Community Brag Posts

Sturdy Work Bench

Submitted by stephanief on Sun, 07/29/2012 - 21:19

I built this sturdy work bench to complete further projects off the ground! It's helped me to be organized, keep my tools together and stretch these legs!

This project is excellent for a first time builder. Mistakes don't matter much, it's pretty straight forward and easy, doesn't require special cuts. Allows you to practice measuring, cutting, drilling, etc.

Estimated Cost
$45-50
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Oops paint
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Comments

Square(-ish) Version of the Balustrade Coffee Table

I loved the RH-inspired Balustrade Coffee Table that I built for my parents, I decided to make one for our living room! Ours had to be more of a square though, to fit our space more appropriately, so I modified the dimensions. This affected our shopping and cut lists, of course. Check out the blog post for more info.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$200.00
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Sand top and bottom shelf with belt sander to make the surface level and flat. Then sand with a palm sander with 150- then 220-grit sandpaper. Wipe dust and debris clean with damp rag. Stain with Minwax Weathered Oak, let dry overnight, then stain with Minwax Special Walnut. Let dry. Finish with three coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly, sanding with 400-grit in between coats.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Loft Bed In Natural Hardwood

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 08/24/2016 - 14:12

I needed to build a loft bed for a small room that has a nine foot ceiling, I wanted to have ample storage room below, but was concerned about a ladder that would stick out at an angle taking up a little too much precious real estate in the small room.  Using Ana's great Sketch Up plans, I modified the design by incorporating a fifth leg as a permant addition to attach the ladder to.  Part of the appeal of Ana's design was the ability to take apart the bed if it ever needed to be taken out of the room it is installed in, and the ladder became a part of the foot board end, perhaps a little unwieldy, but still able for two people to lift and move.

As a self-taught woodworker, I wanted something a little nicer than standard pine boards, and since we have a nice local hardwood supplier in our town, I was able to buy some nice red oak in a 13/16" thickness.  This project gave me the opportunity to use the planer that I bought some time ago but hadn't really used very much, so I ended up milling all of the wood to bring all to a uniform thickness.  In gluing up the legs, I used a spreader and a lot of clamps so that there are no screws, staples or nails joining the boards, just a lot of Titebond II.   

For the ladder itself, I cut dados in the upright edges of the ladder and attached the treads with 2" wood screws along with a liberal amount of glue.  I had a slight miscaculation on the width of the ladder, so in order for it to fit in between the two legs, I had to plane away a small amount of wood, which you can see the end of in the last picture, the close up of the ladder.

After a fair amount of sanding and a round over bit in my palm router to break all the exposed edges, I finished with three coats of polyurethene.  The bed was assembled in the room using 2" wood screws which I had pre-drilled when I dry-fitted the bed out on my driveway.  There are three screws in each corner of the mattress board and two screws in each corner of the railing.  The short section of the front rail is also attached with screws so it can be removed as well if the bed is ever moved.  I finished the installation with three, six inch lag bolts, two higher up going into wall studs, one near the bottom bolting into the wall plate on the floor.  The bed was very solid, but has been made even more so with the addition of a bookshelf spanning the width of the footboard, and it is as deep as the ladder is wide.  I offset the side of the bookshelf on the ladder side to allow for a two inch gap so your toes can overhand the ladder treads when climbing up or down.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$375
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Minwax Polyurethane
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Simple modern outdoor chair modified to match my porch.

I built a set of these chairs based on Ana's simple modern outdoor chair. I wanted it to match my front porch which I built a few weeks ago. Thank you for the plans.

Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Still waiting for it to dry, then I will use a oak stain and outdoor polyurethane.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

boneill

Wed, 07/29/2020 - 19:24

Looks awesome. Would be great to see how to do this step by step . What size seat slats did you use ?

Seasonal And Holiday

Bookcase

Designed by myself. Used a jigsaw, nail gun, and made miter cuts on the molding for the first time on this project. Glued a curtain panel I bought at target to the back before attaching it.
Overall size is 7 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 1 foot deep.

Estimated Cost
$150
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
high gloss black behr paint
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Phoebe's Castle bed

Submitted by acopier on Mon, 05/26/2014 - 19:51

With thanks to others that had posted before me. I took my inspiration from all the Castle beds I could find and customized this Castle Bed for my Granddaughters room. We made the bottom bed full size and the top twin size. She has a closet on the inside and two bedside tables. The slide lifts for additional storage. We made a cloud ceiling filled with a moon and stars that all glow in the dark. I used 3 18' rope lights that operate By remote control. Since I did not have enough space to add the stairs in the room I built the bed, I made the arched window on the right side to be used as a ladder. The steps are next. This took 8 months, 10 sheets of plywood and ultralight MDF. a few hundred board feet of pine, 5 gallons of paint and primer, 350 biscuits. About 1,500 Grandma and Grandpa hours of pure love.

Thanks again for everyone's inspiration.

No plans I measured as I went.

Estimated Cost
$750.00 material only
Finish Used
Satin paint, Peralcoat spray over colors
Recommended Skill Level
Advanced

Comments

Veronica P

Mon, 05/26/2014 - 20:12

Absolutely beautiful right down to every little detail! What a lucky little girl to not only have that amazing bed but to have such devoted loving grandparents! You really can see how much love went into every bit of that build!

spiceylg

Tue, 05/27/2014 - 10:06

This is utterly amazing. What a beautiful build and what a blessed little girl.

Baby library

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 08/27/2016 - 18:23

Easy to build and look great!  And way cheaper than buying shelves.

Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Console table

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/09/2020 - 07:53

This was our very first project! It went amazing ❤️ I absolutely love it. The plans provided were exactly what I needed and broke down everything for a first timer. Thank you so much Ana!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$80
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Scuff resistant paint
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

DIY Chaise Lounge Chairs, Single Lounger

Submitted by Camille C on Sat, 08/04/2012 - 02:30

This was my very first project to take on with Ana's plans. My boyfriend and I helped each other, and I think the result is pretty amazing. A lot of people has complimented our project, so we will be building something else soon.

Estimated Cost
500 DKR
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Rolling Cart for Home

Submitted by Pskov on Tue, 08/30/2016 - 01:50

Thanks for the plans!  My wife and cat love that cart, and I'm not sure who will win )))

This is my first build from Anna's plans.

Estimated Cost
20$
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Modern Adirondack Chair Set

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/10/2020 - 17:25

I used 5 5/8 fence pickets I had in the scrap box to give the chairs a wider arm rest. I wanted something wide enough to safely hold a paper plate and drinks.
I planned them, routered the edges and put a coat of oil based polyurethane on them.
The table is just something I put together and the top is a 1.5 inch thick 16x16 concrete paver.
If you like the wide arms, use wood glue and clamps, not nails or screws. Saves you from having to fill them and it looks better too.
Enjoy
And thank you Anna for a great build!

Estimated Cost
$60
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Exterior paint and oil based polyurethane
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate
Seasonal And Holiday

Long Barn Door Console

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/12/2024 - 10:49

My version of the 8’ Grandy Barn Door Console. I made it deeper to accommodate a sink that we haven’t put in yet. It was so fun building again. I haven’t built a piece of furniture since high school. Thank you for your amazing plans!

 

Seasonal And Holiday

Haley's Fancy Farm House Style Bed

Submitted by meg67 on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 07:38

I completely made all of my my teen daughters bedroom furniture from plans from Ana-White.com.

Farmhouse Bed
Open File Cabinet with desk top for dressing table
Open File Cabinet for side tables.

Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Grandy hanging door w/ live edge slab

Submitted by ctufano on Fri, 09/02/2016 - 07:48

My wife and I were originally going to build a different plan from Ana, but she wanted to have hanging barn doors and we found this and said PERFECT! I tweaked the plans a little for the height as it would be too close to tv (where will I put my turntable?! :P ) and started to build. Built it from all pine. The structure wasnt too bad and went together wonderful. Painted it up with an exterior grade paint for durability, but didnt like how easy it  would actually marr so I hit with three coats of spray polycrilic from minwax.

Due to time constraints and traveling every weekend, this took us all of a better part of 5 weeks to complete.

Made all the track from McMaster aluminum, some amazon pulleys for wheels, and some shoulder bolts w/ locknuts. This prevents from overtorquing the nuts down and binding the wheels :)

The TOP is my favorite part! I ordered a 13' piece of live edge pine slab w/ bark on from a mill in Ohio shipped to Florida, and had them rip it to my 92.5" length and the width I wanted for the top. Once I received I filled all the cracks/voids/knots with West Systems 2 part epoy, then sanded the entire unit from 80, 120, 220 grit. I used a belt sander to rip off any bark I couldnt pry off. Then some pre-stain, a very quick wiped off coat of Minwax Espresso, and 3 coats of spray on satin polyurethane (only 2 on bottom). Came out BEAUTIFUL!

Bought some TE brand LED light kit (5m) on amazon for $18 shipped and super glued to the shelf. Had to put a 0.50" hole on one side toward the front to pass the light string thru, and used electrical tape to black out the lights running vertical in the corner.  They are also programmable and color changing.

Table top is 92.5" long

Unit is 88.5" long

Beautiful piece that people have been raving about.

Thanks Ana for the plans!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$1,000 - the wood slab was $600 with shipping + saw mill cuts I had them do for lengths/width. Epoxy to fill cracks was another $120...
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Minwax espresso, spray satin poly
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

ctufano

Thu, 09/22/2016 - 11:30

also, this table is 92.5" wide. Thats a 70" TV and a great dane. Some people have thought its small and didnt realize the tv and dog size lol

Modified Firepit Bench

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/14/2020 - 09:12

I built the one bench using the original plan with the storage and table top unit but needed two additional seating benches to go around the firepit without the bulk of the backside of the bench.

I modified the original plan as follows:

Shopping List:
(2) 2X6X8
(3) 2X4X8
(2) 1X6X8

Cutting List:
(2) 2X4X17" front legs, 15 degree cuts, parallel long to short
(2) 2X4X23" back support, 15 degree cuts, parallel long to short
(2) 2X4X20.75" back legs, 15 and 60 degree cuts, not parallel long to long
(2) 2X4X23" Back support, 15 degree cuts, parallel long to short
(2) 2X4X24.75" under seat, 15 degree cuts, not parallel long to long
(2) 2X4X30" bottom support, 15 degree cuts, not parallel long to long
(1) 2X4X42" bottom cross brace between leg sets, 90 degree cuts
(2) 2X6 cut equally in half, 3 for the seat and 1 for the top plate
(2) 1X6 cut equally in half, 3 for the back rest and 1 to be tucked under the seat overhang

Estimated Cost
$40.00
Estimated Time Investment
An Hour or Two (0-2 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

kkushner

Sat, 08/15/2020 - 22:52

I am the individual who submitted this modification on June 14, 2020. I was making a change to the submission but somehow sent it before correcting the cut list. The "(2) 2X4X23" back support, 15 degree cuts, parallel long to short" is repeated twice and should be only once.

Easy School Organizer Shelf

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/18/2024 - 10:51

Was super simple to make. Got our bookbags out of kitchen chairs. As suggested in plans we used 2x3. Its plenty deep for notebooks. Love all your plans. Thanks!!

 

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