Community Brag Posts

Built this pet kennel end table from Ana's plans for my dad for Christmas. Only changes I made were to the dimensions to better fit my dads mid-sized dog and the top which I made by laminating a few boards rather than sheet material. Everything but the side panels is oak. Plans were really simple and I'm really happy with the finished product. As soon as I revealed it on Christmas morning his dog knew who it was for and ran right in and laid down with his new bone. Very awesome payoff to say the least.

This built was easy with Ana white blue prints I used 2x10 for the top and also made the matching bench.

thanks Ana white 

had lots of fun building this project for my grandauther, she's only a year and a half old and I'm pretty sure she will enjoy this see saw for a long time.

My Dad came to visit for Christmas and he knew for months that all  I wanted to do was have him build this table!! We used pine and found really cheap legs on amazon that were being discontinued. They were $15 each!! We plan on having a large family so we made this to fit 8 people. There is enough room to add chairs to seat 12 for parties and events though.I got all of the chairs off Craiglsist for free and just painted and recovered the seats. I am totally in love with this table! Thank you Ana White for the plans and my Dad for his hard work! 

I built this step stool for my son's new "big boy" bed. I built the bed and ended up being a little high for him. So I decided he'd probably like to have a little stool to use to help him get up in the bed. He loves it.

I made it with scrap wood that I had from making his bed. I love the simple design and it is very easy to build. I did use a set of metal stamps and stamp "GROW" onto the stool. We used milk paint and then sealed it with Hemp Oil.

Thanks for all of the plans, love to create stuff!

I took the rustic x base and decided to put a concrete top on it. 

This was our first time using the kreg jig. We bought the recommended $99 one and boy was it worth it. Can see a lot of kreg jigging in my future! :) We cut the legs at 35" and omitted the arches so it can be stored under the kitchen counter. The crawl-in space is definitely a little tight, but he's getting the hang of it after just one day of practice. We built the tip resisters, but haven't added them yet. It seems sturdy enough without them for our cautious 17-month-old, but I suspect we'll have to attach them when he gets bigger and more rambunctious. We sanded the edges liberally, and notched the top four corners to avoid taking eyes out. We also added felt pads to the bottom of each leg so it doesn't damage our wood floors.

Not too bad for a beginner. We couldn't find the bolds, but we did add the L brackets.

Here's our experience: http://wearegrownupsnow.blogspot.com/2017/04/diy-rustic-x-end-table.html

Not only was this my first furniture project from an Ana White plan, it was my first ever furniture project. I discovered this website and Ana's site through Pinterest and was inspired to build a table for my wife's craft room.

Leafing through "The Handbuilt Home," I found plans for a modern craft table, but decided I'd better get my feet wet first with a "smaller" project. Our front hall console table was a cheap, particle board piece from Target which seemed like the perfect candidate for replacement.

In retrospect, with drawer slides and hardware to contend with the craft table may in fact be an easier project than the console, but I found the plans straightforward and easy to read. Expecting to be intimidated by my own lack of experience, as the table came together I was, instead, continually inspired by my ability to actually build beautiful furniture for my home.

The most challenging part of building the console table was finding lumber, particularly straight lumber. Here in New Jersey, the local Home Depot and Lowes stores did not have a large selection of wood, virtually nothing beyond pine and most of that was visibly warped.

I eventually found boards that were relatively straight, though not perfect. As a result, getting the table perfectly square was an impossible task. For future builds I have already discovered some local lumber suppliers that offer a broader quality of materials than the big box stores.

The other part of this project that was really challenging was applying spray-on polycrylic. I never got a protective coat I was particularly happy with and decided to stop fussing because I feel like I was making things worse trying to correct my application mistakes.

In a few weeks I plan to add a layer of wax, which I hope will give the table a finish a more satisfying finish.

All things considered, especially as this was my first furniture project of any kind, I look at the beautiful console that now graces my front entry, dumbfounded that it's something I built from a small pile of wood. Many thanks to Ana White and her website and book for the inspiration!

Laundry sorter with 3 tilt out bins and 3 drawers.  Made to fit a recess in laundry so it looks like a built in cabinet.

This was so much easier then I thought it was going to be. 

Here are some frames I made for my sons dirt bike themed room. I love DIY because I'm able to match everything up. The bed, frames, and mini media wall under the bed are all painted to match a dirt bike jersey that I will be make a frame for soon.

Made this vegetable cupboard for a family member this Christmas.  It turned out really cute.  The knobs were half off from Hobby Lobby, and I used ORB hinges.  I bought L-shaped magnet clasps so that there was a better way to mount the magnets to fit with the doors.  The stain is a mixture of driftwood and walnut stain because the driftwood has almost no color to it.  It ended up giving a kind of country rustic finish to it, which is something different for me.  Pretty easy project and if you measure carefully and dry fit, the doors aren't too bad to fit in the openings (rare for inset). 

I have been working on using my cad skills to make somthing using a CNC router so this is what I came up with. I designed it a a flat pack with minimal assembly. Very comfortable.

This project was actually completed last year, but I am late getting it posted. I had been asking for a board and batten bathroom, and then luckily Ana posted pictures of one, giving the handy hubby a better idea of what I was wanting.

The cabinets, built-in medicine cabinets, mirror frame, and toilet paper niche are all custom designed and built by the hubby. The counter top and sink were custom ordered through Home Depot to fit the space.

The bathroom didn't originally have a shower head, so after removing the 70s gold flecked tiles covering the walls up to chair rail height and repairing/replacing drywall we purchased shower walls and then he tiled around and above.

This was a major, months-long undertaking that included gutting the entire room, and then the building began. Everything in the room from the popcorn ceiling down to the yellow linoleum flooring save for the toilet and tub had to be replaced,the toilet we had bought since we moved in and the tub is metal and was in great condition.

Did so many "firsts" with this project. My daughter/grandsons moved in just before Christmas. They needed space for their toys in their bedroom. Soooo, without tools, or paintbrushes, or..... anything, I opened my mouth and out came the words - I can make them some cubbies!

These took me 10 days to build, because I had to keep running to the store to get tools, paint, screws, circular saw.....

Then I decided to make a cut out at the bottom, tried to use a hand tool, chucked it, went to the store and purchased a jig saw. Completely happy with how little time it took!

I figured out the bottom shelf was missing from the cut list/shopping list. I made a ton of mistakes, figured out how to fix them, and am pleased with my first project.