Community Brag Posts

We really needed a large outdoor table for the Royal Wedding, and though the designs Simple Outdoor Dining Table would be perfect.

We used reclaimed roofing timer for the top and painted pine for the base. Really easy to build and it was a really quick solution. All in it cost us around £80 to build and took half a day.

Our finished stove and sink play kitchen! It was an easy build, it just a loooong time to paint, finish and find accessories. We found stuff mostly through amazon. It took us about 20 hours to do (4 for building) and turned out great. Some tips: Prime boards before assembling. It will save lots of time! We put 3 coats of poly to seal everything in. We used euro style self closing hinges which look so nice! Also, we ended up using black paint for the stovetop and white paint for the "burners"

I love working from these plans! 

I got a puppy. A joyful, full of energy and fun-loving English mastiff puppy. Best way to potty train a 40 lb puppy is crate training and the entry way's wall was getting eaten. So I made this in a couple of days. Mostly just waiting for the stain, paint and poly to dry and it's up and working. 

Hinges on sale at Lowes going out of business =$0.99

Latch on sale at Hobby Lobby 50% off = $5.50

Knob purchased at ReStore =$0.50

This is a continuation of my "crap the roommate moved out and I need furniture to fill the gaps before a party" series.

This one is pretty straight forward really, it's just the simple white outdoor chair with 2X4's instead of 2X2's for the arms. The slats are also a different size but that's hardly noteworthy since they get hidden by cushions anyways. Speaking of cushions, right now it just has some temporary ones covered with a throw to make it presentable, shortly here I'll make some better ones.

The plan really was quite simple and easy to make, the only thing I had to make sure of was that I could fit it up the basement stairs, so the back was left off and nailed in place once I got it in the living room.

Here are some tips I outline in my blog post on http://momprojects.com
1.) wood selection- I used pine. I think I would have used poplar if I did this all over again. I found out it is a bad idea to put pine through a joiner and planer due to the sap gumming up the machine. Therefore I was not able to properly mill the boards before starting. It didn't cause the bench to be misaligned but may have been slightly easier to put together had I squared up the boards. Sorry pine...I love you but can't have a sticky joiner!

2.) I built this quite a bit longer than the plans called for and so, for support, I cut 3 boards and kreg jigged them together in the shape of an 'H'. the top and bottom were cut to fit the width of the inside of the bench and the middle board that connects them I cut in the height of the bench (minus the height of the top and bottom support board). Set the 'H' in the center of the bench and use your kreg jig to attach it (mine is way off center but still works great)

3.) It is worth the investment to throw some molding around the bottom. I saved money by not putting molding on the back. I also used a lower grade pine for the sides and the back. In retrospect I probably should have done that on the top too since there is going to be a cushion on it. Oh yea..I am making one and will post it as soon as I do!

4.) Attach the hinges and put the entire top together before attaching it to the bottom part. For some reason getting the hinges on was a little tricky and I suspect would have been a disaster if I had already put the back of the top on the base.

5.) I built the bottom part of the bench and put it in the alcove in my bedroom before attaching the top. I did this mostly because I didn't want to carry that thing up 4 flights of stairs with the heavy top popping open. Once in place I threw on some wood glue, sat the top in place and used my nailgun to securely attach it. My mom was there with the paint roller to touch up a couple spots. Thank you mom, you always leave my house looking better than when you arrived :)

Keep on building on! This is the second peice I've built for our dining room - built a bar first. I opted to only make 2 pedestals instead of 3 that was on the plans. Dimensions are a tad smaller to fit our room nicely, measuring 90in x 40in. My wife and I absolutely love this table! I used Red Oak for the top and Doug fir for the base. Hardest part was lugging around that dense oak and looking for chairs! The stretcher was also a bit of a task as well. Had to go out a buy a rubber mallet to bang it in enough so that the slack on both ends were even. We particularly like this piece because it will be used often and many memories will be created around this table! Thanks again for the inspiration!

Hey All,

My wife and I had 5 children in 5 yrs (no twins), our oldest being 6. Christmas was fastly approaching and we were brainstorming on what to get them. Through the years we had spoken of an indoor climbing wall and/or ballpit due to the long hot summers in FL but never really dedicated the time to researching our options. We decided that Christmas would be a great time for a project like this. I sketched out a few ideas and started to google. I came across your site via a pintrest image. The wheels started turning very quickly for me, we were super excited as you can image. The dimensions are different (8x8 ish) from the indoor playground you all constructed but the bones were there thanks to you all. 

I measured our room, purchased the wood after creating a diagram of the basic frame work. 2 weeks (20hrs ish) later of sanding and precutting I started lugging approx 300-500lbs of material to our second floor playroom area.  Why so much material, you ask... We wanted to include all of the ideas we have had through the years plus a few others we came across on your site. It was a huge undertaking considering how many eyes were watching and the fact that we wanted to keep it a surprise. For the framwork I enlisted the help of #1 (the 6yr old) and we stayed up late and had great fun. Once we got to the point were I thought she would start connecting the dots I continued on by myself mostly. Every night I would mock up what was needed and then break it down to not give it away. Many long nights, cuts, a broken toe and a hole in the sheetrock later we were getting close.

The kids had their guesses as to what it would end up being but were ultimately super surprised. After 8 weeks of work during which we had my wifes family visit and then my parents came. Thank you to them all by the way b/c they worked on this too, which helped me immensly. Christmas Morning 90% of it was finished with the exception of the ballpit, canvas & foam coverings for safety. It took another 3 weeks to finish as I had never used a sewing machine before and wanted the kids to know this was a labor of love.

We ended up with monkey bars over a ballpit, cargo climbing nets on the far back wall and also transition from the ballpit to the top deck, outfitted with pirate telescope that leads to the slide and  LED lighting throughout. Under the deck we have a small fort like area for them. My wife and I decided to not fully enclose this space b/c we all know kids get into all kinds of mischief when they think noone is watching. The kids chose the name for the playground. Hope you like the "Toledo Towers" , I know they sure do :)

Thank you for access to plans, endless threads with advice and plenty of pics to motivate.

Juan Toledo & Fam

Tampa, Florida

This was a "family project," for a niece's second birthday present; uncle (my hubs) built it and Pa painted it. He started with the pictures on the blog, and designed it based on mom's specifications.

I redid a very old church pew fro one of my friends. It's origins is from one of the original churches in our home town. (There was SO much lacquer on it) This church pew was in bad shape, I had to take it totally apart and re-glue and pocket hole jig every wooden piece together because it was falling apart.

My wife is a preschool teacher and needed this badly. Easy project for a beginner like me. I got the mdf cut to size at my local hardwarestore. The build took me about 3 hours, the paintjob a lot longer. I made holes in the sides instead of the rectangular handles, because I thought that would be easier. And the holes work perfecty. I'm pleased with the finished project. Great quality for a small prize. Next up: the play kitchen!

While building this plan, we decided we liked it better with doors on the inside, and shelves on the outside. With some modern paint choices, we made this classic plan fit our style!

I wanted to build a small shower bench. I used the Providence Bench Plans and just made it a bit smaller with a few adjustments. This bench is 35" long and 18" tall. I did not use the cross supports on the bottom because it was so short. Also, you will see that I turned the bottom stretcher and side supports flat/horizontal. I put the screws for the seat boards through the top down just because this was the easiest way for me to do it. The plans did not show in detail how to attach the seat boards from the underside. It just said "finally, the seat boards." I guess they probably used a pocket jig. I bought a pocket jig and used it in the couple of places, but this was my first time using it. I used brown, coated decking screws in the places I did not use the pocket screws. This was my first attempt at building anything and my first time to use a pocket jig. I used a natural wood stain and Behr Weather-Proofing since it will be in a wet area.

my wife tagged me on facebook right before Xmas with the plans and picture of this, so i dusted off my tools and built her one as a present. its not only great for her but it makes the laundry easier for me as well. I had to mofidy the base of mine because my dryer vent comes up through the floor in the corner.

This was a challenge for me, since those 2x6 top boards were slightly twisted and or cupped. I love the X detail and that was fun to put together. I found some "L" brackets and spray painted them for the ends. I stained all the wood first, before assembling.It's a gray/brown stain, one of my favorites. I decided to white wash over the stain doing all of table except for the top. I used a wax finish. 

 Love it, many times my ukulele, mandolin, banjo and fiddle are all tucked away underneath.

When we moved into our new house, I figured it was time to replace my girls's mattresses on the floor with actual beds. so I set about making the twin storage beds with corner unit. I primed all the wood prior to cutting and assembling, and that made things go much faster. Assembling the corner unit was tricky, since i really didn't want to have sanding and much paint in their bedroom. (i loaded in the beds first and the corner unit a week later). I added trim that wasn't on the plan, and also used the magnetic paint on the center area, although it makes a weak magnetic surface. All in all, I LOVE the way it turns out and no one can believe that I built it and didn't buy it... (although it seems obvious to me when you look closely LOL)

This project was born out of desperation for some way to organize our garage. It is not difficult to build, and it went pretty quickly with two of us. It probably didn't take more than four hours tops for each section. I've seen the prices for garage storage components and some of them are staggering! We have removed a tall chrome shelf, and moved a ton of stuff onto these shelves, creating a hundred square feet of floor space! And for only $25! Come on over and check it out on my blog! Val