Community Brag Posts

My first ever building project! I learned a few important lessons: it's really hard to make a straight cut with a jig saw, and you have to use large hinges (the tiny hinges I put on there first ripped right out). It was a great learning experience, the fences really were easy to build, and my two-year-old LOVES them! Now I'm ready for my next project. :)

I made this awesome jewelry cabinet for my teenage daughter's room. It holds all her jewelry and then some, and it keeps it looking nice and organized. I followed the Wall Jewelry Cabinet plans, and made just a few minor modifications to better suit the style of my daughter's room. Plans were super easy to follow and this only took a few hours to build.

I was inspired by Ana's 4 Hole Cubby Bookshelf and a bookshelf I saw on line one night. So I incorporated the two somewhat. I took stair parts for the corner legs and connected them to form a frame with 1x3 on the bottom and 1x2 around the top. Then installed the inside side walls such that the ends are inset. I added a top with an inch or so of overhang on the sides and front. I also made the two shelves adjustable with my new Kreg Shelf Pin jig. It was so easy and accurate. Dimensions are about the same as the 4 Hole Cubby but I admit I winged it at times. Came out very nice and now the wife wants to add another shelf and I think there is plenty of room.

I found this plan on morelikehome.net and had to try it this was my first project in 20 years and I had so much fun building it. I am looking forward to building more in the future! Enjoy!

This was my second project. I built it with my hubs and we had a blast. We have a boxspring so we used 2x6s, but laid them flat. We also used 2x12s for the sides and instead of attatching the sides permanantly we used bed hooks that we ordered online to attatch the sides. 4x4s were impossible to find. We ended up buying treated ones and sanding them for ages.

Was very easy and fun to build , built from very easy and cheap console table plan

Great, beefy chair with a rustic look around the poker table with side tables (another project that took longer than anticipated); the plans were great and easy to follow. I made a few modifications:

- Reduced the width from 19" to 16" to fit around the table.
- Made the seat out of 1x4's horizontally mounted with an extra support underneath. It helps to keep the cushions from sliding and I liked the look.
- Rather than pocket holes I counter-sunk and used oak plugs.

I did the whole thing assembly-line style creating "kits" as I went along. That allowed me to make jigs for each cut so things were reasonable close from chair to chair. Also, I only made one attempt at the jigsaw cut for the rear angle...the jigsaw got very upset. For the rest, I used the chop saw to make little slices and then chiseled and sanded.

Two coats of Danish Oil on everything gave me the look I was trying for, kind of the back-room-in-an-old-John-Wayne-cowboy-movie vibe. Leave your pistols at the bar.

The times and costs are per chair, the whole thing took a whole lot longer!

Just finished this farmhouse coffee table for my in-laws who live in Nova Scotia, Canada! This was my first try with the coffee table, but I have used plans from Ana for other projects and genuinely appreciate the simplicity as I am far from a master carpenter. As I started this project, I was determined to use pocket hole joinery (and glue) wherever I could. It took a little more thought, but the goal was accomplished! I finished the wood with BEHR water-based stain & poly, golden oak, and high gloss. I added crates, finished with a natural stain, for storage of small blankets; I also added the felt pads to protect their laminate floors. Thanks again for the plans, Ana!

We're expecting a baby in November and we picked this as our first Nursery Decor project!

We were originally inspired by the Letter Z project we found on here on Ana's site. So we went ahead and made our own design on google sketch-up. It was a good first project for us to learn how to use Google sketch-up (although we still aren't very good at it).

We wrote about building the project on our blog here: http://thehuth.blogspot.com/2012/10/brought-to-you-by-letter-h.html

This was a fun project and we love the way it turned out!

I built this for my kids who are now having to share a room due to another baby on the way. These plans appealed to me because it's junior height and it had stairs instead of a ladder, both of which made the top bunk sleeper feel safer. It was my first furniture build but I do have quite a bit of building experience. I was pregnant but loved these plans and had to build it! I stained/painted each piece separately before assembling it. I also drew up my own stair plans so I could add more storage (it fits 18 cube storage bins!) and built it using 2x6s and 2x12s and galvanized steel pipes for a railing. I added a bottom bunk as well. Under the top bunk mattress, I stapled a $7 grey flat sheet, with the staples hiding, to cover up the 2x4s supporting the upper mattress. The kids love it! Thanks Anna for the inspiration!

I made this using plans submitted by pericles49. Thank you, pericles49!

I altered the design to use materials I had laying around, and changed the size to fit my space. That made it take a little longer - especially because changing the fastening pattern is still tricky for me - trying to keep screws from hitting each other.

Design

I made mine a little deeper 27-1/2" instead of 24 on the plan.

Materials

• Landscape timbers I had laying around. To save on weight, and wood, I ripped a couple of the landscape timerbers down the middle.
• Roof - 5-V crimp tin roof
• 1x4 pine boards (2nds from other projects)
• 1x4 and 1x2 cyprus boards (2nds from a construction project)

What I'd do differently next time

• The weight of the firewood is resting on the screws that fasten the floor to the posts. Next time I'll make the wood support the weight, and the screws just hold it in place.

First time building set of planters from cedar lumber (not fence planks) and fairly pleased with outcome… Lumber was a bit mismatched for thickness and it wasn’t S4S … Sanded and cut pieces then double coat stained all sides before assembly… All joints were glued and exterior screwed … Floor is free floating (we’re using potted plants) and has 2 hanger boards to accommodate different sizes of pots…

You can see the final project here: http://crabandfish.blogspot.com/2012/10/lil-archers-bed-its-done-its-do…

It was time for our son to move to a big-boy bed! We looked at tons of plans, but none were quite what I wanted. In the end, fish modified plans for Ana White's Camp Loft Bed with Stair. We wanted to make it a bit shorter because we only have 8' ceilings and there is a ceiling fan in the room. We spent about $80 for the lumber and invested in a kreg jig as well. The bed is stained with Minwax Golden Oak. We bought a 10" deep twin-sized foam mattress for the bed - if you are adding a coil mattress and boxspring, the bedside rails would definitely need to be higher.

Our son LOVES it! He is almost three and is easily able to navigate the stairs, which I don't believe will become too "baby-ish" as he grows older. If they do, the steps can easily be removed from the frame without losing structural integrity.

The underbed area has a great "cool" factor - we hang blankets to create forts, and it has become a place our son gravitates to for reading, playing, anything!