Community Brag Posts

We are a military family who ended up with a very small house on our most recent move. We needed something that was functional for storage but nice enough to fit with our decor without looking too industrial, Ana White's General Store Cubbies to the rescue! We modified the plan to make it a 3x9. I finished it with Behr's lap pool blue and Glidden's delicious apple (which I plan to use for my next project as well) and then glazed with minwax jacobean stain mixed with behr glazing mix. The front tags are from Michael's crafts store in the scrapbooking section and in instead of putting tags on each cubby I added some stick-on tags with positive words on them. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! Thanks Ana!

This is my first project! My friend and i were debating what to gift our friends for their anniversary. This was perfect. Good first time beginner project. 

Currently redesigning our living room and needed a bookshelf to put next to our prop picture. Found this rolling bookshelf and decided to give it a go. We already made a few pieces of furniture so we already had the kreg Jig (my favorite tool ever!) and assorted screws. I found the directions to be fairly easy to follow, but then again, I had already built some furniture so maybe for a beginner it'd be harder to follow. I spent about 20 hours, and $66 on this - $40 for wood and metal emt pipe, and $26 for the 3"caster wheels (work brakes) found on Amazon. I already had all the screws and stain around from other projects   I used Walnut Minwax stain with 2 costs of polycrylic. Really loving this bookshelf!

My oldest daughter was beyond needing a "big girl bed" - the poor thing couldn't "fit" in her toddler bed, and had to sleep curled up! So I had her help me pick out a bed, and she ended up asking for the Lydia bed (and she mimed that she wanted a trundle, since she didn't know what it was called!). The bed itself was a quick build, but then I lost steam when it came to doing the trundle. It came along a few weeks after the bed was in her room, but, as you can see, I still haven't painted it... or added a bed to it.... Then she wanted a bed for all of her Sonic dolls (I think she's kinda transitioning from being a tom-boy to being a girly-girl... she picked out everything in her room!)... So I built her a "matching" bed based on the farmhouse doll bed plans. Side note - I haven't cleaned her room in a while, so ignore the fact that the floor needs swept!

Here is an end table I recently built for our living room. I modified the Rhyan End Table plans to include a routered top and some modification to the drawer fronts.

Built this for our dining room. Added two feet to the length. Neighbors started talking and now I've been commisioned to build a table and bench!

Inspiration came from this site, but the design is mine. I didn't have plans, so it was drawn out on paper from the sizes of the laundry baskets themselves. Birch plywood with Home Depot feet painted with rattle can white. Sanded and stained with a Minwax redwood stain and coated with Minwax poly. 

Time: About 15 hours
$: 150 (wood, stain, sand paper)
Stain: Minwax Red Mahogany (2 coats)
Finish: Satin Polyurethane (1 coat, light sand, another coat)

We had to change a few of the measurements just slightly, but overall the directions were awesome!

The only change that we made was to the "footboard", instead of 2x2's and a 2x4, we changed it to one 4x4. We added moulding at the base of the feet and at the top of the footboard we added a routed headplate. It gave it a real "finished" look.

Sorry for the "spotty" pictures...dang camera!

We wanted to build our own coffee table with a mosaic tile top, so we searched for plans that would give us a good, sturdy base to work with. The Tryde coffee table base with this design was simple, yet contemporary when paired with our tile table top. We tweaked the measurements slightly so that a 24"x48" piece of plywood could fit on top. Couldn't be happier with the result!

This was a great project. Added diffrent door design which resulted to great outcome.

Heavy Duty, from reclaimed deck boards!

Especially with having to store active military gear, the huge gorilla trunks, and conveniently having a huge pile of 2x6's from disassembling a small deck . . Worked out perfectly!

Also, because they are heavy and tall, we did anchor them to the wall!

(I personally want to figure out how to add a sliding ladder, haha)

I decided to start with the most simple design I could for my first build. I've always wanted some big, ginormous bookcases and these seemed to fit the bill. I was surprised with how difficult it was to work with the thick 2x12 boards, but all in all I'm really happy with the results. I did modify the dimensions to make them not as wide, making the width of the shelves only 31".

I made these shelves for the top of my work bench to keep from going insane,,,,they are 57" tall with shelves every 14", 8 feet long and 16" deep. I had to loose 2-18" deep shelves to accomodate my drill press. , I used 5/8" plywood for the shelves and 1 by 12 and a 1x4 for the top shelf. Everything is glued and screwed. STURDY like a rock! I took a long time to over engineer these shelves, should have taken about 3-4 hours or less but I took my time...warped pine makes life ugly use the best wood you can afford.- See more at: http://ana-white.com/2014/09/free_plans/easy-economical-garage-shelving…

Made from rustic x console plans from Ana white

We used MDF, drop-leaf lockable hinges for the leaves, and piano hinges. I wouldn't recommend MDF because it wasn't strong enough for the screws and we ended up having to add bits of plywood to reinforce the areas for the hinges. We also put pegboard on the back to avoid things popping out the other end, and I'm planning on getting some hooks to hang crafty things like scissors and glue guns.

Despite the modifications we had to make, I love my little sewing table! It fits perfectly under our dining room table and but has tons of workspace when it's folded out. Perfect for a small, cramped house! The finished project isn't quite as bright yellow as the flash made it seem, but it is still bright and happy!

It was time that my son finally got a real bed. Additionally, he needed a desk as well. This is why I chose the Chelsea bunk system plans. I had to make some modifications that you can see in the pictures. The first modification was taken from GROOVYMOM2000, the chalkboards. I don't have any chalk at the moment so it looks like black paint from the picture but its the spray on chalkboard stuff. The subsequent modifications were made for stabilization. I added supports to the desk before I started finishing the wood with stain and polyurethane because it was WAY too unstable. I thought that the bookcase was going to be okay but once the bed was on top it had more wobble than I felt comfortable with. This is why I added the 45 degree 2x2s to the bookcase corners. I will have to remove them and add some better looking ones in the future but they REALLY made a difference; the bed is rock solid now. The ladder was thrown together last minute with a rather advantageous plan that didn't work out. I tried to incorporate hangers into the cut so it could be removed easily but my jigsaw blade was too dull and ripped the wood to pieces. At this point I just slapped the pieces together and screwed it into the side of the bed. He might have to go a couple months before I decide to build a new one the right way. This honestly turned out to be a lot bigger project than I planned at first. Building the bed was fairly quick and easy but sanding, conditioning, staining, and protecting the wood took almost a week. I am pleased with the outcome but painting the bed would have made a significant time difference. If you do go with stain then let me suggest you stain the guardrails before assembly.

Our new home has a 21'x17' screened in porch that needed somthing, anything to occupy it! We looked for sectionals from online retailors and could not believe how much money they were demanding for them. Being new homeowners we could not afford/justify spending that amount. I found Ana-white.com while looking for shoe bench plans and found these 2 plans for the sectional. It was time to justify all of my tool purchases! lol

I took the 2 plans for the sofa and armless sectional and increased the size on the armless sectional by 1 seat to fill the area better. Future plans also include a bar, serving area and coffee table in the space. I bought (30) acq 2x4x8's and, not including scrap pieces, had 3 reamaining full pieces after completing the project. Total for the wood materials was $130 and I also had to buy a Kreig Jig ($37) and 2-1/2" ext deck screws so all in all about $180 for the materials

For the cushons I searched local retailors and found since we were going into the winter season a lot of local stores were selling off their patio supplies at big discounts. I found a local Home Depot selling Hampton Bay deep cushions for 75% off (normally $49.98 on sale for $13.xx). I needed 8 seats and since one was a corner I ordered 9 sets (9 backs, 8 seats).

Project took me less than 5 hours pick up the wood, set up on-site shop, make all the cuts and assemble. That 5 hour timeline also included a break for dinner. The sofa sections are heavy when put together, if you plan on moving them more than once or twice a year I'd suggest putting some caster wheels on the base with locks to keep it from rolling away when being used.

I used the homemade holiday plans to make this as a Christmas gift for my 2-year-old great-niece and it worked out really great!