Community Brag Posts

First big project, big for me anyway. Dresser came out better than I had imagined. I followed the plan exactly step by step except for the wheels part. Thank you Ana for the plans.

Since we don't have a garage or any really good place to keep our tools, they end up all over the house while we're working on a project. So, we decided to build a cabinet that would look nice in our house, and also house our tools. We chose the armoire plan because it has plenty of space.

This project took us forever, so it's hard to really estimate the actual working time. We began working on it back in June, then we were evacuated because of a forest fire.... By the time we got back into our house and we were organized again it was the end of July.... and now finally the end of August it's finished. It took us a while, but it's a great addition to our house!

We modified this cabinet by using 1/4 inch beadboard backed with 1/4 plywood for the doors. We also modified the size of the armoire to make it deeper.

You may remember my green stratton day beds that I built a long time ago- finally I have another project to post- I am soo happy I found Ana White's website. We just got back from a 2.5 week vacation in Israel and my dogs were staying with my sister. She told me they had been sleeping in the same kennel together instead of separately. Their kennels are too small so I decided to build them one using wood I already had. But since they are small dogs, I decided to size it down- but I wanted it end table height- so I built a smaller kennel- 20"H x 19"W x 28"D. but... I added a drawer to the top to bring it to the right height. You can read all about it on my blog- link below.

How to build a simple laptop desk to use when working from the couch. This was a quick build. We added a small storage area for my blogging binder. 

I wanted my kids to have more space in their shared room, but I did not want to pay a ton of money for a new bunk bed. My husband and I found a plan for this bunk on Ana-White and fell in love with the design. It turned out so great that we will still be using it in our next home whether it's needed or not. We did change a couple of things on the plan that we didn't care for. The first is that we added a side rail for safety. Secondly we also traded the 1x6 boards on the head and foot boards for 1x4s on the top but kept the 1x6s on the bottom.

We've built over 100 of these farmhouse beds - we've tweaked the design ever so slightly. 

Our first Farmhouse Bed took roughly a day to complete. We sanded the entire bed, applied stain & then applied two coats of matte varnish. At least apply one. Stain can leak for weeks, and smell bad for longer.

We use 2x3's for our slats and find them extra strong! 

My original plan was for a laundry cart or stand for laundry baskets. I ended up building one that is pretty big for 4 baskets, a shelf on top, and elevated 10" on the bottom for our Roomba vacuum to be stored.

I saw the plans for this and had to have it! My husband had it assembled pretty easily (we've built several dining tables/benches, but this was our first piece that went out of that box, lol) and the whole project took maybe a day or two including staining. We left of the end pieces just because we were trying to get it done quickly for Thanksgiving; we intended to add them on later, but I kind of like it open. Everyone who has seen it loves it!

We recently moved back to my hometown and bought a beautiful farmhouse that was built in 1908. We knew Ana's Farmhouse Table plan was perfect for our dining room! We followed Hillary, from The Friendly Home, advise and black tea stained the wood, then sanded it with an 80grit paper. The next step was to apply the oxidizing solution, made up of 000 steel wool dissolved in white vinegar. We will continue to use this finish technique on other builds so we now keep a massive mason jar in the basement. If you decide to do the same, remember not to tighten the lid. The mixture creates a gas expansion in the jar that could pop the top! Once this was applied we let it dry completely and started sanding again. This is the fun part. The love of my life, who had never attempted to build anything before, felt like an artist! It was so much fun to hear him exclaim he had created another masterpiece! Once we had all the pieces sanded , we put the whole thing together and applied 2 coats of min wax. Unlike Hillary, we did not add color to our wax, but decided we liked the color just as it was.

I built this to accommodate my miter saw but I also wanted a place for my band saw. I added drawers to make the table level with the miter saw and they add some extra storage space.

We modified the size slightly and separated the drawers so I can sit or stand at it in my art studio.

Suzanne E

Hello! Thank you so much for providing information and inspiration. I was looking for a very specific couch and I found one. However it was $3000 and had to ship from CA to FL and then I had to assemble it to decide if I liked it or not. Some friends directed me to your site where I found your plans for the outdoor sectional. I modified them to fit my desired outcome and wow! I'm so happy about this. Thanks again!

I followed the plans exactly, except I didn't put the trim pieces on the lower shelves sides. I really like the way it turned out, and my wife painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, color "Paris Grey" and then used Annie Sloan finishing wax (both clear and dark wax) to protect the piece and age it. I think it turned out great! Thanks for the plans!

Nothing was to difficult with these plans, at least not if you have a Kreg Jig. I would add that I used pocket screws on the top pieces not only to join them to the breadboard end pieces, but also to each other. That made it really strong!