My wife and I found some grass clothe mirrors at a local home decor store that we loved, but they were either too big or small for our space. (Not to mention they ran $300-$450!!!) Using the same height/width ratio I built my own.

For this project we used:
-spare 1x4 and 1x6 pine boards left over from other projects (SORRY, I do not have the cut list)
-brad nail gun
-miter saw
-piece of 1/4" plywood (to hold the mirror in on the back)
-8 wood screws (to fix the plywood to the frame)
-an old bathroom mirror
-glass cutter (~$6-8 at Home Depot)
-gloves (for cutting and handling the glass)
-olive oil (for lubricating the glass cutter)
-grass clothe (had to buy it online by the roll ~$75, only used half)
-scissors
-spray adhesive (~$6-8 at Home Depot)
-picture hanger hooks (~$1 at Home Depot)

I spent more time thinking about how to construct the frame than actually making the cuts and building it, which took about an hour. I then spent about a month waiting for the grass clothe to arrive in the mail. Then it was about another hour cutting and affixing it to the frame with my wife.

Simple Modern Toy Box with Lid

-made with pine.

- paint was matched at Sherwin Williams to other furniture.

Designed and built vanity, mirrors, plumbed, tiled, and wired and installed lights.

Another piece that my wife saw online that she liked. We wanted a new entertainment center for the house. I looked at the photo and drew up the plans in my head and got to building. This was a one day build and came together really nice.

I decided to post this project as I know there is room for more information on finishing. I know I can be overwhelmed with all the different types of finish work out there as well as their associated tips/tricks, which are often not on the manufacture's directions!

My wife and I had some black furniture, which we were tired of. Some of it started from my bachelor days and some came later just to match things we already have. I really wanted to build new stuff for our living room, but it seemed like a little a bit of a waste, considering we liked it, minus the color!

Even though it was all sold as "better that Ikea" furniture, it was all pretty cheaply made with weak quarter turn screw joints and MDF.

The first thing I did was to take each piece apart and glue, pocket screw and nail the heck out of each piece.

I than scuff up the finish (committed now :-) ) with some 220 sandpaper. While my wife and I decided what color we wanted I looked into oil based paint. Even though it usually can't be found at HD or Lowe's a guy who worked in the paint department and was a professional painter for 30 years advised me to find some.

We both agreed that Latex paint never really seems to dry all the way, especially for a surface, which will have glasses and what not placed on them.

I got some oil based paint from a "paint store" and also bought a product called Penetrol to put in the paint. The Penetrol "watered down" the paint to allow more working time and avoid brush marks. I really tried to avoid usually a brush, and mainly used a very tight , high quality foam roller. It really work great and I just made sure I covered each area all the way from one side to the other. I would start with less Penetrol than they say. My paint was like soup and although it worked great, I figured you can always add more, but you can't take it out!!

The oil paint took about two days to dry in my garage (very cold now) and than I moved it into my house for the rest of the time. Once it was "cured" 3-4 days, it formed a shell like surface, which did not require any poly at all!

I feel it's about as good as you can get without having a sprayer. It was definitely more clean up as I needed paint thinner for the brushes I did use, but I stored them in zip loc bags in my garage refrigerator in between coats, until I was completely done!!

I hope this post helps someone out there!!

Farmhouse Hall Tree by Leila Adams

My buddy wanted this bed from Pottery Barn Kids but didn't want to spend $1300. It cost him $250 in materials and i built it for $300. So you DIY'ers could do it for $250. We also adjusted the size to fit a full size mattress.

This is my attempt at Ana's recycle console project from her new book "The Handbuilt Home". I made a couple of small changes to the pattern but for the most part stayed on course with her plans.

This piece of furniture is now being used at our cottage. I used 3/4 inch birch plywood for the cabinet and shelf and i used 1/2 inch MDF for the foldout compartment. I decided to use the MDF as it was a bit lighter than the plywood so not as much weight on the door when tilting it out.

The color is from Martha Stewart and is called Cayman Blue.

It took about 2 hours to build it. We have a large family, so we put 2 extra legs on each, just in case. We had problems with the hinges. I think we bought 3 or 4 different hinges before we found something that worked for us. But the end result was wonderful!

I built 2 beds by doubling the purchase list, then cutting 2 of everything. The hardest part was figuring out what to cut from each piece of wood. It would have been nice to have a detailed cut list so it would be easier to not waste any wood. As it turned out, I needed to purchase one extra 2x4 to finish the job. Not too much trouble. To cut cost, I bought 2x4 studs and had to dig through a half of a pallet of them at Lowes to find the straight ones, and even then some still had a bit of a twist. It's hard to find straight 2x4's.

On the landing, I predrilled countersunk screw holes about 3/4" deep, then after attaching them, I cut plugs, glued them in and sanded it down to a smooth finish. After paint, you can't tell how they are attached.

Having a chop saw stand was great because I could set up a cut length and then quickly cut all the boards I needed for that length. I also used a jig for my drill press and set up to drill all the holes at one time for the landing boards.

The KREG pocket hole joint works wonderfully well in this application. Just make sure you get the right length and diameter screws. The first box of screws I bought were too big around to fit the hole drilled.

As you can see, there are two happy kids that never want to get down off of their beds.

Thanks for the plans, it was a great experience.

Andy

Each nightstand features different hardware and finish.

I've been looking for a bench for our hallway for months and have yet to find one I love, but I did fall in love with Mimi's Storage Bench and Hall Tree.

I was determined to make this bench for free. My husband scavenged construction sites for salvage and brought me home quite a bit of scrap. Once I had a nice assortment of boards, I began the job of making them fit the specs. This was much more time consuming than purchasing boards that were the right size to start with. I got quite familiar with the planer (I had to plane down 2x's to 1x's) and even faced the terrifying table saw to rip a few boards down to size.

The lid was made from an old shelf and the inside panels are an old painting from art school--on masonite--that I finally brought myself to part (with). I already had the paint left over from a table I made over, so that was also free!

It didn't take much convincing to get my husband to pick up a pockethole jig. He's been wanting one himself. It was actually a lot more fun and much easier to use than I expected.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. It's made out of some pretty rough wood, so there are a few holes I'll go back and fill in the future--or maybe not. There are also some rough spots and less-than-true boards, but not bad for a free piece of furniture.

This was my first big woodworking project. It was a lot of fun and I gained a lot of knowledge and confidence that I'll use to build more ambitious projects in the future. I think woodworking is actually easier than sewing because boards generally don't stretch, shift, snag, and unravel while you're working.

I plan to scale this plan down, add some safety hinges, and notch the board under the front of the lid to make a bench/toy box for my little girl's room.

Using Ana's 10 dollar raised garden planter box idea, I made my own using the cedar fence boards and then used 2 x 3 x 8 studs for the L corner supports and mid center support along with top rail. This photo is the first 3, I will have a total of 6 boxes. Will post more as I progress.