Community Brag Posts

This was an anniversary gift, so I wanted it to lean more "chic" than "shabby" and as a result I spent a little extra money. Instead of using different colors of stains, I used different kinds of hardwoods to provide the color contrast. I changed the dimensions to fit our space and my wife's requests. In the end I believe the dresser was 50" wide, 31" tall (not including legs) and 20" deep. 

Carcase - The carase is made of 3/4" plywood and the the divider is held in place by a dado groove. I used a roundover bit to soften the edges. I then applied a vinyl spackle to the edges of the plywood so the paint would go on uniformly.   

Drawers - The drawers were made with 1/2" plywood for the sides and 1/4" for the bottoms. Isntead of nailing the bottoms to the drawer sides, I routed a dado groove into the sides that holds the bottoms in place. I used full-extension ball-bearing drawer slides, which in hindsight may have been a mistake. Combining the the full-extension with weight of the hardwoods created a decent tipping hazard. As a result, I've needed to add wieght to the backside of the dresser for stability. 

Feet - In lieu of casters, I bought some premade 6" legs from a local big box store for about $10-$15. I don't regret this purchase as they worked out very well. 

Finish - The paint I used was super thick and covered great but was difficult to brush on with any consistency or finesse. It was like painting with pancake batter. I had impossible visions of being able to sand the finish down to an incredible flat surface but after redoing it twice, I settled for a brushed look. 

We constructed our farmhouse bed from rough-cut lumber (mostly pine with a few eastern red cedar panels). However, the top rails of the headboard and footboard were reclaimed from an old railraod depot and maintain their faded red color. I will admit, using rough-cut lumber practically tripled our efforts because nothing was square or even, but all in all, I think it was worth it!

My first project using countertop concrete mix.  This specific concrete calls for very low water mix ratios, and I was hesitant to over water the mix. I should have used more because it came out very pourous. Not bad over all though. I used a urethane Matte finish on the concrete and a semigloss poly for the wood base that is made from 4x4's and 2x4's. I used a special walnut color stain from minwax for the base and used a browning triler hitch cover for the emblem.

First project since high school woodworking class. I was pleased with the outcome but, I had a few bumps along the way. I learned from my mistakes so the next one will be better!

I was looking for something to make for my niece for Christmas that could be treated as an heirloom to hand down to future generations...thus, it had to be sturdy. My mother made the mattress, pillow, and blanket sets. I loved the way this turned out and my niece was pleasantly surprised!

My wife and I looked all over town for just the right piece of furniture for our entry at our new home. After looking and looking I decided I would build this plan. Turned out amazing and all our friends want help building their own.

A fun project to make ending with a functional product to boot!  I went all out making sure that each truck/shelf would coordinate with each grandson's theme/decor in their bedrooms.  Chase, who will turn one next month, has a super heroes/comics theme for his room.  Therefore, I selected Captain America as the star of the big rig shelf.  Red, white & blue paints, some wooden shapes and some creativity and Captain America was ready for Mr. Smiles.

There were some parts missing from the plans. I wrote out what I did to build this rocker on my website.

http://www.domesticated-engineer.com/1/post/2012/12/ladybug-moped-rocke…

Make sure to use hard wood! My rocker broke within the first hour. Wood glue fixed it but it gave me a good scare!

Made this beautiful TV stand from the "Rustic X Console table plans". I shortened it to 2 ft high to fit the space for a TV. Love how it turned out!!

I needed a book display rack for my boys so I built this one from the plate rack plans and modified it to suit the size I needed. I actually used all scrap lumber from previous projects, so the cost was minimal.

I used the same cedar fence boards, but for a large berry patch made with minimal cuts. The end boards are 1/2 the length of the long side boards. I made them 2 fence widths high - about 11 inches. Each bed is nearly 12 feet long. I joined the dogeared ends of 2 boards in the center, making a diamond cut out pattern that looked good. In order to support the tall sides, I used cedar 2x4x8 boards. Use 18-24 inch posts on each corner and at the center joint. I cut an additional board in half, affixing it to the center posts, to brace the long sides and add stability. Each box is approximately 3 feet wide, 12 feet long, and 11 inches tall. You'll need 8 fence posts for the long sides, 2 for the short sides, and 1/2 for the brace - you could use a different piece of wood for this, but the cedar fence posts are such a deal. You'll also need approximately 9 feet of cedar 2x4 for the corner posts - I bought 8 foot lengths and cut each into 2 foot posts for stability. The cost was around I'll add 2x4 posts in the spring and put a trellis behind the raspberries. If the birds start to steal my blueberries, I'll add metal or wooden corner posts that will support fruit netting. We're planting strawberries around the base of the larger fruit bushes. The 11 inch sides should keep rabbits from invading. If they are persistent, I'll add a few inches of chicken wire around the top edge. This made the equivalent square footage of 4 of Ana's original $10 beds.

Dress up closet made from craftiness Is Not Optional's Dress Up Storage plans.

Antiqued Hall tree

This is my first wood project. It was probably a bit ambitious for a first project, but what can I say other than Ana White inspires me.

It all started with buying that big ol' TV. We had a chunky armoire that wasn't going to work anymore and I really liked Ana's Apothecary Console and I REALLY liked kayleentheobald's take on the Console in the brag posts. My wife went out of town for the week and I had redhead_61 help me take the design and make it bigger to fit between our windows and be big enough for my son's bigger toys. I was going to be the good husband and surprise her with a finished product when she got back. So I went to work, every night after work with redhead_61 and got the carcass put together pretty fast and really the only thing we needed was the top and the doors. I decided to pack it all up in the back of the truck and ask my neighbor for help on the doors.

Now this is where the amount of time I put into the project got a little out of hand (BTW there is no button for "way more than a week" for estimated time investment). I told my neighbor that I wanted my faux drawers to look a lot more like an apothecary cabinet with smaller drawers, so we came up with a plan to make 6 panels per door all done tongue and groove using muntins and styles (like window panes) and do it without any screws or nails. If we knew what we were doing maybe we would have got the doors done in only a few days, but it took closer to a few weeks spread over a couple months due to work and other obligations.

Building the base is not that hard; just square everything up and use wood glue and screws. We added a little molding at the bottom for some aesthetic appeal.

The real time came in the finishing I described below. After I had spent several weekends building the thing I no longer wanted something I could just throw in the family room and put a TV on top; I wanted a real piece of furniture that would last forever. This is where my wife interjects, "well it better since you took over a year to finish it." I love you too, honey.

I wood filled, primed, sanded and repeated many times over until I had it just right. (BTW if you're going to use plywood, take the time and effort to find a place that sells good high quality stuff that is meant to build furniture not the construction grade crap I got from Home Depot - it'll only save you about 100 hours of wood filling, priming and sanding)

Finally, after 14 months (I didn't work on it constantly - being a lawyer and a dad kind of sucks up disposable time) I could haul my masterpiece into the house put the TV on top, sit back and admire the work. I can tell you it was worth every moment. Thank you Ana White for inspiring me to bite off more than I could chew. That said, I think my next project is going to be a shelf or something.

I fell in love with this set from the moment I saw it on Shanty-2-Chic's website.  I knew I had to have it for the deck I just built in my backyard.  It's pretty straightforward, the only difficulty I ran into was assembling the legs.  I copied the angles provided in the instructions to a "T" but there are still some gaps where the angled pieces join.  After spray painting it they are not very noticeable.  It is a heavy beast of a table and took everything in me to help my husband heave it up on to the deck, but it's absolutely lovely.  It is so large we can easily have people over for a BBQ and everyone fits around the table.  I'm so thrilled with the results.  Thanks, Ana!

I modified this bench to incorporate a Texas theme. I traced a Texas shaped cutting board onto a 1x16 piece of edge-glued board, and then cut it out with my jigsaw.