Community Brag Posts

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!

Just changed the back a tiny bit.  My nieces and nephews love these!  Thanks for the great plans.

Basic  kitchen  island

Built as panels adding a large base for holes. Replacement for fire damage wilderness toilets. Loaded into Kodiak aircraft and assembly by volunteers on site. Worked Great! Thanks Ana!! - Wingnut13 RAF theraf.org

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.

Combined a few different plans from Ana White and made a tiletop coffee table and matching end table.

TV console is next :)

I built this as a memory bench in honour of my father who died on 27th January 2016. Because of you Ana you gave me the confidence to start building furniture. But because of him I had the skills and desire.

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.

just had to make a small change to get it to be a king ,  It was a long weekend  project

I built this for my daughter for Christmas this year. For the seats I used 2" foam wrapped in decorative fabric. Then I covered that with a thick plastic that I found at the local hobby store, to make it waterproof.

Doll Bunk bed, this was a lot of fun to make the plan was laid out well and very easy to follow.

This was a gift to a friend's 10 year old and it really made her happy.

I enjoyed sewing the bedding. It was just an over all load of fun.

I made it very quickly, I think the filling, sanding painting took longer.

I made this table to sit between a sofa and a wall with a window.  Used the Rustic X Console plan as my jumping off point.  I increased the height to meet the window sill and increased the width to the width of the sofa.  I used 2x2s instead of 2x4s for the legs, and 1x6s instead of 2x6s for the top.  I dd not include the middle shelf.  Since the table is sandwiched between a sofa and a wall only the sides are exposed, so I left off the Xs.   Because of this it now serves as a tunnel for the cats and dog.

All in all it basically turned out how I wanted it, though I could have worked on the stain a bit more.

This designed was modified to specifically fit a wine fridge. Same height and depth, but measuring 80" long. Drawers replaced with cubbies. All of the wood is reclaimed from wood we took out of the adjacent living room which used to be a sun room - 125 year old pine, fir, oak beadboard. 

I made these two American Girl doll beds for my nieces. For one bed, I followed Ana's plans exactly. For the other, I used plywood and cove molding in place of the 1x3 slats.

You can find more details about the build and finish I used on my blog.

From our blog, 1885 Prospect Hill Renovation:

Annie and I have four kids.  One of the most amazing things about Annie is that three of them are not biologically hers, but she is an intensely loving and caring parent to them.  I brought them with me into our relationship and she never saw them as "baggage", but as more outlets for her seemingly unending displays of love and affection.  We bought this house, in part, because it was big enough for our family. One of the best features was this "bonus" room between the dining room and the kitchen.

Now most houses of this period have a front entryway, a front parlor, a second parlor, a side room and a kitchen.  For some reason, the builders of our home stuck an extra room that we lovingly call our "family room".  This is where the kids play.  Where they do their homework.  Where we have our family game nights.  Where we sing happy birthdays.  It is the heart of our home and we needed a table worthy of accommodating these things.

Now, Annie doesn’t like to spend money on things.  Ever.  So it was up to me to build this table.  So I leaned on my favorite website, the queen of all DIY projects, Ana White. She has plans for many great projects, and she makes them easily accessible and affordable.  My favorite was for her Farmhouse Table.  It was big and it was doable.

I used stock wood from my favorite lumber place in Western New York, Lenco Lumber.  Using my new compound miter saw, my grandfather's old dado blades on my table saw, and about 1,000 screws, I built this guy.  It is so sturdy the kids can all dance on it and it won't budge.  It is now a permanent fixture in our home and when we die, it stays behind.  

We painted the legs white and stained the top a dark red oak.  Because we wanted it to be durable and stand up to anything the kids could throw at it or spill on it, we gave it a thick epoxy bar coat.  This was a challenge.  We had to mix the two parts and spread evenly across the table, letting the epoxy drip over the edges to cover the sides.  Then came the blow torch.  Heating the wet epoxy forces the bubbles to the surface and allows them to burst, leaving a smooth and even finish.

We built a bench to match, also thanks to Ana White's design.

Finally, we found some chairs on Craigslist from a family that was moving.  They look pretty old and needed some reinforcement, but we think they look great!  Oh, and we also painted the walls to a brighter, more playful color.  Now it is truly a Family Room that we love!

We live on a 40 acre farm and I needed some great shelves to make a nice work area off the kitchen for our canning and other projects.  My wonderful husband built these for me and I could not be happier.  I put the metal bars in the back so I could use baskets more easily and I am still looking for attractive corner brackets to add to them.