Community Brag Posts

This is my first attempt to make any kind of piece of furniture, and I am really happy with how it turned out! I have been searching for over a year for an affordable solution to the blank wall above my bed, but never found something I loved enough to spend money on or time on to repaint, etc. I just loved the way this one looked in the pictures so even though I have never built anything before I thought I would give it a shot! I found the instructions to be really easy to follow, but the actual process a little harder than I'd thought it would be (due to my own mistakes). I thought I'd list some of the mistakes I made in case someone else reads this and can stop themselves before they make the same ones :)

First, I put the padded part a little wider than the allotted space, so when I went to nail the boards on the edges they didn't go down as smoothly. If I had just kept it within the lines I marked, this wouldn't have been a problem.

Also, I somehow missed the part of the instructions where I was supposed to use glue when I nailed the boards, so between that and the relatively flimsiness of the 1/2 piece of plywood, my boards came undone a couple of times. I eventually decided to use screws to hold everything and that was WAY better and sturdier, even though you can see the screws.

Also, I did not square it well enough along the way and I ended up with a sliver of extra plywood hanging off the side of the board, which made the trim piece on one side have a little gap at the bottom. I don't care though, since the bottom is out of sight anyways!

I saw other people had wondered how to attach this to a metal bed frame, but I never read a way to actually do it. I plan to figure out a way to either attach it to the bed frame or the wall, but for now, I just have it wedged between my mattress and the wall, and it seems stable enough. I hope it doesn't fall on me in the night ;)

I followed the lead of the Shanty to Chic lady and used a 5 dollar canvas drop cloth from Lowes for my fabric and I LOVE the way it looks in my room. I also took her advice and used Rust-Oleum stain (in Kona) and applied two coats of the stain to get the really dark wood.

Overall, I am super stoked to finally have a headboard, and to have made it myself! There is definitely a great feeling of accomplishment for building something like this so if you are hesitant to do it, I suggest you go for it! Next, I think I am going to make the tilt out trash can cabinet for my kitchen :)

I took the plans from the Fancy X Console table and made all but the end "X's". I painted the legs and trim with a vanilla white, and stained the top and shelves with a golden pecan. Turned out great and looked amazing in the house of the woman I made it for......AKA my mother.

I really appreciated the build article.  I customized the sizes and used plywood for the bottom shelves.  I oxidized but painted with milk paint then sanded to distress.  I also only painted one coat to still see some grain.  I top coated with water based poly.

A modified version of one of Ana’s chairs. I widened it by a few inches and used the staves from a retired whiskey barrel for the seat and back. I then added a Sho Sugi Ban effect to the frame and then stained it using Unicorn Spit.

mcglashanpatrick

We just absolutely LOVE this little bench! Ryan found Ana's site while searching woodworking tips and thought this bench would be a great replacement for the dinning room chairs that were falling apart. It was a great idea!

We have an Etsy shop and create and sell lots of stuff! We loved the bench so much that we thought why not put a few twists to it and see what our customers think. Well they LOVE it too! Of course everyone wants this color and that size, but the core design from "some great plans" is what does the trick!

The benches featured here just show you that the sky is the limit with mix and match options. From a slightly distressed blue X bench to a 100% solid Cedar bench to a reclaimed wood bench! We just love coming up with ways to tweak and add our own twist to the design.

Also...and most important...If you notice, there are NO screws showing on the outside of the bench!!! Yep..figured out how to hide the screws for the 'X' part of the bench. Just email me for the details ... (I get long winded).

Thank you Ana and everyone else who contributes here! Great site with awesome intentions....Can't wait to show you the coffee table we are working on!

-Angel
Email me here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/RyAngelsCreations

Threw this together in a couple hours with scrap wood that I had from an Ana White project I did over spring break. Had to buy some hooks and the hanging brackets and that was it. Very simple! Not sure how I'm going to finish it. I don't have time for the finishing right now anyways so I'm going to use it as is and finish it later!

A huge thanks to Ana, her inspirational blog, and her clear and easy-to-follow plans for convincing me that I could take on and complete this project. I had lots of fun doing it!

I built this bed for my 4 year old son over the weekend....I'll admit to a LOT of help from his Mamaw and Pawpaw. We converted it to a full-size bed instead of a twin...simply so I didn't have to buy new mattresses. We LOVE the way it turned out and he thinks he's King of his own personal "castle". Thanks for the plans!

I wanted to build a structure for the kids to play in, but not include a playhouse. I used the playhouse deck design and made it slightly smaller (6 feet by 8 feet). The "roof" is removable to provide shade when it's sunny. It's just PVC and a tarp - pretty simple, but it does the job. I used treated posts and untreated lumber for the rest of it. I painted everything in my garage before assembling it. Once all of the wood at been painted, but came together pretty quickly!

I followed the basic Industrial Cart plans, but made it 36" high instead of 24"ish. We wanted a countertop type of space for tea/coffee and a shelf big enough for cereal boxes.

Lessons learned: Treatign (sanding/staining/sealing) the wood takes the most time, and regular wood fill is ugly - next time I will try to find transparent fill or leave the suface uneven.

I saw this table on wyrmwoodgaming.com but I wanted to see if I could make it myself. I did it all in Cherry and used Tung oil to finish it. I have two coats of Tung oil on there for a finish. In all I paid about $800 for the cherry and flat steel I used for the magnetic rails on the sides.

These tables are part of the Benchright collection. They are not terribly hard to make, especially if you buy the 24" diameter round table top from Lowes.

I found an ad in the Craig's List free section advertising two pallets on a first come, first serve basis behind the new pizza place near our apartment. I talked my dh into going a checking it out and there was one left when we got there. These pallets were HUGE! Nine feet long! It hung a good 3 feet over the end of the tailgate on my husband's truck! The manager of the pizza place wandered out while we were loading up and told us that their new pizza ovens had been delivered on the pallets. Cool story to tell our son about his bookshelves!

We got the pallet home after a quick stop at Lowe's for a crow bar. Dh taught me how to use a crow bar to remove the excess wood used to stablize the pizza oven on the pallet during shipment. I also learned that they use an insane amount of nails to put these things together! After pulling off about 40 pounds of useless scrap wood (literally, 40 pounds, these suckers were HEAVY!) I used some of our own scrap boards from other projects to make the shelves. We live in an apartment complex. People wandering by all day asked what I was doing. Even dh didn't understand exactly what I was trying to do but he went along with it and helped when I needed extra hands.

After getting it all put together, I used some left over poly-and-stain-in-one that we had left over. I got most of it stained with that but then I ran out. I haven't gotten around yet to getting some more. That will be the only cost associated with this project, the rest was free. Oh and the letters used for my son's name on the shelves. I blurred it out in the picture but I used dollar store vinyl letters to put his name on the shelf.

We anchored the shelf to the wall, it's stable and sturdy but I never doubt the ingenuity of a small child and even with the 40 pounds of wood we removed from this sucker, it is still H-E-A-V-Y!!!! Since it's going in a toddler's room I figured better safe than sorry. I went to Lowe's and asked for earthquake straps and I was told that we don't get earthquakes around here so they don't carry them.... I had to explain to her that earthquake straps also keep small children from toppling heavy furniture and she said they might have something in the childproofing area. They did have furniture straps as they called them in the childproofing area. Note to self: we no longer live in an earthquake prone area, people look at you like you've lost your mind if you want to strap your furniture down in case of earthquakes or curious small children.

This is a simple wooden step stool I built for my daughter using some wood I had around the house. I wanted to build a small stool that was easy for her to carry around and access items that she needed. 

I used the instructions from ana-white's website. Instead of building 2 separate boxes for 6 baskets, I decided to make one big sorter that would hold 6 baskets. The sorter has been an amazing help. We have a family of 6. 3 baskets for dirty and 3 baskets for folded clean clothes. 3 Dirty baskets: whites, colors, and sheets/towels. As for the other 3 baskets: 2 people per basket. The top of the sorter provides counter space to fold.

This project was inspired by the post I found on Ana-White.com however I changed some of the dimensions and cut list to make it my own. I built one of these for my Mother and her and her friends keep talking about it to this day.

Our own mix for the sliding door console.  Stained the entire unit with Jacobean stain, then light grey chalk paint.  Distressed with 150/220 grit and waxed.  Top and shelves are Jacobean with 4 coats of satin polyurethane.  Absolutely love how this came out.  Roughly $300 spend at home depot on all supplies.  Wife and I finished in about 17 hours this weekend.