Community Brag Posts

My wife asked for a terrible particle board bench for Christmas.  When I complained about the quality, she told me to build one instead.  I may have been played.

I found the plans here and the only modifications I made were resizing to fit our space, and adding a tree design to the sides, cut using my desktop CNC router.  The design was purchased from an artist shop on Etsy.

She loves the bench and I saved a few hundred dollars.  I also got to finish another project which is awesome.

I found out what the rack in the drive up area of my local Lowes was!
I often see piles of wood and sheets or plywood and such sitting there, but I never paid it much mind-turns out its a clearance rack of sorts they call it the "cull" rack, because they are culling the items from inventory that may be cut, chipped marked etc.
So I was at the store buying something for my Bocce Court and saw this pile of 16ft 2x4's and saw they were only $20 and there was 8 of them- so I picked em up for a "future project".
Needless to say they weren't the truest boards but they worked well enough for something like this. I had to buy a 2x6 to attach the top to because 2x4's aren't wide enough to give proper clearance as the plans showed(and I really didn't want to reinvent the wheel on this) so i bit the bullet and bought a $3 2"x6"x8'
Now if you notice I used all 2x4's for this instead of 2x6 so I adjusted the top to 14 1/8 to accommodate 4 2x4 pieces separated by spacers I use when installing wood floors. I made no change to the seat dimensions, but there is 4- 2x4's vice 3- 2x6's.
Great plan- perfect for more seating on my weekly bocce nights and they hold in excess of 600 lbs easily for those concerned about load limits.
(Note for those curious, that is my Bocce court in the background, it is 10'x60' and built with pressure treated 4x6's and 2x4's and a whole bunch of DG and crushed oyster shells.)

This was my first big project. Came out out pretty well. 

Built for 3 year old Granddaughter 2018 Christmas.  Great instructions thanks.  Added ridge cap instead of chimney. Stained floors for the hardwood floor look.

Built this coffee table as a housewarming present for my buddy who got me hooked on woodworking as a hobby! Made from reclaimed wood.

You want to see more? Check out my blog and follow me.

http://me-go-eco.blogspot.com

my twitter is: me_go_eco

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, RECLAIM! Thanks!

Thank you for such a simple set of plans for such a useful and practical piece of furniture. I enjoyed making this.

I've fixed up an old table and borrowed Ana's plans for farmhouse bench. I've modified them, and this is the outcome.

I've used Ana's plans for several builds in my house and this one was so much fun to build. I love the way it turned out and think it looks great! Thanks for all the great plans Ana! Keep them coming and I'll keep building. :) 

This was my very first project. I had been on the hunt for two bookcases to put on either side of our fireplace. This plan was just right, but shorter than our space so I modified the plan and made the bookcases longer. I used the kreg jig every place I could find. Thanks so much Ana for your website. Finally we are furnishing our new house without breaking the bank. I never would have thought that I could build furniture, just the way we want it, all by myself. It's a wonderful feeling and I'm addicted.

This is a tv stand I built for my mom, she had to get a new tv because her tube tv finally broke. Her old stand was a big particle board cabinet that wouldn't fit a new flat screen. I seen this plan on here and thought it would make a great stand for her she absolutely loves it.

This project took an afternoon to cut and assemble and a morning to paint. I wanted to try a light grey stain but only had dark browns on hand so I did a grey wash with some grey paint I had from another project and wiped down with an old rag. I love how it turned out! The X’s Were a little tricky for this beginner but I figured it out after a refresher course with the speed square. 

My sister-in-law wanted a kid-sized dining table for all her nieces and nephews, so I made one for her by combining a couple of Ana's plans. The little seats are just a scaled down version of the Easiest Upholstered Bench plans. My kiddos love it so much, it looks like I'll be making another for us.

Simple Day Bed Modified with rail for toddler coming from a toddler size bed.

First time building furniture and enjoyed the project.  I used better lumber as I wanted to avoid paint but it turned out well for my first try.  Thank you Ana White for a good set of plans.

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!