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we needed an exterior table big enough for 8 on short notice. It's hard to find nice exterior furniture on the Big Island of Hawaii so we decided to build ourselves using borrowed tools. only wish i had my kreg jig nearby :).

*this is July 2021 (pandemic) so wood prices have shot up. that's the reason the cost of the project is higher than normal.

My wife needed a desk to work at home from and nothing on the retail market interested us, so I offered to build one. I followed the plans for a Farmhouse Desk, but with a change for the top. I chose a pre-sanded 3/4" red oak top and trim to cover the plywood edges. We didn't want the lips or edges that may show up using the planned 1x6" planks. The desktop measures 31.5 x 71.5" which is large, but allows for a lot of work to be accomplished. I added a grommet hole for the wires and a 3 1/8" hole for a desktop outlet with 2 USB's, 1 USB-C and two regular outlets. I also added a 9-input power strip / surge protector on the underside of the desk that the desktop outlet plugs in to. So only the power strip plugs into the wall and everything is surge protected.

It took me 4 weeks and about 25 hours, as I made it around my work schedule and family life.

I built this bed for my (adult) son. The instructions were easy to follow. I left off the 2 x 2" cleats on the headboard to make it easier to attach the tongue and groove headboard pieces with pocket hole screws (I did lay two 2 x 2's underneath the tongue & groove pieces for spacing as I attached the boards). Since I made this as a platform bed I added a 6th tongue & groove headboard piece and the optional center cleat underneath. I used the suggested Varathane Weathered Wood Accelerator for the finish; mine came out much more grey than the bed pictured with the plans and my son liked the finish (I did too). Finding non-pressure treated 4x4's and semi-straight 2x4's was the hardest part. I used pine wood and bought all the lumber for about $175 (purchased at peak COVID lumber prices). This bed is definitely solid and I'm looking forward to making the matching nightstand! Thank you Ana for the bed plans!

This is my favorite piece we have in our home. We added a wood edging around the desk top to give it a nice finished look. We had a hard time locating the right size drawer slides and ended up buying a lot of them online, so if anyone needs a set of drawer slides, please let me know lol.

I used Ana's 'Simple Closet Organizer' plan as a starting point and then went a little nuts. :) If you read the comments below the plan, a wonderful, professional closet designer gave some fantastic tips and then another person shared EasyClosets.com.

So I plugged all of the dimensions into the Easy Closets website and used the plan I drew up based on its recommendations and my daughter's needs. :) She has three usable walls.

This was also my very first time using my Kreg Jig. I got it for my birthday months ago, but wasn't sure which project to "learn" on. :) I did quite a few tests on scrap before starting. Melamine coated particle board is SLIPPERY stuff so have LOTS and LOTS of clamps or your joints will not be square. Wow!

I got these chrome closet rods at The Container Store – so cheap and they'll cut them to size for you! Like $3~ a rod!? In the photos below, I'm using large, plastic closet rod flanges that I found at Orange, but I have these pretty chrome (peg-friendly) flanges ordered from Amazon. They're really cheap too! They will fit the 1-inch diameter rods I bought much better than the plastic ones and are made specifically for the pre-drilled 32mm closet boards. :) Yay!

Only other thing I did differently was use 1x4 boards to square the closet boxes up. I just cut them to the same width as the shelves and pocket-screwed them into the very top and very bottom of each box. Then I painted them to match her purple wall color.

I was so happy with how it turned out that I did my other daughter's closet that next weekend! I used the same website to design it too. LOVE IT!

Anyhoo, here are the finished closets for both of my daughters! Thank you Ana! I would never have done this if you hadn't have posted that plan! Totally inspired me! Can't wait do do our master closet! EEEK!

Perfect seating for our new summerhouse, loved how easy it was to build. Thanks so much for the free plans and making the easy to follow videos

I built this farmhouse table with leaves for my daughter. I wanted a farmhouse look but with a modern twist, and I also wanted breadboard ends that would pull out so she could insert leaves on each end to increase the size of the table for company. I used the plans for concept, and actually used the updated farmhouse table plans with pocket holes but couldn't find the plan link again for this post but made several modifications to achieve what I wanted. I planed all the lumber down to a true 1 inch for the top and also the trim to reduce the weight and chunky feel. I planed 4 x 4 untreated lumber for the legs to 2 1/2 inches and then tapered the bottoms as well to reduce weight and chunkiness and create a more modern feel. I built actual channels on the base for the extension bars which attach to the breadboard ends and I attached table aligners to the table, breadboard ends and the leaves so things would stay straight and even. I also glued together 2 x 4 and 2 x 3 pieces that had been planed down to a true 1 inch for the skirting and treated them as one piece when attaching to the legs so I didn't have so many screws going into the legs. I painted the base black with furniture paint and then put 2 coats of polyurethane over that and stained the top gray, then used a and 'wash' of watered down black paint over that and then 5 coats of polyurethane on the top. The table is 36 x 48 without the leaves and extends to 70 inches when both leaves are in place. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Made from Ana White `s plan. Thanks for the help.