Community Brag Posts

I know, I know...Where are the legs? Unfortunately, I have to store this until December while our multi-family mountain house is being constructed. This way I can store it up against a wall and save a lot room in storage for more Ana White projects. FYI - The legs will be white 2x4's about 29.5 inches tall. For the top I used 1x4 cedar slats spaced 1/4 inch apart. As for the painted white frame, I used treated pine. Why spend money on nice cedar if I am just going to paint over it, right? The contrast of the white and natural cedar was appealing to me for some reason. I used Thompson's clear wood protector/water sealer on the slats to prolong the natural cedar. BTW, if you can build the simple outdoor bench you can definitely take on this project. The two are not very different. I'll have to take pictures of the finished table with legs when I haul these up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and upload them again. Thanks again Ana!

I had to a quick conversion from the original plans as we get metric wood sizes so decided to use the following:-
Desk frame: 44 x 94
Desk frame front: 44 x 69
Desk Top: 32 x 144
I drew up new plans to fit my 1500mm space I needed the desk to fill, with the new wood sizes.
The purchase of the Kreg Jig was my best investment as it made construction so easy.
I finished the desk off in Antique Oak after wanting to add a little Antique White to it, but got scared that I would mess it up!
Total cost for wood and finishing materials was R1,500.

I made another one of these bunk beds for a family near my community.  This time I made all cuts from longer boards 16' + The boards had less nknots, which required less sanding and came out better!

This was a fun build.  I used a dog food bowl from Walmart for the sink, the oven handle is a Restoration Hardware pull from Habitat Restore, stove knobs (spray painted red) and faucet are from Home Depot (I couldn't find either at Habitat, but it's worth trying). The utensil bar is from Amazon. I cut out an oven window and glued a small sheet of plexiglass acrylic from HD to the door.  I put a stick-on, battery operated light inside the oven that turns on and off by pushing it. I wanted the oven to open like a real oven, but I should have saved myself the trouble and just put the hinges on the side. The door bangs to the floor unless you can figure out how to install slide hinges to prevent it. (I couldn't make it work, but I'm sure more experienced DIYers would have no trouble.)  I printed out the stovetop coils free from "printablecuttablecreatables.com" and glued them on a thin sheet of black foam.

This is my version of the Balin Console, presented by Ana White.

I used knotty pine for the wood and finished the piece first in two layers of walnut stain.

Over the stain, I painted two layers of Vast Sky blue by Sherwin Williams.

To finish it off, I used a polyurethane satin finish varnish--two coats.

This project seemed to take forever, but it was so worth it! We finally have a great cozy outdoor space to gather around the fire pit comfortably. Thanks so much for the plans Ana!
I should mention I used 2x3's instead of 2x2's for all legs because pressure treated 2x2's here are only 1 1/4"??

Skipped the 2x4 top and shelf and replaced with a 1x4 board. Got lucky with some scraps. The Colorado logo was distressed with a rotary sander. 

My granddaughters needed new bunk beds and an area to do homework. So I combined the 2 projects into one.

This is actually my third project from your site Ana.

I acctually decided to make this table ten inch wider since my wife has a loooooooot of crafts :)

This project took a little longer then I thought.
It was my own fault!!! I thought I would safe some time and get some of the wood cut buy the clerk at Home Depot. That turned out to be a really bad idea. Most of my cuts were uneven and even after I gave the clerk the exact measurements, a few of the boards were up to 2 inches too long. At the end I had to buy two more boards because I had to cut peaces away to have straight edges.
Lesson learned!!!

I love building wood furniture. And I already got my next plan from your site that I'm going to build.

This is a table and chair set I made for my 3 year old son and he loves it! I changed a couple of things. One of the things was with the table top, instead of making it rectangular I did mine square. The second thing was instead of doing the three pieces of wood I used a single 3/4" 2'x2' piece of birch plywood I found at Lowes. With the chairs I also did solid piece seats instead of the slats and I decided to do the legs with 2"x2" wood instead of 1"x2" and I found those modified plans here http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com/2011/12/t-is-for-table.html?m=1

I built this for my oldest brother.  I only used 2x2's for the legs.  I built the carcuses out of plywood and used 1x2 select pine for the face frames.  I built the top shelfs to be 5 feet tall.  So the whole thing is 7 feet high by 8 feet wide.  

I did very little modification to the original plan on this one besides reducing the overall length to 28".  I had an old plate/cup display hutch that wasn't very practical or pretty, so I took it apart and used the pieces to make the shelves (and the curvy bit under the first shelf).  <!--break-->They weren't quite the right size, so I added other wood scraps (including a bit of plywood) to get the dimensions needed.  The 1x2s are crappy used furring strips I ripped out of the attic when we redid the roof, so they were all water stained and covered in nail holes.  The top was a vintage table leaf I acquired at some point and appears to be 3" pieces of poplar glued together (it took the stain beautifully).  Oh! I did do one other thing that wasn't in the plans...I connected the shelves to the base using 5/8" dowels through the horizontal pieces on the sides.  It took a little extra time, but I do feel more secure with the weight of the books+shelves (+possibly a climbing child) resting on those dowels instead of just screws.

The main thing is that this case holds my toddler's whole library.  She can even put the books away by herself without them falling off when she doesn't place them just right.  I love that it looks like it belongs in a grown-up's living room, but it's 100% classy kid-friendly furniture design!

I built this with some scrap mdf, and 1x3's. I offset the shelves, and voila! A modern shelf to go with our eclectic, yet very modern decor. It also gives me a nice display for some of my orchids. I love this shelf!

This was my second coffee table. Anticipating that the hardest part would of course be the drawer, I actually started with the drawer and built the rest of the table around that! Made a big difference too. It was much easier.

I took my time with this project with things that I had rushed through before, sanding parts before assembly, dry fitting with lots of clamps at each step, and I took extra care on cutting pieces square.

Since I was able to get the drawer done so much easier this time, the hardest part was the top. I hate how the ends turn up slightly... does anyone know how to stop that from happening?

I spent about a week and a half on this table, working on it for a few hours a day while my son was in school.

I am SO SO SO happy with how it turned out. The drawer was really tight in the shop (no air conditioning) but when I got it home, it has loosened up a bit, and its still just a little sticky, but not bad at all. I just love this finish. It's by far my favorite finish of any that I have tried.

I am trying to sell this coffee table, and my next project is going to be a console that coordinates, but will have the base part painted and the panel top stained. I really need a good job in the near future so I don't have to keep selling these things that I build and fall in love with!!

** On a side note, this coffee table got me a marriage proposal from a near stranger. Who would have thought that making sawdust would be so attractive to guys? LOL.

This was my first Ana White project and the first time using my new Kreg jig that my wife bought for me as a birthday gift.  I modified the plans to build this as one complete unit and not as separate bins to be stacked.  I used my Kreg jig on the dividers and ends to attach each section to the next.  This saved on material and made it a bit lighter since I was building it 4 units high.  I added small 2x3 feet to the bottom to clear an outlet behind the toy bin.  Two L brackets were used to anchor the unit to the wall. 

Found five 2x12 heart pine planks and used this base as the template. Table is about 18" wider than the plans. It turned out great!

I started to build these crates as storage for my oldest daughter's room, but I never got around to finishing a second. Halloween was coming on fast and I had about 8 pallets in my backyard. I debated tearing them apart and building another crate, or using them to create a graveyard.....

The graveyard won, and I ended up doing a picket fence, a casket and headstones with the pallet pieces. The crate fit right in to the decor, so it has now become a halloween decoration instead of a storage solution for my daughter's room. It even got a lid!