Community Brag Posts

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. 

First Project from you😊 ...total woodworking newbie and very impressed with myself and your plans...can't wait to spruce up my whole house with your projects🤩 - Denise

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.

Our daughter was in desperate need of storage in her room, so we decided to build her a storage bed. This was our first build, and we had many issues that we've chalked up to "learning curve," but we're pleased with the end result anyway.

We used the Twin Storage Bed plans to start, but we modified the end box so that the sides would have all open storage, and we could build a low footboard. We liked the low footboard on the Farmhouse Bed, but our daughter did not want the crown on the footboard, so we worked up a simpler design. We kept the 3-box design of the Twin Storage Bed instead of just making the two side boxes longer so that the end box has deep storage (we kept the center divider for support, but the storage is 19" deep). The footboard is low enough that it doesn't extend over the mattress (our daughter's request), but it still gives the bed a finished look and keeps the mattress from sliding off.

When we built the two side boxes and the end box, we made the mistake of cutting all of the pieces at once, before assembly. When we went to assemble, we discovered that many of the boards had issues (warps, the boards were not the same width all the way through, our cuts weren't straight -- we had trouble figuring out how to get straight cuts with the circular saw at first). We didn't have money to buy all new wood and start over, so we went ahead and assembled the boxes, and I spent two weekends fixing as best I could (lots of filler and sanding). The boxes ended up being somewhat different heights, so even though each box was level on its own, we were going to have a problem getting them all the same height together. So, we decided to add feet with leveling footers. We also ordered a set of bowed slats from Ikea to help make sure the bed would be level and comfortable.

The storage cubbies all turned out the right size on the inside despite our assembly troubles, so we can fit 12 fabric storage cubes in the cubbies.

We added trim to the side boxes to give it a finished look and to help keep the mattress from sliding off the bed. To make it possible to move the bed later, we decided to build the trim on the side boxes and slide the end box into place. We attached the boxes together using L brackets.

The footboard is made out of plywood, trimmed with 1X6 at the top, 1X3 on the bottom trim, and and 1X2 vertical trim.

The side trim is made out of 1X4 for the top trim centered (2" overhang below and 2" raised above the side of the box), 1X3 horizontal trim for the bottom of the box (top edge of the bottom trim is flush with the bottom of the cubbies), and 1X2 trim for the vertical pieces.

The headboard was our own creation. Our daughter did not want a large headboard, so we wanted to make something that was just enough to keep her pillows from sliding off the bed and to provide a ledge to put her glasses and book. When we first tried the mattress on the bed, there was a 5" gap between the head of the mattress and the wall, so we built a headboard "box" that sits on and is attached to the two side boxes. The mattress now fits without gaps so that the pillows won't slip off the head of the bed.

There really aren't any plans for this bed.  I scaled down the camp loft bed and copied the other brag post on here

We have been using a number of folding tables to do our builds and feeling the pain in our backs and frustrations in our brains for doing it.  I found this pattern and rushed to Home Depot!  A few hours later we had a workbench.  Loved it so much a day later we had two!!  We use them all the time.  Thank you Ana for such a great pattern!

Not an original design a modified version of the farm table made to have slightly more sleek joints. - JP

I didn't really follow any of Ana's plans for this build, but it is a result of using her plans up to this point in my woodworking journey that enabled me to complete this one! I don't own a table saw, so this was constructed using a circular saw, miter saw, Kreg jig, and a nail gun. It was the first time I've had to cut and attach crown molding, and I also learned how to cope baseboard trim using a Dremel. Another first was using a router to rabbet out the back so the plywood back wasn't visible from the sides. I learn something new every build :)

I'm thrilled with the change in the room with this new project. We had two narrower bookcases side-by-side in there before, and they were about the height of the windows with a stain color that didn't match any of the other wood pieces in the rooms. This cabinet looks like it belongs in the room.