Community Brag Posts

My wife came to me with a request to build her a rustic, farmhouse style table and bench. She had researched a bit and found your site. Just completed today. 8x47. We have a large family so I changed the dimensions a bit. I also added an epoxy resin finish for durability and mirror bright shine. All we have to do now is buy chairs. Now she wants a matching "server". Happy wife, happy life.  :-)

The table is make of 2x10 heavy pine, 4x4's and 2x4's. I used 6 inch and 4 inch tru lock screws as well as 3.5 inch Kreg pocket screws 

Construction phase of the bunk beds was about a day and a half project...Cutting, assembling, screwing, bolting. Nothing complicated about it at all. Just followed the instructions step by step. I didn't use metal brackets to reinforce the mattress rails (that the slats lay on). I'm a good 250lbs and I laid on them without a problem. Also, similar to the posted Comments, the original materials list is short a little lumber. I followed the advice of some of the Comments that indicate how much additional wood you'll need. I didn't have to make any additional trips for wood.

The finish took me another 2-3 days (incl. drying wait-time between stain and polyurethane coats). The sanding (electric hand sander) takes a number of hours to sand all the surface area and all the edges (300 grit). I then I applied 1 coat of pre-stain wood conditioner and then immediately 1 coat of Natural color stain (basically clear oil stain but it brings out the wood grain just a bit), and then 2 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane for a shine / protection. Each of those coats took me 2+ hours as I applied them using a paint brush (vs. spray gun).

Since I only need to take apart the bunk beds into 4 pieces to carry upstairs(front, back, 2 sides), I simply bolted them together using 3" bolts (with washers / nuts). 4 bolts in each of the 4 corner posts.

The only real modification I made was moving the ladder to the left-hand side (vs. right-hand side per the instructions). All other measurements were basically the same.

Really happy with the mini Kreg Jig! Simple to use and provides solid joints for the rails of the 2 shorter sides (without showing screw-heads from the exterior).

My toddlers have been sleeping on them for a week now and no squeaking or shaking. They are sturdy. And neadless to say, my boys LOVE having bunk beds.

Sure I could just buy some inexpensive bunk beds for $200-300 but where's the fun in that!?

Let me know if you have questions, happy to help out! Thanks again to Ana and her site.

After dreaming about a new bed for ages, I finally built up the nerve to make our own.  This was actually pretty easy, but it helped to have hubby there for some parts, just because of the size and weight of this thing.

My 1x8s were 7.25", so to compensate, I just added a single 1x2 in the middle.  Perfect fit!

We like to move (!) so we modified the bed to be easily moveable.  I purchased some heavy duty bed hardware from Amazon ($25) and deck/joist hangers from Lowes. 

I put the deck hangers on the bottom of the 2x10s, and the 2x4s sit vertically and free in the hangers.  So, next time we move, we'll just pick up the 2x4s, and unlock the 2x10s from the head & footboards and take off!  :) 

We lowered the 2x10s so that the total height of the mattress + box spring + vertical 2x4s wouldn't be too high for me to climb on to every night.  I have knocked my toe nail on the side rail a couple of times already, so maybe in hindsight I should have raised it a teensy bit.  

I did forget to decrease the length of the side rail, since we didn't hang it on the inside like Ana did.  That's an easy fix, though.

For the finish I used Weathered Gray stain first....and freaked out because it looked SO gray!  But I convinced myself it would turn out, so I kept going.  Next I did some heavy sanding, followed up by Special Walnut stain.  Finished up with a coat of furniture wax over the layers.   

We LOVE our new bed!  Thanks, Ana, for the plans and your website!  Next up: replacing those 1999-era side tables and dresser!  :) 

This is my spin on the Wooden Nickel Brain Teaser Puzzle produced by Creative Crafthouse. The design is simple - make slots for nine pennies in a row. I made the design more complicated by adding hardwood inlay on the sides and adding a built in compartment for the pennies when the game is being stored.

The object of the puzzle is to remove the coins from the board.

Setup:

• Place nine coins in the slots. The order of heads vs. tails should be random.

Rules:

• The person playing may flip any one coin before starting the game.

• You can only remove coins facing heads.

• Once a head facing coin is removed, you must flip the neighboring coins over. Note that blank spaces (gaps) do not count as neighbors.

• Keep removing heads and flipping neighbors.

• Can you remove all the coins?

More Info: https://www.instructables.com/id/Penny-Flip-Puzzle/

Video Solution: https://youtu.be/htWBFFLR_EM

I cannot take any credit for helping with the creation of this bed (only helping carry some pieces up the stairs) but my Aunt Cheryl is the heart and soul of this amazing bed! It is themed candyland as you can see the cupcakes, lollipops, and candy cane my aunt added with her own special twist. The stairs are storage and there is a little door underneath (in the house) that has a shelf in it. This is the best thing ive ever seen and am sooo thankful for my aunt making an amazing bed for my daughter. I just had to share, definitely worth bragging!

Simple desk made from maple veneer paint grade plywood.  It's very sturdy and looks great.  The last photo shows a matching dresser that I made as well.  So far I've made two of these identical desks and another with 3 large drawers underneath to one side.  You don't have to have alot of fancy tools and expensive wood to make great looking, sturdy, and functional furniture.  As always, sketchup plans available!

I started this just for fun and ended up doing so much more

The Plans for this project made it relatively easy for a first time builder. Always wanting to build some furniture for my wife, I decided to start with this and it turned out way better than I ever expected. I used red oak and oak purebond plywood. I took a slightly different approach, using a 3/4" thick board of plywood for the back vice the 1/2 inch, which really gave the back a nice solid feel. I also assembled the lattice backing directly onto the backing plywood board and then attached the completed back to the finished Bench section (I know I didn't explain that well, the pictures show it better). Lastly I left off the arms for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that I still need some work on cutting curves. Finished with one coat of Cabot Dark Mahogany and 2 coats of Rust-O-Leum satin polyurethane.

I built this bed when my kids and wife were away on vacation (again).  It was for my youngest (3 1/2 yrs) who loves, or shall I say loved Minions.  I had one month to get it done.  Room is small so I designed it with the stairs on the front.  I ordered minion stickers and cut out the shapes from plywood then glued the entire sticker.  The figures also serve as support for the rails.  

On the side of the stairs is a storage area while on the inside there's an opening with another storage area for chalk and toys!  There's a chalkboard inside the playhouse and a low voltage light. I left the side to the wall open which would allow using the bed in different configurations such that another bed would sit below it perpendicular to the top.  Just an idea.

Bad news is, after the initial day of excitement when she saw it, she asked for her toddler bed and didn't want Minions any more! 

The good news is that I lost about 15 lbs working on it part time after work!

The stairs are not yet finished as I will do two drawers and a shelf.

Unfortunately I never had time to put the design to paper.  It was all in my head mostly done during my commute to and from work.  I had a couple of big goof ups as a result as you would expect.

Came out super cute!

We made this for our son with regular pine boards.

We built this for our new grandson's nursery. The rest of his furniture is white and our daughter wanted to bring in some wood tones. We modified the table to be a little shorter than the plan so it wouldn't be too much taller than the arm of the glider in the nursery. I also added a 1x2 to act as a drawer stop.

I had just finished building the elementary trestle table when the plans for this came up! I fell in love and although I hadn't planned on building a bookshelf this needed to be done! I bought the four foot 1x12's cuz they were cheaper and they worked fabulously! The build was complicated and I redid things quite a bit but I was so so happy with the outcome! It was my final project for the room and I found the pink post it from my son the next day on his desk! Made all the hard work totally worth it! He loves his new room so so much!! Thank you ana!!! I would never have believed I could do this before

Used rustic x coffee table design for base. Used paint scheme someone else used in brag post. Made giant cribbage board top from redwood slab. Majority of time involved sanding slab which came rough and finishing the polyurethane. 

I used your plans for the table but changed the table dimensions to fit my space. My table is square and measures 58"x58". I also changed the chairs to have a straight back and then the top is is cut at a 6 degree angle. I love them so much!!!

Thanks for the nightstand idea!