Community Brag Posts

I've been married for a little over 12 years now and we have NEVER had a bed frame or side tables. I had never built anything on my own (without the hubbies input) and I have to say that it was extremely empowering! I'm so proud of how it turned out! It took me a while to cut the pieces out because I used a handsaw and guide....ugg, we need a saw and once I get one I'm moving on to a bed frame!

I'm new to woodworking but I'm already obsessed. I was looking for something I could make for Father's Day and came across this. I thought it'd be perfect for my dad especially if I did it in his favorite team's (Miami Dolphins) colors. It's definitely not perfect and there was a lot of frustration when it came to putting the cooler inside... but I'm proud of the finished product.

I built this chair for my son's second birthday this last Saturday! Even though it is not perfect I'm super happy with the outcome. :-)

I modified this plan and made it 83.5" to match the height of my window.

This was my first project to make from scratch by myself

Not 100% done, still have a few paint touch ups to do but I wanted to get this up here while my daughter's room was clean. We originally were planning on adding drawers to the stairs but the kids had so much fun playing under them while I was building it that we decided to open it up and add some string lights. It's also hard to see but the paint fades from purple at the bottom to pink at the top and has silver glitter added to it.

I desperately needed a toy bin the boys couldn't just dump over. This is a lot bigger than you'd think, but stores a LOT of toys! $30 for the project panel wasn't doable for me, planning on 3 of them. So I used 3/4" plywood instead since I was going to paint anyway. Then normal 1x12's and such for the rest. An hour to cut and build, the rest of the time was painting and waiting for it to dry.

I was shopping around for a bunk bed for my 2 and 4 year old girls. I didn't want the standard, cheap metal frame for $200, but I also didn't want to spend $2,000 on a big box store bed (made in China) with a 300% mark-up! I stumbled upon Ana's site and was HOOKED! I found the "Sweet Pea Bunk Bed" and immediately printed the plans.

I was a little hesitant to take on such a project because I am...by no means...a carpenter. I found a few mistakes in the instructions, but was able to work through them. I decided against the tin roof, pergola, and flower boxes, but instead went with a "beach house" theme.

My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE it! They especially love the windows and the little shelf where they can put their favorite toy at night when it's time to sleep. I also let each of our kids (plus mom and dad) put hand prints on the rails of the upper bunk so my daughter on the bottom bunk has something to look at. Added a push button light too.

My adivce to anyone thinking of doing this bunk bed: Read through the instructions thoroughly first. Do NOT take shortcuts. Cut, sand and paint EVERYTHING before assembling.

I work full-time and take a few night classes (for fun), so this project took me 4 weekends to build (including a 3-day weekend, thanks to a holiday). Enjoy!

Bench was made using the plans on the site. I modified the plans to create these accompanying 15" x 15" side tables. cut list for each table:

7 2x4 at 15" each (stained for the top part of the table).
4 2x4 @13 1/2" each (for legs)
5 1x4 @ 15" each (used for the top of the table)
2 1x4 @ 8" each (used for the top of the table)
4 1x4 @ 17" each (for legs)

Time varies depending on if you cut, sand, stain, and treat the lumber for outdoor use. The estimated time below is does not include time for the stain/weatherproof treatment.

Got plans from this site. Made two carts so far. Second one smaller. Iron wheel little $$

I'm doing a lot of projects in the shop this summer (starting with planing 240 fence pickts :S) and so I decided that this stool would be an excellent edition (better than plastic chairs) to the shop.

I increased the length of the legs to 30 inches (from the plan length of 23) and its quite solid with the increase.

I don't have a miter saw, so I did this with my table saw and the outcome was very good. Be sure you use a square to make sure your miter gauge is calibrated before making the cuts.

I used 1x2 and 2x2 (2) furring strips from orange that cost $3.12 and $1.47 respectively. I had some 1x12 scraps around and trimmed one down a bit and glued/screwed 1x2s on either side to make it wide enough.

I didn't fill the holes because filler is a bit pricey for the shop stool.

I think I'll make a round top for it eventually, but for now it does just fine.

New to raising chickens, but eager to jump right in to it.
We bought a pre-made coop for the main home for our new chicks and it's very nice, not something I could do myself since I'm not yet at that level, but I saw this chicken tractor and thought it would come in handy for what I have in mind so I made up my mind to build it.
The lumber, chicken wire, staples, and wheels are all store bought new and came to about $75. The materials we had on hand were the screws, hinges, plastic coated metal shelving (used in the nesting area, I thought that would make it easy to clean), paint, and the corner piece of vinyl siding for the roof cap (hubby's brilliant idea, and I painted it green with spray paint for vinyl).
I did not try to build it quickly, I don't really know how much time it took me, but if I had to guess I'd guess total time would amount to about 3 afternoons, by myself.
I wanted to leave the top on the one side open with the option to slap on the other boards if/when the need arises. I have the other t1-11 panels that can sit right in those areas because I stapled the chicken wire in a way that would allow it.
I also added a flip up panel as seen in the pictures for access. I didn't want a small door that I would have a hard time getting to things in there. I'm so glad I added this feature, it sure gives plenty of room for me to maintain the food and water dispensers as well as get in there and catch the little chickies :)
I wanted it green to blend into the wooded background in our backyard. I didn't want to take any beauty away from the cedar greenhouse and fencing we added last year, and this tractor would be moved from time to time and I felt this green that we had on hand was perfect to help it blend in rather than stand out.
This thing is heavy! I have a hard time moving it around and usually need my husband to move it so I won't hurt myself. I am considering some options... I don't like the rope I have on it to pull it, any suggestions would be appreciated.
As with the other items I've made with Ana's plans, this was fun and pretty easy to make. I love this site! Soon I will take on my next project, I've bought and gathered the materials, I'm anxious to get started :)
Thank you for looking :)

Well as any parent knows children have a lot of toys and pretty much take over every room in the house. Children also have fixation with pushing any button they see. So with that in mind I had to get creative. So one day while on break from work I walked next door to home depot (a bad and expensive place for me to work next door to) I walked by the discarded wood pile that is all 70% off like I normally do. Well to my surprise they had 20 10ft 1x12's sitting there. Some had dings and minor splits but I jumped on it and scored them all for $125.00. So when I found the time I started with building my bookcases with built in toy boxes then tore down that crappy old mantle that was up over the fireplace and got to work on a new one. We are mounting the TV over the fire place so I had to get creative and figure out (here comes my geeky side) where I was going to put my fairly large center channel speaker for my surround sound. well as you can see I just decided to build around it. I think it came out pretty cool and my little girl loves her toy boxes. I'm also happy I can now raise all my electronics out of the reach of curious little fingers.

Put this together over a weekend. First time using drawer slides. They're a little finicky,  just be patient.

I wanted to build something for my Daughter's 1st Birthday that would last a long time. This was perfect!

My Husband built this bed in about two weeks time (in addition to working 70+ hours at his real job). This past week I have helped with all the painting and decorating. As you can see he modified the plans to omit the slide. We hung soft white rope lights under the bed to illuminate the inside of the castle. My husband paired the rope lights with a remote control light switch so our daughter can turn them on and off safely. We are incredibly pleased with the results of our hard work as well as our sweet Natalie! Thank you Ana White for this amazing site of yours!!! My husband has also built from your site the clubhouse loft bed (PBK version) for our son, a computer desk, as well as the rustic X console table for me!!! We LOVE your site!!!! Thank you again!!!

Here's the kids new desk area that I built. One desk for each kid, one Mac for each kid.