Community Brag Posts

We built this bench for the same women's shelter for whom we built the storage table and benches at their request. They wanted a place for the children to come in and remove their shoes. Since it was for children, we modified the height to be the same as the other small benches, 14". Leftover gray primer was used and they requested the same color scheme as the previous build. Therefore the leftover paint from the other project was used plus three coats of semi-gloss Polycrylic. I think the paint brand is Olympic. It was a joint effort between a friend, my husband and I. It was built in an evening, but I put a week long project because of the coats of primer, paint, and top coat with all of the drying time.

Hi Anna, I really had fun making our version of your sliding mirror project! Thought you might enjoy the photos!  I made it into a jewelry cabinet.

My wife was interested in a coffee table that we could also use for playing games or company for meals, and naturally we found just the thing on Ana White's website.  I got some 2x2 pine from a lumberyard after not being happy with box store lumber.  The table top is made of pine glued together.  I decided to put the 2x4s underneath which gave some heft to the top so it does not wobble.  It fits tighter than I would want, so lesson learned for me I should have paid more attention there.  Since we wanted to paint the piece I went with the pine top.  If it were going to be displayed somewhere else in the house, or stained, I would have chosen a harder wood for the top.  The nice part of this plan, I could easily build another nicer top to go with the base if I wanted too.

First big project, big for me anyway. Dresser came out better than I had imagined. I followed the plan exactly step by step except for the wheels part. Thank you Ana for the plans.

I've been working on these bathroom vanities for a family building a home. These are made of gorgeous Greenheart lumber. I have only worked with pine and spruce up to this point, but this wood is truly stunning. It has been quite the adjustment to work with, and I've broken my share of bits and screws :)

All of these together took me about a week to complete. Had I been working with a softer wood it would have taken no time hardly, but the hardwood....that's a whole other ballgame to me!

They will be adding 2'' thick concrete counter-tops on these when they get installed. I love the simplicity of their look!

Saw this clever side table on Pinterest. It's made out of 1 1x8x8. I was able to figure out how to build a jig for the table saw to suit the project and then it was easy peasy lemon squeezy from there.

I slightly modified the plans on your site and built this bed for my daughter last year and it is holding up great. 

My wife wanted something to replace the wreath on our wall after Christmas and I was thinking of making her a large wall clock as a gift.  Plan meets opportunity and we just happen to be at Hobby Lobby at the time and so it began.   I used a piece of paneling for the face of the clock (same material as peg board without the holes about $8, enough to make two if I wanted) and built a wooden frame out of 1' X 2' s on the back that resembles a four pane window frame.  Painted the face and numbers, then printed our names and transferred them on to the face and followed up tracing them with a sharpie.  Affixed clocked to face and hung. 

These little dressers are inspired by Ana's Master Closet System drawers, and the Willy Bookshelf. These were made entirely from scrap wood, so it only cost me for the knobs and the felt for the drawers/bottom. These drawers were sized to fit inside the cubes in my vanity/desk, and to fit the left over wood available from my scrap bin. This took a while to cut everything, but it was fun and didn’t cost me anything but my time. On the top dresser I used some ‘slices’ of lauan for trim, to hide the cut edges and the bit of ‘cup’ on my side pieces (these were re-purposed old shelf boards from the garage). I used my finish nailer and glue for these.

Here’s a shopping and cut list (and a few tips) to make the 4-drawer equivalent (similar to the top one) with standard sized 1x12 lumber, and using 1x2 for drawer front/back/sides and applying 3/16” lauan ply for the bottoms. Haven't figured out how to use sketch up yet, so I can only provide a shopping list, cut list, and finished dimensions, so here goes:

Shopping list: (my 1x12’s are 11.25” wide and .75” thick, and 1x2’s were 1.5” wide, and .75” thick, and lauan is 3/16” thick)

1 pc 1x12x8
2 pc 1x2x8
2 pc 24” x 24” lauan (3/16’ plywood) (you’ll have some left over from the 2nd piece)
Felt - 4 pc 8.5” x 9.75” for insides of drawers, 4 pc 10” x 11.25” for drawer bottoms, and 1 pc 11.75" x 11.25" for dresser bottom. You can use 9 sheets craft felt (9” x 12”) for this – the 11.25” front – back measurement on the drawer bottoms is what’s most important –craft felt is 9” wide, and it’s OK if the felt doesn’t go all the way to the edges on the side-to-side measurement
(Sticky-back felt works and looks great, but costs a lot more than regular. I use sticky back on something I’m making as a gift, but these were for me so I just used regular felt and glued it in place with wood glue)
4 mini-knobs (Mine are unfinished ones from Ace, got for 2/$1.29 and spray-painted them)
Finish nails (I had 1 ¼” on hand) and plenty of glue
Finishing materials - filler, sand paper, plus paint/stain to suit your tastes

Cut list:
2 pc 1x12, cut at 2” (spacers - use these 'slices' for spacers while assembling, so the shelves are all spaced the same distance apart – this idea is from the Kreg jig demo video where they built the bookshelf). I like to cut these first, making sure they are nice and square. To me it’s easier and safer to cut these thin pieces from a larger piece with my miter saw.
2 pc 1x12 @ 11.75” (dresser top/bottom)
5 pc 1x12 @ 10.25” (2 for sides, 3 for shelves)
8 pc 1x2 @ 10” (drawer front/back)
8 pc 1x2 @ 9.75” (drawer sides)
4 pc 10” x 11.25” lauan plywood (drawer bottoms)
1 pc 11.75" x 11.75” lauan plywood (back)

Finished dimensions:
Dresser: 11.75” H x 11.75” W x 11 7/16” deep (includes back)
Drawer opening size: 10.25” wide x 2” tall x 11.25” deep
Drawer dimensions: 10”wide x 11.25” long x 1 11/16” tall (felt on the bottom of the drawer will make this height just a little taller)
Finished inside depth of drawer 1.5”, drawer inside dimensions 8.5” wide x 9.75” long

Finish: sanded, filled, sanded some more, and painted with some left over white paint, and used silver spray paint for the knobs

Assembly tips: Dresser part is constructed very much like the Willy bookshelf. The top and bottom are the same size on this one and the dresser bottom is applied the same way as the top of the Willy bookshelf. Once the bottom is on, use the ‘spacers’ to make sure the shelves are the same distance apart all the way up, then the top goes on last. 3/16” plywood goes on the back. Drawers are constructed like the master closet system drawers. Drawers slide directly on the shelves (and bottoms of drawers covered with felt) so no drawer glides are used. Applied the felt and knobs after sanding and finishing. Make sure the felt goes all the way from the front to the back of the drawer bottom, and is glued on thoroughly.

Been waiting to tackle this project for months. This was more for a place to put our laundry baskets while our laundry was being washed and dried. We come through our laundry area from our garage and so do most of our guests as our front door is a long way from parking. Tripping over empty laundry baskets no more. The opening for baskets is 11.5", which also elevated the opening to clear the dryer exhaust out and allow our units to push back a little closer to the wall. The floor and top were framed using 2x4's cut at 26" and a kreg pocket hole jig. 4x4 posts 11.5" were attached using the kreg jig and L brackets. 3/4" plywood sheeting the top and bottom cut at 55"x29". I did save a little money by only using one sheet of plywood. Full cut for the top, pieced together on the base in the back using excess from one sheet. 3.875" base moulding was used on the top and bottom to cover the seam where the 3/4" plywood sheet for the top and bottom meet the framing. The moulding on the top was inverted, and raised 5/8" over the plywood sheeting top to create a lip so the machines would not slide off the pedistal. Didn't want too much dressing up, I like clean, straight lines. A coat of primer, and 3 coats of semi gloss white paint. I put a sheet of the black rubber runner from Home Depot in the carpet roll area like Chris did, for some noise dampening to prevent our washer from walking at all. Tacked down with black carpet tack nails. The hardest part of the whole project was hooking the washer and dryer up in the tight space we have after getting the units on the pedistal. The dryer exhaust vent pipe in the wall is behind the washer, so I used adjustable rigid exhaust vent elbows to route the flexible exhaust duct through the pedistal, tacked it up to the underside of top with zip tie's and then up and around the side of the pedistal to the dryer exhaust port. All and all a very fun and rewarding DIMyself project. Thanks Sausha....

My first project using Ana White plans. Used pressure treated lumber and Kreg pocket hole jig. Cost: $126.