Community Brag Posts

Grandson needed a bed at our house for when he comes and stays. Designed and built this bed, features a bookcase headboard. Drawers on one side and storage cubbies on the opposite side.

Over sized Oak Blanket chest. 60x25x31. There's a full 27" deep over storage space. Decorative border on the top is perfect is you want to add a seating cushion later. Natural wood color with just a clearcoat to enhance.

This project has been a long time coming and I'm so excited that it is finally finished. We modified the plans to better fit our media center opening, so it is about the same dimensions as the original Pottery Barn Benchwright TV Stand. We also used true dimension lumber, so we adjusted the measurements based on that. This is definitely my favorite project to date!

This was my 5th build. Took a few weekends working in the morning. Table is Weathered Oak (base) and Early American (top) stain. Modified the plans to make it slightly smaller so it would fit better in my kitchen. Very sturdy and table looks gorgeous in person, very happy.

We were shopping for bunk beds for our 5 and 3-year-old kids, and everything I saw was overpriced, mass produced junk. I'm not kidding - we were looking at $800-$2000 for anything that appeared to be remotely stable, let alone well-designed.

Naturally, I started searching for plans (it's the right thing to do), and naturally, I found my way to Ana White. This project began in earnest when I found the Side Street Bunk Bed plans here:
http://ana-white.com/2012/03/plans/side-street-bunk-beds

I figured I'd give it my own twist. I needed to practice using my DeWalt compact router (and the new trim router table my wife had given me months before), and any excuse to bust out my Kreg Jig is fine by me. I also had different ideas for the ladder and guard rails...so I printed out the plans, sketched out my variations, and proceeded to suffer through the indignity of lumber shopping at Home Depot.

I know what you're thinking - WHY would anyone even bother trying to find a straight board in THAT place? Well believe me, I suffered for the convenience of driving to the HD two miles from my house. I had to work each and every board like crazy, but eventually I got em all into fine shape. Wood wants to be good, even the crap they sell at HD.

About halfway through the build, I started to worry that what i was building was TOO sturdy - total overkill. But now that it's in use, I can tell you I'm glad I built with these plans. I can still climb up on top of the bed with both my kids if I want to and this thing doesn't budge. Not an inch. Not a creak. SOLID. Exactly what any parent wants.

Not a lot of complex tools involved here; my trusty Delta chop saw, my DeWalt 18v cordless drill, a DeWalt palm sander ( I spent hours with this), the Kreg Jig and a couple of clamps (of course), and the DeWalt Compact Router and table. The router really made a difference in the overall design – and I wasn't afraid of screwing up the lousy lumber I was working with. In the end, it all finished rather nicely.

I treated every piece with Minwax wood conditioner, then a single coat of Minway Polyshade in Pecan. Nothing fancy, but after sanding it down and giving it a polish, I gotta say it looks just as good as your average IKEA finish. Not bad at all.

This is the largest piece of functional furniture I've ever built, and my kids LOVE it. They talked about it for days after, and you can't buy that on Amazon. It was a real confidence builder, and I'm PSYCHED to move on to some nicer lumber and more complex projects!

We decided to build this a bit bigger and taller. I will caution you to be careful as we came inches to not making it through our doorways. We expanded the depth 15" to make it a full bed and we extended the length of the legs to allow for 48" clearance underneath.

We also went with a rock wall instead of a ladder. I 1st built the angle too steep; recommend at least a 30 degree angle on a wall. Kid's love it; mom not so much when attempting to make the bed! :)

We went with military theme - green rope lights, camo netting for a roof, and sandbags filled with old clothes from my high school years for a bunker underneath.

Still working on a sign for top of the door.

Great project! Thanks for the idea!

Modified the Farmhouse Storage Bed with Storage Drawers. Changed the design to california king and added booshelves to the headboard. Will eventually turn a shelf into a nightstand for water/light. I LOVE IT!! Thanks for the Design, Ana!

I have done quite a bit of woodworking never being great at any of them . But I truly love furniture building. 

I have built several furniture pieces in my home several coming from you.

Built this for our Daughters 4th birthday. Both our girls love it! If we had not painted it with outdoor paint we would have been done in a few hours. It took awhile for the paint to dry and we did multiple coats.

I needed a better way to store my fire wood. The rack that we had only held enough wood for to load the fire place and add 2 or 3 as needed before the wood was gone. I wanted something that I could hold more wood.

I was looking online at different racks and came across something that looked like a bookcase with no shelves filled with wood. I then looked at where I had my wood and saw that I had a nook to put something like that in. The photo of the shelves with only a little wood is all the wood that was in the metal holder. I had a lot of space left.

After looking at various store for bookcases and shelving, hoping in vain that I could find something cheep that would fit the size I needed, I came to see what plans I could use from Ana's site. I looked at the cube tower and the locker cabinet and finally used the pdf from the locker cab resized to fit my needs.

My wife remembered seeing something about banding on here,( http://ana-white.com/2013/11/momplex/finishing-plywood-edges-edge-bandi… ) So we found some white to match the wood. I think the banding turned out good.

I did have a hard time getting the drill in to the pocket holes for the second side of shelf. I started to look on line and found 3" bits at Lowes and HD, but it was 10:30 at night. After looking some more I found a great post on Kreg's site for using a ratchet with a 1/4" socket to hold the bit. http://kregjig.ning.com/photo/ratchetasrtangledriver-1?context=user

My wife also said I should add one more shelf for keeping the wood stable. I told her that I would be fine. Now that I have filled it up all the way I think another shelf would be good to keep the wood rotated. Have one stack of room temp wood, and one of just from outside trying to warm up. So she was right that I should put in another shelf. ;)

I think it has opened the space by the fire place and should help my daughter not to stub her toes like she did with the rack.

The wood was $30 and HD cut if for no charge. It only took one sheet. The banding was around $5 and I had to buy some more Kreg screws.

The Size is 12 1/2"W 18"D and 79" high.

The blue bag under the shelving is an Ikea bag. It is just the right size and strength to carry the wood in.
Mike

A friend who has a photog service on the side said she needed a bench for group photos. Selected this modern farm bench and it has been a great hit. I did not make any changes in the design. Took a day and about $20 in lumber. Sorry for the photo clarity or lack thereof, I have several orders from her family members but I need to get on with my projects.

This is my first project and I've spent a couple of months preparing for it. My wife loved the plans for this bed and I loved the challenge. I reviewed the plans for both the king and queen size beds and read through all of the comments before starting. The comments were especially helpful, so thanks to everyone for contributing. I took my time with project hoping to minimize beginner mistakes. We recently upgraded to a king sized mattress and already had a bed frame (we highly recommend this one)

So I adjusted the plans for making just the headboard and footboard along with the runners. I omitted the 1x3 boards to account for orienting our king bed so that it is 76" wide and 80" long. Initially, I made the mistake of thinking that 1x6 boards would be adequate for runners. But that wouldn't withstand the constant onslaught of our kids climbing into our bed, so I switched to 2x6 boards and it's much sturdier. I cut the runners 3" longer than the bed frame to allow for room for the bedding and to account for the 1" overlap from the 2x6 cap on the footboard. L brackets were perfect for attaching them to the headboard and footboard. Now that this is under my belt I'm looking forward to my next project.

This is an adapted plan from the:

Chunky X Base Table

http://www.ana-white.com/2016/02/free_plans/chunky-x-base-table-featuri…

I made it counter height, made it skinnier at 27" depth and really long at 72" long.

Used Ana's doll high chair plans. Modified the tray with a curved hinged tray. Painted in her favorited color!