Community Brag Posts

I'm so glad I found your blog/website. It is exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to tackle the farm table & benches next and then adjust the porch swing plan to make a bed swing for a friend. Thanks for the great ideas!

Thank you Ana and Jenny for this project. After many searches for the perfect bunk bed for our 4 and 2 year old daughters I was ready to spend more than $1500 in a store on something that was not nearly as cool as this. The plans were easy to follow and it took my dad and me about a week to make the bed. My girls love it and have spent the last two days in their room.

We made a few modifications to the design that I highlighted in the pictures. We wired the back of the bed with electricity to include some outlets, a light that is on a timer switch, and an outlet with a built in night light. We also added 2x2s to support the sides to make them stronger when the bed is apart. We move a lot (4 times in the last 5 years) and the design was great for taking apart and putting back together. The light on the timer is great for telling my oldest she can read books for 5 minutes and then go to sleep when the light goes out.

Thank you so much for these great plans!

My daughters decided they wanted to do a lemonade stand at their Nana's yard sale.  I'm a beginner when it comes to woodworking projects so when I came across Ana's plans for the fence picket lemonade stand, I just HAD to give it a try!  This was a fun project and the plans were extremely helpful and straight-forward.  I would definitely recommend if anyone is looking for a cute lemonade stand for their kiddos!  Side note - my girls raised $75 for the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation to help fight childhood cancer! So proud! 

I built this storage crate to fill out space on top of my kitchen table. On my table saw, I ripped 1/2in birch plywood down to 6in widths for the outside frame and 5 3/4in for the dividers. The dividers are 6in wide and so I cut the outside ends to 7in. I attached the whole thing with 1 1/2 finish nails and glue. After finishing, I attached some L-brackets on the corners and drilled 2 holes on either end for handles. For handles, I simply braided 6 strands of jute together and tied knots on the inside of the box. I have more details and photos on my blog link.

Keep in mind I am a novice at best and this took me a total of 12 hours over 2 days to construct and stain and line.  Filling will be a separate project all together!

I opted to remove the top row of lumber all around to have something to attach bird netting to to keep the critters out and make it easier to reach in, also a cost consideration. The posts are still the recommended 3 ft I also changed to 12ft X1in boards instead of 12ft x2in also in the interest of cost. 

For the most part I followed the plans for the legs and base structure as suggested. In our area the 2x4s are sold with rounded corners. To avoid a very obvious seam on the legs, I used 2x6s which I screwed and glued together then cut back to 3x4 (1.5x2) x 4 to make the legs and cross beams a little beefier with little or no seem on the legs. As I decided to build the top from reclaimed wood I framed in the top with 2x4 ripped down to approx.. 2x3 with a sheet of plywood to support top boards. As I don’t have a planner to level any reclaimed top boards I could find, I decided to make my own faux reclaimed boards out of ¾’ x 9’ – 8’ planks. I distress the wood using a chain, rocks my table saw, hammer, nails, blowtorch and bow saw. In hindsight, I wish I had distressed a little more vigorously but everyday use will augment it over time. I continued to paint, distress and sand on the fly, using paints I had left from previous projects. In some cases, I mixed paints to get additional colour varierty. All boards were stained at the to colour bare areas which as a bonus added a slight yellow hue making the paint look older. I did some scraping and blowtorching of semi-dry paint and stain to get a variety of looks and textures. I dry fit the boards and reorganized the puzzle pieces to get a random but organized look – controlled chaos. Once I was close I glued and screwed the board down clamping as I went to keep the boards tight. This paid-off later as the tighter seams allow less food to fall in-between. I cut down the last row from over sized pieces to get a tight fit in the last row. I finished with 11 coats of poly to toughen up the pine and again to seal the seams from food. My wife suggested painting the legs off-white as our cottage already is max-ed out on natural wood. We will follow by painting the existing chairs the same off-white and adding a little distress for age. Cost was approx. $175 to 200. The plywood alone was $45, paint I had. Time was easily 50 hours as the artistic on the top, time although fun, was time consuming.

Anna’s website is great I have had many compliments on my table. I have pointed many people to the site for direction on their own projects. Thanks for the great plans.

Sandy

Made from only 2x4's!  Much much cheaper than buying an outdoor sectional!

This was my first build and I had a blast! Let me say at the outset that if I can build this table with limited tools and expertise, then so can you! What I lack in know-how, I made up for by not being afraid to try something new. If you do the same, you can sure build this table. This table combines Ana's Triple Pedestal Dining Room Table (pedestals from this plan) and her Farmhouse Table (tabletop modified from this plan). Because Ana's plans are so great and thorough, I will only make note of a few key areas where I either tried something different or where I recommend paying extra close attention. First, on the tabletop, I reduced the length to 90 inches to accommodate our space, and therefore eliminated the center pedestal. As you can see, I alternated 2x10's and 2x8's. I also eliminated the breadboards simply because my wife and I preferred the rustic plank style. I also moved the pedestals in to allow a full 15 inches for a chair to slide underneath. When constructing the tabletop, I used both glue (clamped) and pocket holes on the underside. Don't overdo the glue, as it will tend to drip down (which is the top of the table...I had some drip issues). I also strongly recommend buying/borrowing clamps to keep the top flush or making them from 2x4's as I did. I worked hard on this part, and I'm glad that I did. It was still hard to keep it flush. On the pedestals, I used slightly bulkier decorative pieces (I started the arcs 1.25" from the edge on both ends of the arc). I also attached the top plank directly to the underside of the tabletop rather than to the top of the pedestal in order to both bolster the tabletop and to more easily attach the pedestals precisely where I wanted them. Finally, I drilled shallow flat-bottom holes and used wood bolts to fasten both the pedestals and the crossbeam. This created a nice-looking, low-profile fastener that still enables disassembly should we ever need to move the table (it is HEAVY fully assembled!). The finish is two coats of Minwax Ebony Wood Finish (pre-treated with Minwax Wood Conditioner) and three coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane (two coats on pedestals). Thank you, Ana, for the inspiration! Our family has a new table because of it! Thanks to all of you for sharing in our excitement, and I'm happy to share dimensions/details/etc should it be helpful to anyone.

Second coffee table I made following these plans. Took me a while to complete only because I was on 12 hour shifts at work, but I tracked the time it took me to finish it and it was 5 hours. 

I always have heaps of scrap wood so I decided to make some lanterns.

These lanterns are larger than the last lanterns I made.

They are huge and they make a great statement.

I used old rusty fencing wire for the handles.

I also added some alluminium sheet to the 'ceilling' of the lantern so that there is no risk of burning.

The only cost was for the candles.

This was my first Ana White project and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out! I didn't change any measurements. I did add trim along the top and bottom.

I was going to paint it white with blue trim but my white paint didn't look usable anymore. So I went all blue and I'm happy the way it turned out. I decided to leave the trim natural. I really like the blue pop in the laundry room!

Used the grandy sliding door console plans but modified due to space. Shortened it to a 5 foot length. Wanted rustic feeling so did a custom stain using a golden pecan mixed with golden mahogany. Being mindful of cost and used pine with bead board on the back.  Super pleased with the result! Thanks for the ability to use your plans!

For this project, we followed the plans for the Firetruck Bed and also modified them a bit to fit our needs in the room. From start to finish, this project took two weeks to complete and cost us roughly $200 to build and $100 to paint. We were lucky though in that nearly everything we needed to purchase was on special or sale.

Tryde coffee table

Thanks for the easy tutorial...Made that last night with my two oldest kids (7 and 9) and we love it!