Community Brag Posts

My wife found this design on your site and set about convincing me that it would be a good idea to replace the (new) IKEA loft beds that we had recently bought.

The loft beds were not such a great idea as they were 7 feet tall in an 8 foot tall room. Needless to say, i didnt need all that much convincing that replacing them was a good idea...so the first step was to list the loft beds on ebay to fund the builds. They sold for nearly 2/3rds what we purchased them for so we were very happy with that!

Armed with our cash we set off for the Hardware store to pick up our timber, drop saw and coach bolts. We purchased all the timber that we needed and the screws and (i dont know what they are called but) the things that you screw onto the post and the rails to allow them to slot into one another and be pulled apart relatively easily (see the image titled Foot).

We made the bed head slightly lower than the plan calls for and made the foot exactly half the size for uniformity (1200 high and 600 high respectively). We recycled the side rails from an old 1980's waterbed (which saved us considerable money and gave the bed the nice chunky feel we were looking for. Additionally, we raised them 350mm off the ground so that we have space for the future trundles that will be built (watch this space!).

To give the slats in the bed head and foot a little more of a framed appearance, we mitre some 19mm x 30mm beading timber to fill around the slats in either end. You can see this from the pics. We then added some non structural pine to the inside of the rails for the bed base to be affixed to.

After some research, we discovered that it was in fact cheaper and easier to purchase the slats already done and tied together with the polyester strap from ikea...(its called the sultan lade bed base if anyone is interested). I then drilled holes in either end of the slats and screwed them to the rails. This helps with both Rigidity and mattress support as it stops the slats from sliding around the place.

The bed was then filled with putty in the knots, cracks, nail and screw holes, sanded, then painted. I used a water based undercoat followed by 6 coats of semi gloss acrylic applied using a mini (100mm) roller. This has given a lovely silky texture to the paint that has to be felt to be believed.

All up we spent a little over $140.00 on material (but if we needed to buy the rails it would have been over $200.00...still a bargain considering we have seen a very similar bed in the retail stores for over $1000.00!

Just yesterday I won a second hand (donor) bed on ebay...watch out as I start my next build.

Thanks Ana, without you putting this out there, my wife would never have found it and I would never have built it.

I made this for my 2 year old son who's Daddy is a Navy sailor aboard a Naval Aircraft Carrier. Our son LOVED this when I finished the project.

Easy, inexpensive, and fun- as always with Ana's plans. 

All made from pallet wood.

Another build for a co-worker. She wanted a bench for the front of her bed. I got the colors from her bedroom and matched it.

I built this "Sweet Shop" for my daughters for Christmas this year. I cut vinyl on my Silhouette machine for the signs and made a couple of extras in case they decide to use it for a library or post office later. It was a fairly simple project and I made it over a couple of days while my youngest was napping. I added some scrap 1x4's to the front to cover my imperfect paint job-ha!

Super easy base plans. Made a few modifications, and it came out beautifully. 

8x12 coop modified from your classic shed plans. 2/3 for the chickens, 1/3 for storage.

by Harmony Munson

This was a really fun little project. I used my Kreg jig to avoid filling/sanding exposed screws.

Pretty basic design - I made a few modifications to the published plans.
1) Slightly longer guard railings
2) Made the cleats flush with the bottom of the side rails so that the guard rails are elevated above the mattress.
3) Added "slat" design for the headboard.

Overall a pretty simple project, but like everything, takes time. Best of all, my little man loved it at first sight and is already using it!

3 tiered flower/garden bed, untreated in pic, need to find a food safe wood sealer this weekend and then we can fill with dirt and plant. We are using it as a garden. 21ftx6ft, 35 inches high.

I love the outcome of this project! I removed the old wire shelving and used 3/4 inch sanded plywood and few pieces of trim and pine to build this floor to ceiling custom closet. Then I primed and painted, and installed the clothes rods. Out of the frame are new recessed lights and a tile heated floor!

Laura E.

This was our second build. Seemed easy enough, but definitely a 'learning experience' here! Most importantly, we learned the value of a straight board and how furring strips are anything but. Thankfully, I got my main squeeze by my side through it all. Even if he is mirroring that same confused expression I get when things don't quite pan out the way they should. LOL!

We wanted two smaller tables and four benches so we can rearrange as needed to make one big or two small tables. We can also move them back and forth between patio and deck. We hoped to have this done in a weekend but it took us two weeks working at night after the kids went to bed. I love how they turned out but I'm not sure I will try another project this involved!

My wife and I found some grass clothe mirrors at a local home decor store that we loved, but they were either too big or small for our space. (Not to mention they ran $300-$450!!!) Using the same height/width ratio I built my own.

For this project we used:
-spare 1x4 and 1x6 pine boards left over from other projects (SORRY, I do not have the cut list)
-brad nail gun
-miter saw
-piece of 1/4" plywood (to hold the mirror in on the back)
-8 wood screws (to fix the plywood to the frame)
-an old bathroom mirror
-glass cutter (~$6-8 at Home Depot)
-gloves (for cutting and handling the glass)
-olive oil (for lubricating the glass cutter)
-grass clothe (had to buy it online by the roll ~$75, only used half)
-scissors
-spray adhesive (~$6-8 at Home Depot)
-picture hanger hooks (~$1 at Home Depot)

I spent more time thinking about how to construct the frame than actually making the cuts and building it, which took about an hour. I then spent about a month waiting for the grass clothe to arrive in the mail. Then it was about another hour cutting and affixing it to the frame with my wife.