Community Brag Posts

I Used a solid wood door I bought from a home owner doing some renovations.  Ripped it in half on the table saw.  Then,  I cut a pressed plywood spool top into quarters and attached them from the rear of the door halves after turning them at a 90 degree angle.  Simple,  but turned out really well.  Have made several of these now,  and they seem to be a big hit. 

My husband played college baseball and kept many baseballs from different leagues and conferences he played in, and also was given many by teammates and friends during his playing days. We were remodeling our guest bedroom and wanted to display the baseballs he kept in a dresser or night stand.

We found the Patrick's Beach Cottage Dresser plans and thought were could start with that and modify it. We wanted it to be longer, so we doubled the amount of drawers and seriously modified the top. We made two display boxes, which were basically like drawers, out of 1x4's and thin plywood as the base. We stretched grey felt over the plywood and stapled it in. We then nailed the display boxes in place after painting them. As a result, we didn't build drawers for the top space and just used false drawer faces.

We bought a piece of display glass 12"x72" which was an "oops" piece from the glass shop for $20.00. It really makes the dresser pop in person.

Please excuse the fact that we don't have handles or knobs on the dresser yet, I will be adding them this week!.

My wife and I built the 4x4 Truss Beam Table and 4x4 Truss Bench.  We used Rustoleum Dark Walnut Stain and Satin Polyurethane.  The only difference from the plans jointing the edges.  We didn't like how simply screwing the 2x10s together left cracks due to the rounded edges.  We ran the 2x10s (and 2x8s for the bench) through the jointer 3 times on each edge.  This eliminated the cracks for a nice smooth table top finish.  We distressed it with a hammer, screws and a file, then put one coat of stain and 3 coats of poly on it.  We bough IKEA chairs.  My wife reupholstered the smaller chairs and made the covers for the end chairs.  Enjoy!

This is my first project and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I made two racks - one for adult size and one for the kids with a narrower gap between the dowels. Hardest part was routing the back to make the French cleat hanger slightly recessed so that the board would hang near the wall. It also took me a while to make the large drill bit work ok and I had to start over on the other side of the board when it chewed up some of the edge of the initial holes. I used an excel file to figure out the spacing and amount of materials. Thank you Ana for the inspiration and detailed instructions. Definitely given me the woodworking bug now. 

I belong to a crafters group that had an evening workshop to make garden and workshop aprons. I chose this one from Ana White because it had exactly what I needed (namely big pockets and not too long).

I used outdoor fabric for the striped and solid brown pockets, bias tape (purchased at the local craft store) and a regular drop cloth from the hardware store. I was hesitant that this apron might not hold up to tools, nails, etc. but once I finished it, I think it will work great because the pockets are lines with the drop cloth fabric. The apron came out very sturdy feeling.

The project itself is pretty easy. The only hiccup you might have is if you've never applied trim/bias tape to a project before. That isn't hard either but you may want to look at a Youtube video or two on how to apply bias tape (trim) before starting. I bought my bias tape ready made at the craft store. It will be in the sewing notions section by the thread usually. I used the double fold version of bias tape because I think it's easier to use.

My husband and I completed this project several weeks ago and could not be happier with it. We adjusted the plans a bit to fit our space and needs and are totally smitten with it. 

You can get more details here:

http://www.crazyhappycasa.net/2015/01/diy-bench.html

We had so much fun experimenting trying to get just the right colors for this piece! 

My wife and bought a house last summer with the intention of remodeling it has we were living in it. However, we wanted to do the bathroom before we moved in as it was the only shower/bath. So the old bathroom and bedroom next to it was gutted and replaced from the studs out.

We have hydronic baseboard heat in our house, which I really love, except it has these old, horrifically ugly covers. The covers were especially bad in the bathroom as they were rusty and had been painted over multiple times.

So I took those out with the sheetrock and decided to build wooden ones. This was of course after I scrounged the internet to make sure it was safe - the hydronic heat does not get to combustible temperatures...so no worries about fires!

I tried to find some good plans on the internet, but did not find a whole lot. I found some pictures though and some information from people who had done similar to what I was doing.

In the end, I based my measurements around the old heater covers, built a mock up, made some adjustments, and then built the final one. I still need to add some sort of metal screen as I don't like being able to look into the opening at the heater fins.

I used pocket-hole screws for this and I think they look much more classy than the old metal covers - especially with the ceramic plank tile I put!

I needed something to accommodate my fire pit on my deck. These plans were exactly what I needed. 

After building the woven back bench, I had the basic know-how to do the basketweave pattern and really wanted to build some planters with trellises.

I was able to build the trellises from a single 2x4 and built the planters from the scraps from my shed. All of the info is on my blog.

I wanted to make a portable growth chart for my little guy and any future children. I really liked the over-sized ruler growth charts, so I set out to make one just like that. While searching for some inspiration, I came across Taryn’s Rustic Growth Chart at Design, Dinning and Diapers. I loved the finished look of her project!   I followed her steps to create one of my own!  Check out the blog link for more project details.

 I am so proud to show you what I made! I made a super comfortable coffee table/ ottoman for my livingroom. When not in use it's the same size as my couch to it works as an ottoman too :)  

This project on ana white is called "more than a nightstand" but we built this to be a toy storage and we LOVE how it turned out!

I made this bench a little wider than the plan and made the legs more solid. I was shooting for a restoration hardware-type finish. It was fun to experiment. Used Dark Walnut stain, a white chalk paint "wash" (diluted chalk paint with water - about 50/50), sanded it back a little and added clear and dark wax. I still need to add wax to the legs, but had to share!

Looked everywhere for plans to build a G-House and kept coming back to this one...

Wanted to integrate 2 275 gallon IBC containers for thermal mass so I had to adjust the plans a little.

Stared off with clearing the land and putting down some 4x4 pressure treated timber as the base.. Found a good price on some 1" minus gravel so I went and got 2 truckloads for the interior.. adds to the themal mass as well... Bonus...

Once the gravel and timber were down, it was time to build structure.  The south wall is according to plan but the north side had to be extended to 60" tall to facilitate the containers.... Looks a little wonky but function was my primary concern.  Built all the base in my garage and moved them out.

Once I got all the peices outside, I 4" screwed them to the pressure treated lumber and ran 3' rebar thru the corners from some stability and wind protection.

Up went the front and back framing then onto the rafters..  The south side was a breeze as the plans were pretty exact... the north side on the other hand had to be measured and cut individually due to the plan modification.  Was a bit of a pain but went pretty well..

Rafters up and its time for some covering..  Decided to go with a combo of Solexx and SunTuf panels...price was comparable.

SunTuf panels went on really easily.. the solexx was a different story since it expands a tad when it gets hot..  Leaves sags and natural vents when overlapping but it all tightens back up when the temp comes back down.

Weve been hitting 90s this last week and its consistently 120+ inside so I decided to frame in a window.  Fans will be added on either side of hte window shortly and the door is being built.