Community Brag Posts

Another piece that my wife saw online that she liked. We wanted a new entertainment center for the house. I looked at the photo and drew up the plans in my head and got to building. This was a one day build and came together really nice.

I decided to post this project as I know there is room for more information on finishing. I know I can be overwhelmed with all the different types of finish work out there as well as their associated tips/tricks, which are often not on the manufacture's directions!

My wife and I had some black furniture, which we were tired of. Some of it started from my bachelor days and some came later just to match things we already have. I really wanted to build new stuff for our living room, but it seemed like a little a bit of a waste, considering we liked it, minus the color!

Even though it was all sold as "better that Ikea" furniture, it was all pretty cheaply made with weak quarter turn screw joints and MDF.

The first thing I did was to take each piece apart and glue, pocket screw and nail the heck out of each piece.

I than scuff up the finish (committed now :-) ) with some 220 sandpaper. While my wife and I decided what color we wanted I looked into oil based paint. Even though it usually can't be found at HD or Lowe's a guy who worked in the paint department and was a professional painter for 30 years advised me to find some.

We both agreed that Latex paint never really seems to dry all the way, especially for a surface, which will have glasses and what not placed on them.

I got some oil based paint from a "paint store" and also bought a product called Penetrol to put in the paint. The Penetrol "watered down" the paint to allow more working time and avoid brush marks. I really tried to avoid usually a brush, and mainly used a very tight , high quality foam roller. It really work great and I just made sure I covered each area all the way from one side to the other. I would start with less Penetrol than they say. My paint was like soup and although it worked great, I figured you can always add more, but you can't take it out!!

The oil paint took about two days to dry in my garage (very cold now) and than I moved it into my house for the rest of the time. Once it was "cured" 3-4 days, it formed a shell like surface, which did not require any poly at all!

I feel it's about as good as you can get without having a sprayer. It was definitely more clean up as I needed paint thinner for the brushes I did use, but I stored them in zip loc bags in my garage refrigerator in between coats, until I was completely done!!

I hope this post helps someone out there!!

Farmhouse Hall Tree by Leila Adams

My buddy wanted this bed from Pottery Barn Kids but didn't want to spend $1300. It cost him $250 in materials and i built it for $300. So you DIY'ers could do it for $250. We also adjusted the size to fit a full size mattress.

This is my attempt at Ana's recycle console project from her new book "The Handbuilt Home". I made a couple of small changes to the pattern but for the most part stayed on course with her plans.

This piece of furniture is now being used at our cottage. I used 3/4 inch birch plywood for the cabinet and shelf and i used 1/2 inch MDF for the foldout compartment. I decided to use the MDF as it was a bit lighter than the plywood so not as much weight on the door when tilting it out.

The color is from Martha Stewart and is called Cayman Blue.

First project from Ana White plans. Thanks Ana, looks great in my coffee bar.

We made 4 of these end tables using all the leftover scrap wood from the loungers. We painted them white so the backyard would look bright.

We made all 4 of them in about 30 minutes. They were so simple. We should have started with them, instead of the loungers since they were a little more difficult for us beginners.

When we built our small mudroom and pantry addition, I new I needed a tilt out trash bin, nothing on the market fit the space the way I wanted. So I of course came here to Ana-white.com :) the "wood tilt out trash can or recycling cabinet plans" were perfect with a bit of hacking I made it fit exactly!

I made 2 cabinets into 1 unit,
used salvage/old cabinet door fronts I cut to size
Painted the box red and kept the oak cabinets all wood grain
Added handles
Added ball chain to keep the doors from falling over.

LOVE this! fits perfect in our mudroom and it was a pretty quick project too!

MY PALLET PROJECTS FINALLY COMPLETE!! TOOK SOME TIME TO GET DONE SINCE I HAD TO TAKE APART N DO TONES OF SANDING.. COMPLETELY WORTH IT THOUGH.. THE ADIRONDACK CHAIR I USED PLANS FROM THIS VERY HELPFUL SIGHT. THE STORAGE TABLE BENCH I HONESTLY JUST STARTED BUILDING WITH NO PLANS. FIGURED ITS A BOX WITH A LID, I CAN HANDLE THAT.. LOL WELL I DID AND CANT WAIT FOR THE START OF THE NEXT PROJECT. AND YES IT WILL BE FROM PALLETS AS WELL.

I got scared in the middle of the project and feared that my drawers would not work. I opted for a drawer and a shelf instead of three drawers. I wish now I would have followed through with the plans because the drawer works GREAT! I had a lot of learning opportunities with this project...but all in all, for my first big build...I LOVE IT!!

Great design and project!  I am working on the second one in my wife's school colors.  Thanks!

We needed more counter and storage space in our rental house kitchen. We used this kitchen island plan to build a "kitchen peninsula." When it came time to stain the shelves it would have been a lot easier to stain the pieces before we put it together. The tiny space between the slats was difficult to get a paint brush in.

I built a narrow version to fit in our bathroom. We also decided not to add the drawer to this one. We really like this open style for this purpose.
I had all of the wood leftover from other projects so my cost was only for the stain I used.
This is the second time I have used the tapered legs on a project, and I am getting better at making them.