Community Brag Posts

I built this custom desk for a customer's 6 year old son. I started with the Modular Office Small Desktop. I had to make changes to the plans because I was using 3", posts, 1.5" solid wood top and the entire desk was made out reclaimed lumber. I also added a cross beam on the bottom to make it more secure. Once we settled on the basic idea my customer said if I found something unique to go ahead with it. They were thinking a cool piece of wood or something like that, however when I found an old boat instrument panel at the used furniture shop where my wife and sell furniture I had to have it. I then pulled all gauges from the panel and installed them in a wood "back splash". I rewired the gauges to work on 120V power so one switch will turn on the gauge lights and the other will make some of the gauge neddles jump.

We just built our first set of Adirondack chairs and after sharing with our friends, we have sold a few. We are now building other stuff too!

The only change I did to the original plan is place the 1x3 on the top in the back. Makes it look more stout and clean finish.

We painted it 3 times with a nice red and bought some great cushions at a good price.

I like building things for others, especially when it's something that they can't find anywhere else. In this case, my friend has lived in her home for 20 years and never could find a storage piece to fit in this niche in their bedroom. When she asked if I could build something I was ready to try!

Because the dresser is 83" tall, 14 inches deep, and 33 inches wide, I didn't use one of Ana's plans. But, the Madison Dresser could be used as a jumping off point.

My friend is thrilled with this, and I hope they can use it for many years to come.

Reclaimed wood nightstand

Thank you for the great plans!  I modified it a bit to fit our needs.  I made the footboard identical with the headboard; added feet from Osbourne Wood and finials I found on Etsy.  To accomodate the feet, I made the vertical corner posts flush with the siderails and head/foot boards.

Farmhouse Coffee Table with a bit of Rustic "X" Coffee Table. Thank you so much for the plans. This was a nice build. I opted for pocket holes and panel glue up so for me, it wasn't a one day build. :)

This is my most ambitious build so far. I wanted to make a really nice piece of furniture and I needed a bed so this is it. I wanted drawers and I wanted to make an upholstery headboard so I this is what I came up with. The headboard was so simple and took only a day. I searched youtube and found a video walking you through the process and was surprised at how easy it was. I built the bed with oak but I would do it differently next time. As it turns out I don't like the grain of oak and its so porous that I spent A LOT of time on the finishing part. I used wood grain filler to take away the porousness and used a series of stains and glazes to get the finished look I wanted. All in all I'm happy with the result but I think I could do it better next time.

This was my first Farmhouse bed!  I am totally in love with how it turned out!  These plans were very detailed and easy to follow.  I added some fancy trim like in the Mom's Fancy Farmhouse bed. I also changed the way I attached the side rails.  I used siderail supports from Lee Valley as I wanted to be able to dismantle the bed for easier moving if needed.

I am also thinking of adding a trundle to it.

Thank you so much Ana, for these wonderful plans.

I have made numerous items from your site and will continue to do so. 

Easy to put together and quick! A great set of plans which produced a very sturdy bench. Some adjustments were made, as we had spare 1x3s which we used to expand the bottom shelf.

We pre-cut everything to specification. We only needed 6 2x4x8s. We only broke into the 7th because our cuts for the cross bars on top came up short once it was together and we had to recut. Just save the 12 inch boards to cut when you need to add them to ensure the measurements are accurate. The top was glued and nailed together with brads, a bottom layer of 1 inch pine with a top layer of 1/4 oak plywood on top. It was what we had on hand and it provides the strength needed with girth yet the hard exterior of the hardwood ply.

Our youngest was done with his little boy bed and so we decided we should make him a bed - he picked the clubhouse bed and we went to work. This was a fun build - I used the "Kreg" Jig for just about everything. We decided that he would need a new bookshelf and thought the truss shelves would look great next to the bed. He is so proud and excited for his big boy room, thank you Ana and Jaime for the plans and tips.

With three boys ages 17, 14, and 9 sleeping in one small bedroom, an efficient bunk bed/loft bed system seemed to be the perfect choice. I used the bunk bed plans from The Handbuilt Home, but I increased the height, and moved the steps to the end. The loft bed is basically the same as the bunk beds, but without the bottom bunk. I left the top rail off the head of the loft bed, creating a space so that they could crawl from the top bunk to the loft if desired. The short side rails on the top bunk are attached to the head of the loft bed.

The beds are modular and could be stand-alone beds, but I used TimberLok heavy duty wood screws to screw the beds together at the "intersection" on the bottom rail of the top bunk and loft, and the bottom rail of the bottom bunk and loft. That makes the beds very sturdy.

The entire system comes apart for storage or if a move ensues later. One other modification gleaned from a brag post was to use spacers on the cleats of the side rails so that you can just lay the slats down without having to screw them down. What a time-saver!

Thank you Ana White for the lovely plans and to all the brag posters for the ideas.

My husband took care of cutting, drilling and putting together the table. I took care of sanding, staining and sealing. It was an easy project. Thank you for the plans, our kids love this table! 

My name is Nan Farley.  I am attaching the finished garden bench (my 2nd wood project) that I created with the help of your free garden bench plans.  Thank you so much for sharing your videos and plans with us.

I love this plan and this table. This was my first project, and I think I turned out really well.

We built the farmhouse king size bed over the last week. We used 2x4 hangers to hold the 2x4's in place and used 2x4's to support the mattress. We put 7/16" plywood on top of the 2x4's to support the mattress. We struggled with how we were going to attach the side rails to the bed frame and finally came up with a way we felt would be strong enough. Please see the pictures included to see exactly how we attached the rails to the bed frame. We used lag bolts, and metal brackets.

I shrunk the size and dumbed down the plans to fit my skill level.