Community Brag Posts

Awesome project and my son couldn't be happier.

Living in a small apartment in NYC, I had to rent the mitre saw from Home Depot ($50 for the day) and lug it and all the lumber up the flights of stairs. Other than that, the project was a breeze and took two days, by myself, from start to finish. I added some metal L brackets at some of the load bearing joints for extra support. Also used a 2x4 as the mattress rest (instead of a 2x2) and added another 2x4 as a center beam to support the mattress.

All that's left is painting and decorating, either with a curtain or plywood, depending on what my son wants. Thanks for the plans!!

A slight modification from Ana's original plans, but with the same character and feel.  I did not include the footboard, at least not yet, and we wanted reading lights mounted and wired to the headboard.  I bought track lighting fixtures, mainly because they were the size we were looking for. I ran each light to individual switches on each side of the bed posts and then concealed the wiring in routed-out board on the back and down the one post to a cord.  I also subbed out the 50w halogen bulbs (hot!) for 35w LEDs, which is the perfect amount of light and cool to the touch.  I did alternating width boards and then stained the edges of all the exposed wood with an ebony dark stain.  Once dried, I painted an antique white, distressed with sanding along the edges, exposing the stain, and then sealed with a light brown wax creme finish to give it a little more character.  A simple, solid and heavy project that should last for decades.

I needed a loft bed for my daugher as her room is small and she could use the floor space for playing. Bed is made of pine & whitewood. Back is lag bolted to the studs and front is supported by steel rod from the rafters. Project

Grandpa made this bed for my daughter. He followed the plans but made some changes so that it could be taken apart if needed, changed some of the design elements. It's so cute! Love that it's handmade and can be passed down.

Used the Henry Media Console project as a starting point but wanted to change the height of the shelves to better fit my electronics. I put my center speaker on top, so my receiver and DVD player were going to be on the shelf. I measured it all out and decided I would go with a 7" shelf and a 13" shelf. My plan was to have a solid 3/4" back (so I could still use my PHs and screws) with a 1" opening at the top that wouldn't be able to be seen when watching TV. That would be for cable management and allow heat to escape. 

Well once it was all built, I realized the shelf was not deep enough for my receiver and that it was going to hang off the front of the shelf...I couldn't have that. So I ripped off the back panel I had on there and went and bought some luan. At that point I came up with a hidden way to allow for a deeper top shelf, allow cables to go down and out instead of up, and also not have any opening be seen. The bottom back is just attached to the shelves, the top back is attached to the back of the entire shelf. That leaves 1.5" of extra depth to the top shelf and allows the same distance for cables to escape to the back. I'm very proud of myself! ha!

Once it was built I put the stain on using a cloth...never again. As you can see, it was way too dark. At that point I decided rustic was the way to go by sanding it all down. It turned out much better than I had ever imagined. 

Took Ana's small cedar shed plans and built it to fit on my patio in my townhouse! I love it.  - Paula Halvorson on Facebook

Followed the design on Ana's website, made the desk slightly taller. Put a pecan color coat on it and pink drawer fronts.

I built a ledge from some scrap wood laying around but had to buy a 1X6X8 for the bottom. It took about an hour to build from cutting to finish and then another couple hours to paint. I needed this in our bathroom because we have no bathroom storage and I needed to get medicines and such up away from busy little hands. Awesome plans, great little shelf!! Thanks, Ana!

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.