Community Brag Posts

I've made another record cabinet, this time with a nice dark walnut stain.  To see more details and plans visit my blog.

http://www.woodworkingfourdummies.com/

Cheers,

Ian

Modified plans to include game storage drawers, a flip open mantle for DVD player and hidden charging port, and hidden cupboards on both sides for DVD storage. I scoured the Internet for months before drawing this up to fit my space and tackling all on my own! I love it and all of my other Ana White inspired projects!

Casey O.

Love my new bar stool, now to build 3 more.    I think it turned out great.

Garage shelving using costco 27 gallon bin.

Tanni

I was inspired by Ana to DIY and save a lot of money. I bought $17 plywood which was the cheap stuff. Lots of knots and rough. I sanded the plywood and cut it into 8 inch planks. I rounded the edges and stained it one time. I nailed it directly to the subfloor and used liquid nails as a second bonding agent. After the floor was nailed in I re stained it and applied 9 coats of flooring poly. It turned out so good im doing the entire 1400 sq feet upstairs of my home! I plan on making many of Ana's furniture projects to fill the rooms once its all complete!

I built this as the prototype for the 1-Board Cedar Trinket Box plan. My goal had been to create something that would make a nice gift, only use 1 cedar fence picket (about $3 in wood), didn't require any special cutting or ripping, and could be made with just your miter saw and brad nailer (you could use regular nails and hammer too, but I love my nailgun!) Also highly recommend using a palm sander for this. (Love my power tools!)

As I was building I discovered the beauty of cedar, the imperfections of cedar fence boards, and the value of prototyping. I added some tweaks to the plan to identify the places where you should build the first part, then measure, then cut the next part.

This took about 2 1/2 hrs to build, which included a whole lot of sanding. I started with 80-grit, then 220 grit to get the board surfaces smooth. After the prototype was assembled and I noticed how much cupping there was in my fence board, I broke out the 60-grit and went over all the high spots to smooth them down. Next time I'll be much more careful to choose a board without much of a cup. It did give some real interesting grain patterns though, so it all worked out in the end.

For pulls I cut a couple of interesting looking knots from my cedar board and glued them on. The next one I'd like to try some strips of leather or maybe a rope knot for pulls.

I built this outdoor play area for my kids this past summer.  The area under that portion of the deck was always messy and muddy and so I wanted to make use of it.  I built the deck and anchored it with lag bolts to the deck supports.  On the one side I used rubber mulch and on the other there is play sand.  I dug holes in various locations and filled with gravel to allow for drainage under the sand and mulch.  For the awning I used plain cedar shingles.  I added a shower that is just regular 1/2" metal pipe with a hose adaptor.  The shower wall and fence are just old pallets that I had for a while, cut to size, which was pretty much random but they came out great.  I added a misting system under the awning that works great, the kids love the cool mist on the hot days. Overall, a heavy job ripping up the grass, moving the wood, gravel, stones, sand and mulch, but a fun deck build and even better experience doing this with my kids by my side!  

Kinda new at working with wood but I enjoyed this one and did it in under a day. I also just recently built a complete wooden fence before I did this so building frames was fun.

My son needed more room in his bedroom...and to be rid of the very girly furniture he inherited when he moved into his "big boy-ish" bedroom. At 10 yrs old, it was high time he got a bed that wasn't pink-tinged, white washed pine with 4 posters and enough curlicues to choke a forest. He also needed a desk which I couldn't really fit in his room with the armoire and chest of drawers that came with the Queen sized bed.

So off to Ikea we went and I saw a black loft bed for $300, but it was really, really high which meant I would have to cut it down and it was not sturdy at all. I looked at PB and saw the $1800 bed. Um, no - that wasn't happening. So, off to Ana-White I went and I'm so happy I did!

I built the full sized version of these plans and, to keep costs down, used wood I had on hand. This meant I had to work a bit at the cuts, but it all worked out.

Mods:
1) I modified the railings to have the ladder at the end of the bed to keep away from the ceiling fan.

2) Because I put the ladder at the end of the bed, I got very nervous about having a soon-to-be teen climbing on to a ladder secured to a 1x10 that was only connected to the side railings with glue and screws. So I sandwiched extra 1x3s over the bottom rails and attached them to the top railing.

3) I was very nervous about making sure that the bed was adequately supported so I put a 2x4 down the center instead of the 1x2.

4) I went a wee-bit overboard screwing things together to the point where it's a bit embarrassing and now I have to paint over the screw heads.

5) I made the ladder treads with 2x4's, modifying the inside spacer board cut lengths.

Because I had quite a bit of lumber on hand, the bed only ended up costing me about $90.

For the bookcase, I did end up buying the 1x12s and the adjustable shelf railings. I made the book shelf the entire width of of the bed and split the two sections based on width of the 1x24 board I bought for the desk. I only put the backer board up half way so that the daylight could get underneath the bed and make it not so cave-like.

The book case cost me about $70.

The desk was the easiest...but most costly item. A 1x6x24, 4 table legs and the table leg mounts ran me about $80. The plexiglass top that I had cut for the top cost me about $80.

Time wise, this would have taken me a lot less time than the 4 months it took - but I worked on it as I could and when I could, by myself. I got some friends to help me bring it upstairs and put it back together, but it was mostly done when I could fit in some time.

My son LOVES this and it really does give him so much room!!! Thanks Ana - I really appreciate it!

Yes, my husband and I share our bedroom with 6 dogs and an occasional cat (or 4). Our older dog (Petra) has slept on our bed for over 10 years, and she's getting too old to jump anymore. We didn't want her to feel like she was getting kicked off the bed, so I made Petra her very own bed at the end of ours so that she wouldn't feel left out. I was inspired by MurdaRae's dog bed (http://ana-white.com/2012/06/doggie-daybed), and thought it was genius to use a toddler/crib bed. So I went looking for plans on Ana-White, and came up with a mixture between a couple of twin bed plans. I love that the plans are easy enough to modify my sizes, and come up with exactly the custom solution that I need. This was my first big project using Bri-Wax. The last one was kind of a disaster when the wax changed the stain color to something not-so-great. With this project, I learned to wait at least 2 weeks before attempting to wax it. I was blown away with the results. It is a beautiful subtle satin finish that feels great to the touch. Plus, I can easily touch up all the dog fingernail scratches that will inevitably occur. When I re-assembled the bed in my bedroom, I actually nicked it in a few places. No problem -- slap on some more Bri-Wax! My Bri-Wax was 11 years old, and pure liquid. I tossed it in the fridge (per Bri-Wax's recommendation), and it was as good as new. The only real problem I had with this project was leaking sap from one of the 4x4s. I'm still fighting this today. In talking with Rustoleum/Zinsser reps, they said that no sap could penetrate their "Seal Coat" shellac product. After 5 coats, the sap is still penetrating, but only if I turn it on it's side or upside down. I'm still baffled. I made the mattress cover out of a dog blanket, and made the cushions from some remnant fabric (suitable for dogs and weekly washing), so this was a fairly inexpensive project. It was a success because Petra slept in her bed from the fist night and loved that she had all the room to herself, and no boston terrorists (I mean terriers) attempted to bother her.