top boards together. I'll be building the bench next.

This is my first woodworking project. The plans worked out great! However I did make some minor changes. I made the two by four under the two by six top an inch longer on each end. I also did not brad nail the 1x4 trim pieces. I used wooden dowels and wood glue. Also I bought bed rail brackets and mounted the side rails flush to the outside of the head and footboard. This piece was conditioned with Charles Neil's Prestain conditioner and stained with minwax English chestnut. Topcoat is minwax semigloss fast drying poly and rubbed out with minwax paste wax. Can't wait to get to sleep in it tonight!!

This was my first build and I throughly enjoyed it! This bed is for my three old son and it meant so much to me that I was able to build his very first big boy bed. Thanks Ana for the plans and for making then so easy to follow.

Tried top shelf side detail per the plans but did not like the way it turned out so I added the "castle wall" details as shown on the two photos. Wall details made with stacked dato blade on my table saw.