Community Brag Posts

I loved the simplicity of the loft bed. My daughter wanted it to be like a house so I built a wall. This is my first project ever using any power tools. I know it's not perfect but the joy if knowing that I did this all by myself with no help from my husband is priceless. It literally took me a day to cut the wood and put it together however since I am in no way a painter painting it took me a little over a week between priming the wood and getting the color just as my ever so picky 5 year old liked between painting the walls in her room at the same time.

Awesome project and my son couldn't be happier.

Living in a small apartment in NYC, I had to rent the mitre saw from Home Depot ($50 for the day) and lug it and all the lumber up the flights of stairs. Other than that, the project was a breeze and took two days, by myself, from start to finish. I added some metal L brackets at some of the load bearing joints for extra support. Also used a 2x4 as the mattress rest (instead of a 2x2) and added another 2x4 as a center beam to support the mattress.

All that's left is painting and decorating, either with a curtain or plywood, depending on what my son wants. Thanks for the plans!!

A slight modification from Ana's original plans, but with the same character and feel.  I did not include the footboard, at least not yet, and we wanted reading lights mounted and wired to the headboard.  I bought track lighting fixtures, mainly because they were the size we were looking for. I ran each light to individual switches on each side of the bed posts and then concealed the wiring in routed-out board on the back and down the one post to a cord.  I also subbed out the 50w halogen bulbs (hot!) for 35w LEDs, which is the perfect amount of light and cool to the touch.  I did alternating width boards and then stained the edges of all the exposed wood with an ebony dark stain.  Once dried, I painted an antique white, distressed with sanding along the edges, exposing the stain, and then sealed with a light brown wax creme finish to give it a little more character.  A simple, solid and heavy project that should last for decades.

This project is the fancy hall tree made out of walnut and maple panels.

Grandpa made this bed for my daughter. He followed the plans but made some changes so that it could be taken apart if needed, changed some of the design elements. It's so cute! Love that it's handmade and can be passed down.

Used the Henry Media Console project as a starting point but wanted to change the height of the shelves to better fit my electronics. I put my center speaker on top, so my receiver and DVD player were going to be on the shelf. I measured it all out and decided I would go with a 7" shelf and a 13" shelf. My plan was to have a solid 3/4" back (so I could still use my PHs and screws) with a 1" opening at the top that wouldn't be able to be seen when watching TV. That would be for cable management and allow heat to escape. 

Well once it was all built, I realized the shelf was not deep enough for my receiver and that it was going to hang off the front of the shelf...I couldn't have that. So I ripped off the back panel I had on there and went and bought some luan. At that point I came up with a hidden way to allow for a deeper top shelf, allow cables to go down and out instead of up, and also not have any opening be seen. The bottom back is just attached to the shelves, the top back is attached to the back of the entire shelf. That leaves 1.5" of extra depth to the top shelf and allows the same distance for cables to escape to the back. I'm very proud of myself! ha!

Once it was built I put the stain on using a cloth...never again. As you can see, it was way too dark. At that point I decided rustic was the way to go by sanding it all down. It turned out much better than I had ever imagined. 

With only slight modifications to the plans for this Hall Tree, we wanted more arms on this bench, we now have our own Heirloom! I did change some of the joinery in this project to Mortise and Tenon, however the Pocket Holes would have been considerably easier and faster.

I built a ledge from some scrap wood laying around but had to buy a 1X6X8 for the bottom. It took about an hour to build from cutting to finish and then another couple hours to paint. I needed this in our bathroom because we have no bathroom storage and I needed to get medicines and such up away from busy little hands. Awesome plans, great little shelf!! Thanks, Ana!

My very first piece of furniture.  Same dimensions as Ana's but I used pocket holes instead of nails and glue (excepts for the plywood backing panel).

When I got Ana's book The Handbuilt Home, I was super excited to tackle a project. It just so happened that her mirror plan on page 37 also makes a perfect trophy display. I just replaced the mirror with stenciled cork board so my daughter could display keepsakes along with her trophies and medals.

I followed the plan pretty closely, but I added some cove molding to the center to hold the cork board in place. You can find more details on my blog.

First big build with my boyfriend. We wanted to build this bed for his daughter's 14th birthday, so she would have something hand made from us to keep for a long time. This bed is solid and turned out amazing. The pictures don't do it justice as you cannot see the paneling on the head and foot boards. We used the kreg jig on the side panels attaching the head and foot board in order to make it easy to take apart and move when she goes away to college.

I've needed a console table for under the stairs but everything I've looked at has always been too long. l took the plans for the Rustic X Console table and modified them to fit the space perfectly. I love the look that I was able to get by adding the 1x2 Xs to the top.

We added a 2nd tier and left space from the beds as they have drawers that slide out. Will be building some filler boxes that come up about 2' creating kind of a headboard and another shelf area about 7" wide.

This was my first attempt at a bigger project. As with most, the finish took the most time. I modified the size of the table because I made it for my sister. It was also the first time I used a belt sander, and I loved it! It made the top nice and even. I did have a huge debacle when trying to fill the gaps of the table with clear silicone...that is definitely something that requires practice! I ended up removing all of the silicone and just allowing the top coat to sink in. Luckily, it just peels right out, although it did leave some clumps that took a little extra care to remove. But overall, I loved how it turned out, and my sister loves it too. I made the bench too.

We bought this house about a year ago and we finally got around to removing this pointless niche!  The center divider and bottom were removed.  The cabinet and hutch were assembled seperately.  

This is still a work of progress.  I am looking for a nice decorative molding face for the top.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!  We will most likely paint it white to match the fireplace mantle.