Community Brag Posts

I built these for my son's new home. The bench seats lift up for storage. I was rushed to get them done for the housewarming/adoption party. There are things I would do better if I did another set. 

Custom cedar raised gardens installed for a deck railing

Urban Wood Solutions

I saw hilarylouise do this and really loved it. It was taken from the cubby storage collection and it 3 bases with drawers put together. I also copied her painting the inside of the drawers different colors. I love that! It is super easy toy storage so not every room in my house looks like a playroom. I could use some practice sewing cushion covers though.

DIY Outdoor Wood Chairs

by Tara

I love our living room in our new house, but this media niche that was created for the 90's tube TVs has been an eyesore. Next we hope to finish out this niche with a fun finished background and floating shelves.

I built the cabinet on the left in a cabinet-making class at a my local woodworking shop. I altered the Classic Storage Wall dimensions to fill in the rest.

Things I would do again: I left a couple inches of the backboard open for easy plug hiding. My build was made much faster with the Kreg jig and a borrowed nail gun. I added a kick plate to match my original cabinet and give it more of a built-in feel.

Things I would change for next time: Instead of spray base and finish, I would use regular paint for better consistency. I'm not sure how much I saved using MDF, but I'd prefer a sturdier material for this heavy of a piece. I need to adjust my cabinet doors still. I still plan on adding shelves inside of the cabinet door sections.

This was a starter project, it was easy and fun to make. I think I turned out great for a beginner wood worker.

Created using the plans/template from Ana White's monogrammed snowflake.
I decided to make a hanging B in the middle. Two small eye hooks and some thread.
Paint used was Krylon's ruby red glitter and a clear sealer
 

I made this chair for my mom on mothers day. She loves it and I was able to use some lumber from my dad's garage stash, who passed over Thanksgiving. So there was a special link for her to this chair. Loved the easy to follow plans, thank you.

cgauley.cg

This was our first furniture building project. It took us about 20 hours to complete and we couldn't be more happy with the results. We used 4x4's instead of 2x4's for the legs. We also changed the dimensions of the table so that it was the perfect size for our kitchen. After completing the table we decided to build a bench as well. It is the same plan as the table, just miniaturized. We used Minwax Jacobean stain on the table and then topped with a clear coat. It is a very heavy, sturdy table.

My husband and I built this project in one day, for less than $100, including the matching benches! We used inexpensive white wood boards and made sure to find the straightest ones in the best shape. The table is easy to assemble and SO sturdy. It can easily sit 4 adults on the benches or 6 smaller people, more with extra chairs on the ends.

I've wanted to build this table for quite some time and it couldn't have turned out better, I just wish we were keeping it for ourselves. :-)

I share more details on my blog if you'd like to check them out, thanks for looking!

Happy Building,

Danielle
organizationalhysteria.com

My wife and I loved the version that Finns-Dad made but we wanted it to be rectangular. The top is 1x6s around the edges with 1x4s in between. The frame is 1x4s. The bench tops are all 1x4s with 4x4 legs. There are 3/8 inch lag bolts in the legs. We did 4 coats of the urethane.

This was my first major project, and while there are many things that I would do differently if given the opportunity, we're still very pleased with it.

Followed the plans. Burned then sealed.

My daughter is 3 and though her room isn't terribly small, I thought this project would be awesome all the same. I wanted to do the doll house bed, but I figured this bed would grow with her more and I liked the platform at the end so I just added a curtain and called it good.

The book shelf is by and large my favorite part of the project. I just added some more 2x4's, a sheet of 1x10 and some left over bead board paneling that I had and used left over paint from her play kitchen that I had previously repurposed from an old entertainment stand. I added an inexpensive, small fluorescent light to the book shelf, out of sight, and found this great, inexpensive paper lantern.

I also added a support beam down the middle of the mattress area and used some 1 in MDF board that I had from another bed and wrapped it in fabric (which ended up being a little pricey, but she loves her ceiling)

Because she is so young, I pushed the bottom of the bed against the wall instead of building a railing off the platform because I was afraid she would fall as she still gets up in the middle of the night. This worked out because the space that was left at the head of the board fit her TV stand and laundry basket without leaving a foot print on the actual area under her bed. With the curtain up (and almost always closed, as insisted on by the primary tenant) it really is like a clubhouse under there. I can't even begin to go into the hours she spends under there with her books; who doesn't love that?!

This was my first "from scratch" projects and I learned a few things. 1. Don't strip screws inside of pocket holes. 2. Sand more than you think you need to, especially if you plan to paint. 3. Staining might be a faster way to go, 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint takes a lot of time if you want to avoid runs. I would say painting took twice or three times longer than the building! 4. I may avoid lumber from the big box stores from now on, or be much much more careful in picking it out, but I had a 3 year old running circles around me as I was picking it out, so I guess I can cut myself a little break.

Finally, price wise I would say I spent more than I thought I would at first. Lumber was more expensive than a lot of posters mentioned, which is strange, because I thought NC was supposed to have cheap wood. But just for the lumber, I would say I was at or a little over $100. I would say all together I spent between $150 and $200, but I added a good bit, and honestly, fabric isn't cheap either, and I bought about 9 yards all together. With that being said, I think this bed was well worth the investment. I couldn't have gotten something like this for anywhere near that price in a store.

Oh, and I built the entire thing completely alone as my husband was out of town when I got the bug to do this. It didn't come out perfect, but every project I do is an improvement from the last and it's for a kids room! As long as it is sturdy and safe, and it definitely is, and is still attractive, then that's all that matters. My daughter loves it!

So my husband and I bought a 60" flat screen and decided to mount it above our fireplace where a mirror had previously hung. Come to find out that with the age of our house, and chimney it was going to cost us almost as much as the TV itself did to have it professionally done. So we decided to build a new, much larger mantle over the existing one so that our TV, WII and DVD player had a home on the mantle as well.

We ran across several problems while designing this. 1. the next buyers may not want this huge mantle here to put their TV on and 2. because of the age of the house and lack of plug ins, how where we to hid all the cords.

The new mantle sits over the old and above it about 3". It is attached to the wall, with 3" boards attached underneath that simply sit atop the old mantle. The boards are in a serpentine fashion and not only hid the cords underneath, but also the power strip that everything plugs into. The TV not only sits on the new mantle but is also secured to the wall behind it. The front of the new mantle hides the space between and any cords. And we stained it to match the old. So unless you are very closely inspecting it, you wouldn't even know there are hidden cords or that it is not completely original.

Problem solved. If a new owner wants to revert back to the old mantle, all they need to do is remove the top, patch the holes and dust the original back to its former glory.