Community Brag Posts

This cubby was my very first project! I just finished remodeling my kitchen, all that was missing was a place for my keys, dog leashes etc. My little house doesn't have a proper entryway so I created a "welcome station" with this cubby. The trickiest part was definitely cutting the sides, but I was able to get those tight circles with a little forethought and a lot of sanding :) I used leftover paint and samples from choosing colors for the kitchen, so it automatically coordinated with the rest of the decor.

Made the standard full farmhouse bed with storage, but did a couple modifications. 1) Didn’t use drawers, but wanted closed, not open cubbies. I made the drawer fronts and then attached with full overlay hinges and magnetic catches do they open from top down like a horizontal cabinet. 2) built the slats as two, one piece slat frames which sit on the cleat so that they can easily be removed for the extra long term storage between the cubby boxes. Just lift mattress and the two pieces of slats and lots more space. 

Due to rain (and horrible ability) this project has been taking a LONG time it seems. =) We had one of those "cheap" playsets from one of the warehouse clubs that would scare me to death anytime my girls got to swinging on it. So... we knocked it down and I took some liberty with the details from Ana's playset plans.

I built these bookshelves with the help of my husband for our daughter's nursery. They were so simple to build, the finishing work is what took the most amount of time. They're very sturdy, and we get tons and tons of compliments on the 'feel' that they add to the nursery!

After accepting a job in a skilled nursing facility last April, our son move out of our house, taking with him all the furniture from his room. As a result, he virtually left my wife and me a blank canvas to do as we pleased. My wife wanted to put twin beds in the room, and as such, searched high and low for two adult twin beds, all to no avail. Then one day while looking on Anna White’s website, she saw plans for various types of beds, including adult size twin beds. She printed the plans for the beds and asked, “Can you make these?” I studied the plans for a moment, and said, sure. Because the plans were so detailed and easy to follow, I was able to construct both twin beds over the period of a weekend. For me, I found the shopping list and the cut order to be the most useful section of the plans.

My dining room has no storage and I've been trying to find a place to store all of my bowls, serving dishes, etc; for some time now. I saw a leaning ladder shelf system at Crate and Barrel that I fell in love with but it was $500 which was out of the question. Last summer I built Ana's outdoor couches with absolutely zero experience and they came out great, so I decided to take a chance and try something else. This was my first time using a circular saw, and also my first time using a Kreg Jig! Honestly, halfway through this project I was concerned I bit of more than I could chew but I stayed calm and just kept following the plans. I'm so thrilled with how they came out! I ened up using a scrap piece of the 1 X 12 board for the "desk" piece to make the center a little bigger since I wanted it to serve as a serving board of sorts. I reenforced it with a support board since it was a little longer than the original plan called for.  I am beyond thrilled with how this came out, I honestly like it better than the one I saw at C&B since it's custom to my space! This was so easy if I could do it, anyone can. My total cost came to about $130. Not too shabby for a knock off! I'm already on to my next project. I don't think I can buy "factory" furniture again now how much better cost and quality I can get doing it myself! Thanks Ana!

We picked up a couple 14.9" square plastic garden planters from Home Depot and ended up creating some wood planter boxes from pallet wood for them to sit in. 

I didn't add up the cost of these boxes, because we had most of the wood and only needed a few pieces, but I'd say they were definitely less than $10 a box. 

We altered our dimensions to fit our HD planters so they would slip in for a snug fit and made the legs flush with the top of our sides. We build a simple frame for the top, which allowed the lip of our HD planters to sit firmly on top. 

Something I didn't do, but wish I did: fill in the cracks with wood filler.  There were a couple places that really could have used it, but I was in a rush and decided to skip it.  They turned out great, but could have been even better had I taken an extra 30 minutes.  On an off weekend, we are going to use wood filler in the seams, sand them down, and do a second coat of white paint. 

Can't wait to plant these with some mums for Fall! :)

This was my first big furniture piece that I've built. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I used 5/4 poplar for the tops instead of the 2x10s for the table and 2x6s for the benches that the plans called for. Finished the tops with Minwax Early American stain then 3 coats of satin oil based polly. Finished the bottoms with water based Minwax tinted River Stone then coated with water based polly. 

We've been looking for some saddle back stools for quite a while that would fit snug under our kitchen island. I couldn't find any, so I checked Ana-White and found the perfect building plan. I used scraps to build two matching stools and so I altered the plans to fit what I had. Other then the dimensions being different, I also used a 2x12" piece of wood cut down to 9x15" for the stool top.

I've documented the process as best as I could at; http://www.tommyandellie.com/Site/Home/Entries/2011/6/13_More_Seating_f…

My first build! I tore apart two old pallets to get the surface boards for the table. The skirting is 1 x 6's from the hardware store. I need larger casters but am saving up for the real vintage ones.

Thisi s a bedside table that I made for my good friend Gayle for next to her log bed in her log cabin at Higgins Lake, MI

Thanks for the plans Ana!

I stuck to the design but changed the dimensions to suit the space and the boxes we intend to store. This made the shelves 7.5 feet high by 8.5 feet wide. The timber was supplied in 17’ lengths so this also meant very little wastage. The frame is composed of 2x4’s, the shelves are 4.5 x 1.5’s  - as I wanted the shelves slightly shallower this meant I could get away with three boards for each shelf instead of 4 as on the plans. 

For the short cross pieces I used woodglue and screws – to attach the long shelf pieces I just used screws. I predrilled holes in the first piece for each of the screws, but I didn’t drill a pilot hole in the next piece, the screws were self-tapping and didn’t need one.

The back wall is concrete block and I screwed each upright to the wall using wall plugs and screws. I’ve 2 young children and as the shelves are quite high I was afraid they might climb on them and tip them over otherwise. The attachment to the wall definitely makes the whole thing feel much sturdier – the structure is completely rigid.

The only real issue I encountered was that some of the boards were slightly twisted or warped – and I had to apply some force to keep everything square when I was gluing up. Overall I’m very happy with the end product, and found it reasonably easy to put together. Now its time to put the shelves to good use and start tidying up the garage!