Community Brag Posts

Originally built this to be part of a set and then took it home. (My two year old loves the bench!) Used 4x4s for the legs and increased the table thickness to 2".

I made this farmhouse storage bed using three different plans! For the headboard and footboard I used the plans for the regular (with no storage) Farmhouse bed. For the storage and bed part I used the farmhouse storage bed plans. I also put the footboard on hinges so that I could access the huge amount of storage under the bed. I got that idea from someone else on here who posted it. Hers had a built in box below the footboard for storage but I just really like having the massive space under there. (My kids think its their fort!) We also put 2x2 kickstands on hinges on the sides behind the footboard so that we could stand the footboard as a table. (I really don't think that feature will get utilized but oh well)! I'm very happy with how this bed turned out! This is the coolest coolest bedroom set I've ever had and I paid the smallest amount for it!!! It blows my mind! I did not add drawers because I really like the open look better. Thanks for these plans Ana and anyone else whose I looked at!

When my daughter was born I promised that I would make her a dollhouse. A few weeks ago I found these plans, and absolutely loved the visual layout of the rooms. I stuck with this layout and tweeked the dimensions according to what worked best for the space it would proudly sit in. It is 46 inches high and 31 inches wide at the walls, and is made from 12 inch wide MDF which I primed with a latex primer and then finished off with a semi-gloss white on the majority of the walls. I also mixed the colors for the roof and also the 3 accent walls to give it an extra wee shot of color. 
I was very, very happy with the end result, and haviong caught what I now know as the "dollhouse bug" I though "what about if I added a chimney ?". So I added it. I then thought what about adding a roof ridge and something to cover my dodgy gable on the roof front . The house looked even better. Progressing onto full-blown "dollhouse-flu",  I then decided to make a chair for what would later be the living room. That was it, fully addicted now I couldn't stop and found myself obsessively planning, designing, messing up, re-designing, cutting, building and painting until I reached the point where last night I attended my first "DA" meeting. 
I found Dollhouse Annonymous very helpful and although not cured, I realise that it is perfectly acceptable for a 44 year old Scotsman to build a dollhouse for the daughter (naughty 2 1/2 year old daughter) that is the love of his life. If she is happy when she unwraps it on Christmas morning, then all of the work shall be worth it. 
This site is top of my bookmark list and I love it. !

I chose to modify the outdoor daybed with canopy for my finished basement, to replace a secondhand sleeper sofa.

The only power tool I used was a drill, including screwdriver bit -- with hand tools it took longer, but wasn't impossible.

So I went to the DIH Workshop held at my local Home Depot and finished my cart over the weekend. I had the guy at HD cut my plywood down, won't make that mistake again. He made each one about a inch shorter than I asked for so I had to make my adjustments for everything else based on that. Next time I will take a tape measure with me to make sure instead of lugging everything to my car, taking it home and then measuring.

All-in-all I like the way it came out even with the minor adjustments still a fantastic cart.

This project was a task! The bed is huge so we brought it into the room in pieces and put it together inside. Pretty happy with the outcome

After searching retail stores for farmhouse tables and not liking the pricetags, my wife talked me into tackling this plan. (I'm glad she did) This is my finished product.

I made the breadboards extendable so we could add extra boards if we needed additional seats for guests.

After doing some string art with the Kindergarteners in my class, the were anxious to pound some nails in "all the way." I remembered seeing this plan before on Ana's website, and earlier in the week our science teacher had been talking to the Kindergarteners about how the seeds they had planted were starting to get too big for their containers. The students themselves suggested a bigger box to put them in, and just like that... our next project was born!

The students did every part of this build, except for the cutting of the boards. They loved it, and couldn't believe how quickly they put it together. Here are a couple of tweets to show these little #elemakers at work!

https://twitter.com/JimTiffinJr/status/830163344057327617

https://twitter.com/JimTiffinJr/status/830164086847655936

https://twitter.com/JimTiffinJr/status/830164527304077313

Thanks for sharing some very simple projects and plans that even the littlest of builders can do!

This is my first full sized table project.  I wanted to make an inexpensive dining table with nice looks and this one fit the criteria.  I deviated from the plans by making the legs frames and the middle truss using rabbit and dado joinery.  As a result the middle truss and leg frames did not have to be fastened together with any screws.  This design modification made it easier to build in the garage and be able to move easily into the house for final assembly.  Top is made of SPF lumber stained to match the natural colour of the cedar legs and truss frame.  Thanks Ana for the inspiration to build this beutiful piece.

Wood tilt out trash can cabinet made from this plan, with some changes. I did a fancier cabinet door, along with a top that overhangs on the sides as well as the front. 

On a rainy morning in early January 2015, my wife and I were sipping our coffees and starting to get ready to take on the day. It was a Saturday morning, so we didn't have to go to work. We had moved into our house about a year ago so a few of our rooms were still a little bare and simply acted as play rooms for our daughter.

I walked out of my office, and looked over to the empty dining room which was immediately adjacent. Coming from a large Italian family, most of my childhood took place around a large dining room table at my grandmother's house outside of Philadelphia, PA. This empty room just didn't seem right. I decided to do something about it.

I remembered walking around Restoration Hardware seeing this amazing farmhouse table that was around $2000. Way out of our price range for a simple dinind room table. It also didn't come with any benches or chairs. It would have cost me around $2600 when all was said and it just gave me some severe heartburn.

I stumbled upon Ana's site here and decided to look around a little. Low and behold almost the exact same table was featured here. After getting over a short panic attack about building a piece of furniture that we would be using quite often I headed to Home Depot, got the materials, some new tools and got to work.

Not only do I think it turned out awesome, it was an amazing stress relief. Two weeks later and bought the Kreg Jig and built a matching bench. These pieces are so solid I could drive my car onto them. Thanks, Ana for the confidence to get this done the right way and save me about $2000.

Onto my next project, a jewelry armoire for my wife's valentine's present.

Made this one with shelf edges/trim just on the sides. Somehow my top shelf didn't span the width so had to add a little shim on each side but it all worked out! We had all the pallets and used 1x3s for the frame because some of my pallet wood was heavy hardwood. It was not without frustration because I was working with uneven/warped pallet wood but it hits the rustic look.  I am happy with how it turned out. 

I built this Benchmark Storage or Media Tower as I was looking for some thing to put beside our fire place.  I wanted to build some thing that would be about the same height as our fire place so it stands 40 1/4" tall.  Also, this month was a the contest to build things from scrap lumber so I took 2 x's that I had laying aorund and cut them down to 1 1/4", then glued together and planed down to make butcher block for the door and top.  The sides were actually built from 1 x 6.  I also ended up purchasing a Kreg shelving jig so that I could change the shelving.  A tool that I highly recommend if you are going to build alot of these projects with shelving.  One down and one to go! 

I got some oak barrels from a local vineyard and decided to try making some adirondack chairs. It was harder than I thought it would be, but well worth it!! The stain was a little darker than I thought it be, but it's rubbing off on me!

predrill, predrill, predrill, and learned a valuable lesson in predrilling, as solid wood under strain cracks easy when using 2 1/2" deck screws!

I need to whip out the nice camera and stop using my cell phone for finished products!