Community Brag Posts

This was my first time building a project that had a drawer involved. It took me three attemts to get the drawer right and I ended up building internal wood slides for the drawer to sit on and a couple of stops to keep it from falling out or going too far back. Not having to deal with finicky drawer slides made it much easier for me. I think it looks nice and it really is the perfect height for next to a bed or chair. 

The cuts are very simple but I don't know how I would have done this without a kreg jig. It made putting all the boards together so much easier and kept them tight and strong. 

We wanted to replace the vented / painted bi-fold closet doors in our Master Suite with something that was warmer and more consistent with the decorating motif of the house.  We priced out various wood bi-fold doors and were shocked at the $350 - $600 price range of what was available.   We decided that building them ourselves was a much better choice.

The frames are made from 1” Knotty Pine and the panels are from ¼” Knotty Pine.   Frames were made to fit and assembled w/ Kreg screws & Glue.  Rabbet channels were cut w/ the router and the panels were brad nailed & glued.

It was finished w/ the same stain used on our Knotty Pine ceilings / walls and finished w/ a satin varnish for a perfect match to our house.

This was a very straightforward, quick & inexpensive alternative to purchasing expensive bi-fold doors.   

The doors took about 15 hours to build / sand and 10 hours to finish.   Total cost was around $100. 

After I built my nephew's AT & T Park bedroom, I had to figure out what to create for my 5 year old niece, Maggie. She loves drawing, so I settled on an "art studio," where she can work and display her art.

The bed was created using Ana's Camp Loft Bed Plans. I narrowed the stairs by 4 inches as one of the other posts had done. I also put shelves under the stairs like another post I read on this site.

I built a small drafting-type desk for underneath using my new Kreg Jig (Man, I love that thing!). I also made some curtains to pull shut in case Maggie wanted to escape from the world. Chairs, storage containers, flower light, and leaf above bed are from Ikea.

I bought some cheap picture frames, and put a bulletin board in one and a chalkboark in the other for above the bed, and the string hanging across the front of the bed is from Target. It actually has clips to hang artwork.

I painted the bed using Ana's antique finish with the Minwax pen. It came out fantastic.

I completed this table with my 5 year old daughter as my assistant. My husband requested a table to put next to our new hot tub to set his drinks on and this is perfect. We only put one board on the top because I felt since it would be outside, I wanted a smooth top. I just screwed it in diagonally from the bottom. I also used spar varnish since it would be outside.

Second project we under took after stumbling over this blog. The armorie fit well in our bed room and has enough space for all my Indian sarees. Added a jewelery drawer in the middle. Love your blog Ana, thanks for the great work you do. Next project is to build a bed to match the armorie.

I found out what the rack in the drive up area of my local Lowes was!
I often see piles of wood and sheets or plywood and such sitting there, but I never paid it much mind-turns out its a clearance rack of sorts they call it the "cull" rack, because they are culling the items from inventory that may be cut, chipped marked etc.
So I was at the store buying something for my Bocce Court and saw this pile of 16ft 2x4's and saw they were only $20 and there was 8 of them- so I picked em up for a "future project".
Needless to say they weren't the truest boards but they worked well enough for something like this. I had to buy a 2x6 to attach the top to because 2x4's aren't wide enough to give proper clearance as the plans showed(and I really didn't want to reinvent the wheel on this) so i bit the bullet and bought a $3 2"x6"x8'
Now if you notice I used all 2x4's for this instead of 2x6 so I adjusted the top to 14 1/8 to accommodate 4 2x4 pieces separated by spacers I use when installing wood floors. I made no change to the seat dimensions, but there is 4- 2x4's vice 3- 2x6's.
Great plan- perfect for more seating on my weekly bocce nights and they hold in excess of 600 lbs easily for those concerned about load limits.
(Note for those curious, that is my Bocce court in the background, it is 10'x60' and built with pressure treated 4x6's and 2x4's and a whole bunch of DG and crushed oyster shells.)

Took several long days to get this thing done. Being stationed in Japan it made things a bit more difficult and quite a bit more expensive sourcing the materials for this project. I had to opt for 1/2" plywood as cost of lumber here in okinawa is nearly double that of what you would see in the states. I made a few other modifications to the plans here and there where I felt it would better fit my needs. I wanted more storage space so I made the drawer boxes 20" deep. Rather than nail and glue the drawer bottoms on I wanted a reassuring solid hold so I grooved out the drawers and inserted the bottom panel with glue to secure it in place. The drawer faces I chose to add a little more detail in the molding by using miter cuts and the router to add some texture. The headboard was actually a previous project that was requested by my wife so with some modification I was able to rebuild that and fit it into the build. The 4x4's were grooved out with a 3/4" straight bit to slide my headboard and footboard slats into place. All in all this project was a lot of fun, the bed is now a monster of a thing to move but solid as a rock we love it. Thanks for the plans! 

This a Anna White.com Inspired Folding Chalkboard design. I just made a couple slight modification. Slightly larger, and tray to hold chalk and eraser.

This one was build for my two year old nephew as his birthday gift! I think Wyatt and his brother Marshall will get a lot of good use out of the gift.

Anna and John thank you for providing such a fantastic site!

Best Regards,

Bob C

"Remember Working SAFELY IS the most important thing you can do!"

I adapted the plan for the Shoe Rack Bench to give it multiple levels and allow it to serve as an entryway table in addition to a shoe rack. I used 2 x 10's for the project.

I was inspired to build this adirondack chair after I built a couple from Ana's child adirondack chairs. I love everyone of her projects and have a LONG "honey do" list to complete.