Community Brag Posts

This is a Christmas gift for my granddaughters, and it was a huge hit! It is white pine 1x4's with 4 coats of polyurethane for a smooth finish.

Built using the plans as a starting point and built it bigger than the plans called for.. The deck is 10x10 and the playhouse is 6x10. I used pressure treated lumber for everything but the playhouse. I still need to paint the house and stain the deck, then put the roof on.. if it would stop raining.. Once i'm done staining the deck I can put the slide back on also. ''

Swings, monkey bars, and rings / trapeze was ordered from Amazon.

Our son is learning cello and we were told he needed a 14" chair for practice, so this plan looked perfect. 

Other than tweaking some of the dimensions as the plan didn't seem to quite work, the only other change I made was to use wooden dowels instead of screws to give it a cleaner finish. 

Seems stable enough for me to sit on.

We needed a new fire pit area for the back yard. Your Adirondack chair and side table designs were a perfect fit.

doll high chair with movable tray

This is the first piece that I have built from your website. The plans were easy to follow. I had to change the dimensions to fit the console where we wanted so it made the parts list a little more time consuming to figure out with a few mishaps in the original plans. After that it was smooth sailing.

I tried to save money where I could so I created my own slides for the drawers rather than spending $100 for the slides. They turned out great. I also made the chalk paint with plaster of Paris since the cost of chalk paint is pretty high.

My wife and i were very pleased with the outcome. Thank you Ana for the great plans. With a little basic wood working knowledge and the proper tools, just about anyone could make this piece.

Built one for my niece, my daughter's is next!

This was my first BIG project. I was inspired by a console table from a blog Take the Side Street and the Ikea Hemnes Sofa table. I didn't use any plans, so just winged the whole project. I was a bit afraid taking on this project, so I used 89 cent utility boards (roughly 1'x4') that I found at Menard's. So I wouldn't feel bad if it turned out like crap or fell apart. Little did I know how wonderful it would look. I added parson legs to the bottom that I bought from the Home Depot and finished it off with a coat of Minwax Ployshades in Mission Oak.

I'm really excited about how it turned out and have less than $20 invested in the whole project by using the utility wood. This console table holds it all.

The table measurements are 48"x32 1/2"x11 1/2"

Modified to dimensions 23"H x 19.5"D x 27"W.

My interpretation of the printers cabinet. Needed something for my office that was deeper for my printer, 3D Printer and a few other items.

This was a great collaboration between a designer and an engineer, me being the designer and my dad the engineer. I recently moved from a small condo to a single family house with a nice wrap around porch. My father is recently retired and believes idle hands are the devil's playthings so I thought this would be a good project to undertake. Full disclosure, we built this in my father's wood shop and needed to purchase no tools.
I took on this project because every couch I looked at was either very expensive or did not meet my tastes. When searching for a design online this one really stood out to me for a couple of reasons, the first being the design looked great, the process was easy to follow, and the construction methods seemed pretty solid. The only drawback I found was that standard lumber at a big box store had to many knots and shied away from it for the slats and arms and went with 'select' grade pine, this change increased the price. It also took some convincing my dad to use big box store lumber as most of it is warped and knotty, he wanted me to purchase cypress from a high end mill so that it could truly weather the elements. His theory is a good one, you are putting a lot of work into building this why not spend a $100-200 more and get a very long lasting wood? My answer, my wife will kill me if I spend $500 on this project!!!! In the end this was much easier than I thought it would be. The chop saw made quick work of the cut list, and the Krieg jig worked great. Painting took the longest, I used a power sander to sand it down. I then used left over wood conditioner and the shellac primer. This took about 4-5 hours. After the primer dried I sanded out a few areas where the primer had pooled. Using a paint sprayer we sprayed at least 3 coats probably more like 5 coats of white exterior semi-gloss. This took about 3 hours. I attached the back to seat after I painted them.

Modifications:
I reduced the overall depth in order to accomodate a 24" cushion instead of the 27.5". I researched online buying foam and fabric as suggested, but this in my opinion made the project too costly. I found outdoor cushions at Ikea which work very well with the style and layout. They are not super cushy but do the trick for a 1/3 of the price.
I also added heavy duty rubber furniture slides to the bottom to prevent any marring to my deck and hopefully reduce moisture wicking up the end grain.

Costs:
Lumber and screws: $190
Cushions: $120
Paint: I used an expensive shellac for the primer $42.00
and exterior grade latex for $25, plus a few paint bushes $10.00
Grand Total: $387

Timing:
1. Acquiring lumber - 1 hour
2. Measuring, cutting and labeling - 1.5 hours
3. Krieg drilling - 3 hours
4. Assembling - 3 hours
5. Sanding - 1 hour
6. Conditioning and Priming - 4 hours
7. Painting with sprayer - 3 hours
Total 16.5 hours

Decided to use your plans and build an entertainment center for the house. I did however change a couple of things, like it is a little smaller and I used weathered wood for the sides and front, along with deciding on not using the doors. After building this project ...I Loved it !  In fact loved it so much , I built a matching end table.  Thank you so much for the plans and ideas.

Built in May of 2020, made some modifications to install a fan unit. Has raised beds left and right.

Moltzvt

I built this jewelry box out of scraps as a prototype to test out my Easy Jewelry Box plan, which is inspired by the Willy Bookcase and Master Closet System drawers. When Mom saw it unfinished, she liked it and called dibs on the first one! Well, since this one is now for Mom (and the lumber was free), I went ahead and spent some extra $ for hers – used the self-adhesive felt for the drawer and box bottoms, some embossed felt to line the drawers, added adjustable drawer dividers, and solid antique brass knobs – ‘glammed’ it up a bit. It is painted and stained to match her bedroom furniture. For Mom, I even stained the inside of the drawer box. :)

The build was easy, and took less than 2 hrs. I did both stain and paint for the finish on this one, and it took about 2 hrs to do that. I’m planning to make several more of these in different finishes, and give them as gifts.