Community Brag Posts

I had some leftover plywood after I made my storage bench and asher/dryer pedestal so I made plans for a storage ottoman with it. After I put it together I cam to Ana's site to upload my plan only to find out she had already made something similar. The only difference in mine is that I added a divider so my wife and I have our own sides and used polyester filling for the top instead of foam (about half the price).

This was an awesome, quick, and easy project. The sanding, staining, and drying, took forever for me but the actual cutting and assembly was super quick. I have this on an uncovered patio and my local store didn't carry cedar in the sizes I needed so I went with the cheapest wood I could find and used a high quality oil based outdoor stain. I am hopeful it will hold up to our pacific NW winter because it won't be coming in. Considering I had never made anything before and had never used a miter saw, sander or quick square, I am happy with the time it took to finish this.

I pulled most of my ideas for this from the Farmhouse Bed and some of the modified brag posts. It's all pine - I didn't want to spend the extra for something harder, but it's triple finished, so that should help with durability.

We got a little creative on the woven back - love the way the 2 colors turned out!

The structural elements of the "classic chair" are excellent and so adaptable.  I simply lengthened the leg to produce a conventional 19” seat height and extended the back frame dimensions to provide a higher seat back.  I also substituted 2"x4" framed seat bottoms featuring slat inserts for the plywood seat bottoms. Most of the frame materials are Doug-fir 2"x4"s ripped down to 1.5"x1.5"s.  The slats on the seat-bottom and chair-back are cedar fence boards ripped down to 2.5" wide.  

Outdoor Builds by Nathan

I loved this project as soon as I saw it on Ana's site. I made a few changes to the plans in order to suit my needs and also as an excuse to use my new tools. I left out the cross supports in order to accomodate storage underneath the stool and it still retains exceptional strength without the supports. I also used my new router to round the edges on the top peice to give it a more finished feel. I'm really happy with the results and have made multiple for friends and family, both painted and stained.

This started off as a project for spring break and ended up taking over two months to finish up (and it's still not completely finished... the third drawer needs to be poly'ed still)! I seriously overestimated how hard it would be to make everything fit right and dh had to help out some making things fit together, the dowel pins and the notches to make the drawers tip out and he made the stencil for the numbers but I pretty much did the rest myself. With a handsaw and a drill. That's it. We didn't have any other power tools at the time. If we had the proper power tools, a babysitter for the weekend and nothing else to do but work on it, I think it could be done in a weekend.

I needed something to fill the awkward narrow space by the door and we needed shoe storage so I modified Ana's plan to make it narrower and added an extra drawer. I was orginally going to put feet on it like the plans call for but we decided we liked it better without. We used a thrift store belt for the drawer catches that keep it from tipping all the way out. It is braced to the studs in the wall with corner braces. Everyone comments on it when they see it and we've had several people ask if we could make them one!

RH Balustrade Coffee Table

I used cedar and treated 2x4 and painted them with exterior paint. Love the way it turned out.

Jason Stump

For whatever reason, right before spring, Pier One had these $45 cushions on clearance for $11.13. It took us trips to 4 different stores to collect all the cushions, but we had a new patio set for our new house (minus the sofas). As such, I modified Ana's plans to accommodate the smaller size of the cushions (22x22). Then, I used the savings from the cushions to justify buying a new table saw. It took a while to buy and cut all the lumber, kreg-jig everything together, fill all the holes, sand, seal all the wood, etc., but the work was well worth it. Nearing completion of this project, I built the pictured modified cooler coffee table to ensure that no guest ever has to get up from their seat for any reason during a summer barbeque.

My floor-to-ceiling garage storage is 6' w x 8' h. I wanted to utilize the entire height of the wall for the rack. I also created a small cubby at the end for tall items like brooms, poles, etc. I also added 2x4 pieces on the top, sides and foot of the rack so I can add doors to hide the clutter stored on the shelves.

I made the Modern Chairs with a vertical rounded back for more back support. I love these chairs so much and was such a good experience making rounded cuts.

I decided to start the large desk plan, with these bases being the start. I didn't use the formaldehyde-free plywood yet, but plan on using it for the remainder of the project. I also decided to paint it, instead of using stain and/or polyurethane. I wanted to try to make the room feel more open (it's pretty small) and like the fresh feeling of the white.

Argie bedside table painted teal and yellow. Lights attached to underside of shelves as well.

I recently spotted a little gem in the garage - a little space in between the garage doors.  It was perfect for building a modular system of small French cleat box shelves.  I made them all using scrap wood.  I even had extra scrap wood to make a battery charging station in another narrow gap on the wall.  You can read all the details about my latest storage adventure on my blog:

http://www.justmeasuringup.com/blog/using-commonly-lost-garage-spaces-for-storage

I'm on high alert for more areas like this that get overlooked easily, and am just waiting for more inspiration to strike!