Community Brag Posts

I had built a few of these chairs a year and a half ago similar to the red ones that you have on the step by step instructions. That was my first time at customer building and painting anything. Needless to say, my skills have improved over time.

So, I wanted to build this chair for my dad for fathers day. He had an old plastic Adirondack chair sitting in his backyard that was really gross. I wanted to replace it with something nice. So he is obviously a UK fan and I wanted to see if I could paint the logo on correctly while also giving myself the opportunity to build something and see if I can make this chair a lot better than the ones I had previously built.

So I decided to curve the back of the chair and curve the ends of the arms. I recently got a nice dewalt random orbital sander which helped out alot in getting it nice and smooth. I made my own wood putty using the leftover sawdust and glue mixed together. I also fastened the wood together using glue and polymer coated screws. Which are supposed to last alot longer than regular wood screws when using pressure treated pine.

I took my time to make sure the pieces were all square when assembled which was better than previous building projects. Also, as far as finishing the chair, I primed it and then put 3 layers of the Kentucky blue Outdoor paint with a brush (which seems like it took forever). I made the stencil by just printing the logo on a piece of cardstock paper. Then I cut out the logo with a razor, then I wrapped the paper in duct tape to make the stencil it a little stronger and to fix the areas that ripped when cutting the card stock paper. Then I cut out the duct tape where the logo is. I made a couple of test paints using the stencil on some scrap to make sure my technique was good. Then once I felt comfortable, I painted 4 coats of very thin paint on the chair where the logo is. After all was dry, I did a light by hand sanding to make it smooth and then sprayed some clear coat on it for an extra level of protection and to make it shine a little.

It was a fun project and my dad really liked it.

Some things I would have done differently for next time would be to use a router to flush cut the seat slats and also use the router to give a nicer rounded edges for the arms and all of the slats as well. Also, It would be nice to mount a stainless bottle opener to the chair to open your drinks (maybe on the outside of the arm of the chair.

Thanks for the plans. I check your site all the time for ideas.

Thank you Ana for the clubhouse bed plans! I added 15" to the width of the rails to accommodate a full size mattress. On the other side I made a slide platform! I chose a standard plastic slide because I couldn't find a way to make a wooden slide at home with the swoop at the bottom to keep the kids from hitting the carpet hard :). We couldn't have a green outdoor-looking slide, am I right? I used Rustoleum  spray paint made for plastic in French Lilac color.  After the paint I used a top a coat of Minwax 3x polyurethane. I also used the Rustoleum spray paint for the window grids. 

To accommodate the slide specs I needed to raise this bed 5".  I just made each leg 5" longer.  Also, the ceiling in my daughter's room slopes down so I cut the point off the back of the bed.  Totally not noticeable.  I needed to do this even if I hadn't raised the bed :)

I also added full window frames around the window to make the bed a little more girly!  One unexpected result is that the bedroom looks BIGGER with this bed in it. She had a twin size step 2 plastic castle bed before but now there is so much more room to play. Win!  Changing the sheets isn't too bad but you need to get in the bed to do it.

I built this bed by myself. Don't be afraid, you can do this! Once the panels are assembled they get a bit heavy so you have to be sort of creative to drag them across the garage floor :)

Next up: mailbox for the bed, shelves under the slide and window boxes!

I've built various pieces from this site, but this is my first "share". I built this table a couple a month ago, taking ideas from various plans on this site. The top of the table is hard maple, the legs, benches are all wormy maple. 

I bought the lumber from a mennonite mill about 45mins away from me, fantastic place. The table top was in their "clearance" section already laminated together, so I had them but it to size. 

I tried my best doing mortise/tenon joints to join the table aprons/legs. They weren't perfect, but it worked. 

I loved building this and I really want to make another. Thanks very much Ana for the site and all the plans you make available. It's a blessing. 

Oh, apologies for the two photos on its side, I can't get them to upload properly...

My wife, and I wanted to upgrade my 5yr old daughters bed. Hopefully this will give her enough encouragement to actually sleep in her room!

The bed turned out great, and my daughter loves it!

This project took a little longer than usual, because with the exception of the couple pieces of plywood all the parts are made from rough maple lumber. The longest part was planing, and gluing all the parts up.

Came across this plan as my first wood working project. Took the corner brackets to a different level, spoke with a local blacksmith who created the brackets for me to give it a more rustic feel.  Created the nails, same way they were done in the early 1800's.

Total time took me longer than normal since this was my first project.  Otherise I could see hammering out one of these a day (excluding waiting for stain to dry)

Very excited to keep going, thanks for the great site Anna!

Mad this Farmhouse platform bed with storage.  It was a fun build and pretty straight forward!  If I was to do it again, I think I'd make the drawers a little deeper for more storage.  There's space in the middle of the bed that could be utilized to pull this off!

This is a modified version of the camp bed. I added several curtains using some metal conduct and one at the end for a place to hang up dresses. I plan on building some storage under the platform and might replace the entire stair area platform with a storage unit.

Project wise:
Instead of 2x4 for the corners, I used 4x4 fir posts in each of the corners, for about $50 dollars more it is a much stronger bed.
The bottom of the bed uses 2x4 as rails along the length and plywood across the distance under the mattress. I am looking for an old twin bed metal rails which I will be much strong to replace the 2x4 and a cleaner look.
Also I did not add stairs from the platform to the floor.
Not pictured is a single step the width of the end of the landing. The dimensions are about 10 inches deep 15 inches off the floor bolted onto a 4x4 corner post and the end of the platform with heavy duty corner brackets. Takes up must less room then stairs which I did not have the room for.

My wife and I are expecting our first child, a baby girl, in September. I decided that I was going to make as much of the furniture as possible, and started with this dresser/changing table.

This is the first project I've made with drawers, and they were a bit of a challenge. Other than that building the dresser was straight forward. The drawer fronts are made from up-cycled deck boards and the knobs are from Anthropologie

Keeping with the cottage farmhouse this is my take on the Wood Tilt Out Trash/Recyle cabinet.  I used construction grade 1x12's.  I would consider this project an intermediate level because I used two 2x12x8 and machined the smaller dimensional material.  I rounded over the faces using a 3/8 inch round over bit in my router.  Multiple coats of sprayed on latex followed by several light coats of water based poly.  

I could not find ready made cushions for this project so I purchased outdoor fabric in the green and 2" high density foam at Fabricland which we doubled to make 4" thick cushions. The throw pillows I bought at Walmart. I will probably buy more foam and fabric and make cushions for the back as well. I find the throw pillows aren't quite large enough to protect your back from the wood.

This is my first project, just to see if I could actually build something. I used some wood and paint we had lying around the garage, since I didn't want to put money into something I might screw up! This turned out to be pretty easy, despite the wood being a little warped from sitting in the garage for years. It's not perfect, but now I have a place to store my husband's golf magazines that were cluttering up the bathroom -- and the courage to try something bigger!

Custom Bathroom Vanity in traditional furniture styling. Designed two ways, one with a hand hammered copper sink and matching hardware, the other with a Kohler Wave sink with black aged hardware. 

i was having a BBQ for my boyfriend's 27th birthday and we didn't have anything to sit on outside other than those fold up chairs that you take to tailgates. We went to look at buying some furniture from Lowes and we were pretty shocked at the prices. Since I had my mind set on having something other than a lawn chair for people to sit on when they came over, I figured I would give this blog a once over to see what it had. I am so glad that I did! I was able to make this loveseat in three days, and it is bigger, more comfortable, sturdier, and $500 cheaper than the same piece of furniture that I had picked out at Lowes. ( I realize this project could totally be done faster but I am a full time student along with a full time job,,, I did what I could. Plus a storm rolled through and knocked my power out ) I love my new patio bench and can't wait to build the matching chairs and perhaps a small table.