Community Brag Posts

It was time for my younger son's bedroom re-do. He had waited patiently, and was pretty clear in his requests. He wanted color, and dinosaurs. Not just any dinos, but "real" ones--no babyish dinos allowed, said my future paleontologist. Once he saw the loft bed that I was considering for his older brother--he was hooked. We negotiated the paint colors and we were off.

I used the cabin loft bed and the chelsea designs for this bed.
I used the Chelsea bookcases with 2x3s as legs instead of 2x2s (due to quality). This altered the shelf measurements some, but I simply made my adjustable shelves to plan.
The biggest thing to note about the Chelsea bookcase supports is that you need some sort of bracing to eliminate side-to-side wobble. I used a 2x2 and eliminated most all of it, but you need to take this into account!

As for the cabin loft plan part--this was used in the bed portion of the plan. I did used the non-mortising bed rail brackets to attach the side rails for ease of use.

Ladder-Oh the ladder and the angles gave me fits! LOL. I ended up doing a straight ladder and attaching it to the bookcase support. It's fine. Just FYI-don't paint your ladder a light color if dirt bothers you. The rungs are already showing the dirt from little boy feet, so it may get painted again!

I painted the side panels of the bookcases with chalkboard paint. If I did it again I think I would have attached a smooth piece of thin board(the name escapes me right now) and painted that, as the wood tends to catch the eraser some.

A customer of ours emailed the plans for this console table to me from Ana's site and asked if I could build it for her. I must say, the plans were laid out so well I believe my 8 year old could have built it. Well done Ana!

I made the color scheme what the customer asked for and I think it turned out pretty decent. I also have to say that I would typically wing it when it came to building stuff, but after seeing how the plans on this site are laid out so well, I will definitely be changing my practices. I have read a lot of great helpful tips, tricks, and hints on this site. I've only been doing this for about 6 months, so I need all the help I can get!

Thanks again, Ana, for being such a great source of information and inspiration!

I needed a larger cage for our boa with easier access so that she would be handled more often. 

All of this project came from scrapes and items I had laying around.  3 sets of handles, 4 sets of hinges and a torch. Too much fun. 

4 recycled windows from a remodel project that I found on Craigslist  ($10/each) and a half dozen 2x2's. All complete.  

I really wish I was better at drawing,  maybe I would make up a plan one of these days. Most of my projects are just improvised as I go along. 

My wife wanted a small bench for our entryway/foyer.  I happened to have some reclaimed pine barn wood laying in my shop, so I whipped this up.  

The original plan was to use a colored wax or thinned paint on it to give it a weathered appearance (which is why I did screws and plugs from the top - I thought they were going to be painted over), but the wood turned out too beautiful with all of the character.  We couldn't bring ourselves to paint it.

There are a few more pics and details in my blog post about this small reclaimed barn wood bench.

A nice and easy project for little people to enjoy getting in and out of chairs without worrying parents!

Used a router first time to soften the edges of the chairs and table. Also used a plug maker to fill up the counter sink holes. Love that stuff.

Didn't want to make all the chairs at once to figure out how I can improve on my process, and now I know that I should
1. Paint the slats prior to installing
2. Use router on the slats prior to installing
3. Use kreg jig to install the slats

Planning on making more chairs, or one more chair and 2 stools. Not sure yet.

As always, painting took the longest and I am not done yet. Will give a Minvax polycrylic gloss finish before putting into use.

First project. Modified so that the seat is more narrow.

Found this on the website and had to build it. Turned out perfectly.

I left off the ends to fit a smaller kitchen.

I was living in an apartment in Waco with my newly minted husband, and was gearing up for a move to Lake Jackson after his graduation from school. I had this horribly flimsy Walmart platform bed that was at the end of its life. After I read a post on a favorite blog mentioning my now hero, I checked out the projects on Knock Off Wood. “Hmmm,” I thought, “I think I can do that!” So, I found the perfect plans for the queen-sized Farmhouse Bed, and went to visit my parents. Print-out in hand, I showed my dad what I had in mind. He was totally on board, and said he even thought he had all the lumber we needed in his barn. And he did! We spent a Sunday afternoon shopping his barn, and then loaded it all up to drive over to his shop to do all the cutting.

Here’s the best part. I then loaded every single cut piece of lumber into my Honda Civic and drove it back to Waco. Yes, people. I didn’t even have an SUV, I had an economy size 4-door sedan. And I fit all that lumber in it! As soon as I got home, I was raring to go. Unfortunately, the Husbane was not. He was grumpy, and moaning about trying to put a bed together in an apartment. So I huffily said “Screw You!” and went on my merry way. Okay, that’s a total lie. I actually cried and shamed him with my words into helping me, because he was ruining this exciting new prospect with his bad attitude. Feeling like a horrible person, he apologized and took me to McCoy’s to get all the screws and hardware we needed to put this behemoth together. We put the headboard together as a team, and once I learned just how to use a power drill (it really was my first time ever!) I put the footboard together all by myself. I was so proud! Then we put on the side boards, figured out the rails and slats, and pushed the last screw in the next day. For just $16, a lot of free barnwood, and gallons of sweat and tears, we had our very first hand made bed. And I couldn’t be prouder.

This a Anna White.com Inspired Folding Chalkboard design. I just made a couple slight modification. Slightly larger, and tray to hold chalk and eraser.

This one was build for my two year old nephew as his birthday gift! I think Wyatt and his brother Marshall will get a lot of good use out of the gift.

Anna and John thank you for providing such a fantastic site!

Best Regards,

Bob C

"Remember Working SAFELY IS the most important thing you can do!"

I changed some of the original dimensions so that it better fit my dining area. My table top is 41" wide x 87" length. To accomplish this width I used 2" x12"s for the outer boards and 2"x10"s for the two inner boards.  My inside supports were all cut to 72" (6 ft) so that we could comfortably seat 3 chairs on each side. I used 2"x4"s instead of 2"x10"s as the breadboard ends (just personal preference). I used 6" lag style screws to assemble most sections and I left the heads (black in color) of the bolts exposed for a more rugged apppearance. The top was secured through the bottom of the 4x4 using counter-sunk 4" screws and 2" pocket screws for the 2"x4" cross boards. I distressed the entire table and sanded smooth.

This piece was inspired by Ana’s plans and built as a collaborative project with my son.  The stock was all salvaged from a century+ old railroad depot on the University of Idaho campus that was marked for demolition.  The green and cream boards were the ceiling of the depot, and the unfinished stock came from the flooring, which was 1” tongue and groove red fir.  The first agricultural crops, forest products, and settlers of the region (North Idaho, Eastern Washington) flowed through that terminal.  This piece, therefore, is iconic of the regikn’s rough-hewn beginnings and stands as a reminder of its important past.

I altered the plans to the full-sized slipper chair so that I can document my upholstering process. SUPER easy, SUPER cute build (and my daughter loves it, so even if it weren't easy, it'd have been worth it :-))

I made this table and bench for my wife, for Christmas. She loves it.

This was a fun project to build! The plans were very easy to follow and the table and chairs turned out just like they were supposed to. I ended up buying a Kreg jig to put the furniture together. The jig cost $40.00 at Home Depot and it was well worth it because I'll be able to use it on other projects. The plans showed the furniture being prepped and painted but my daughter wanted the pieces to look close to their dining room table so I took the time to stain and varnish them. I built the table and chairs out of pine and I used average dimensional lumber so the whole project only cost around $35.00. If you're looking for good children's furniture these would be good to build.

built from Ana White plans for my son and daughter in law

Our "home made" bed. We made this bed from discarded cedar posts found on the property. Three of the main bed posts were the original entry gate posts at The Bed Rox and the one closest in the foreground used to stand where the cabin stands now.

This is our third project. We needed a table set in the living room since our IKEA coffee table did not survive the move to TX. My husband and I fell in love with the rustic X collection and decided to start with the coffee table first. Everything was quite straight forward until cutting the 2x2 for the X. Well, without much wood-working experience, I made a rookie mistake of cutting them to length before cutting the angles. Eventually, we came up inches short on the 2x2 bars to make a complete X. We had to re-measure and re-cut all the angled bars. But we made it! At first, my husband got frustrated and wanted to leave the X's out and let the table be open on all four sides. But since we are trying to build a whole collection (end tables next, and then console able), I really wanted the X's to make them cohesive. So we survived the taunting tasks and have learned from the experience. We cut the 2x2 a little long and then mark them against the frame before we cut. The original measurements from the plan did not really match up to our frame so we decided to mark and fine-adjust. It worked out well. There was a slight "rainbow curve" in the middle plank of the table top. We decided to use a heavy duty 2 1/2 PH screw on the sides to suck it in, to try to make it level. It worked out well too! At the end, we sanded all the corners and tops really well because I wanted an even top. It is a very nice size coffee table and heavy and sturdy. And we are both extremely happy with the final product.