Community Brag Posts

I love my new hobby and your site makes it so fun and simple, thanks for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm.
Cindy

I wanted to take on this project simply as practice. I didn't have any room for it in my home, but I really wanted to make it anyway! Besides, I had a friend who not only had a birthday coming up, but a housewarming party as well. What better present than a handmade bench could I give?! I had MDF leftovers on hand, as well as a Hobby Lobby giftcard to buy the foam and fabric, so the only purchase necessary was a couple of 2x4's.

I pieced together the foam top by cutting two 4" blocks from Hobby Lobby to size (you can save 40% with a coupon if you time it right, and get the two 4x22x22" blocks for $16). Though it worked fine, after sitting on it you can definitely see the creases from the cuts in the foam. So if you can afford it, try to get one full strip.

The sewing was really simple, I outlined the process step-by-step in my blog post. Then all you need to do is staple it down, and you have a bench that's the perfect size for a 6' long dining table!

This was the first project my husband and I completed from one of Ana's plans. I'd wanted a pair of Adirondack chairs for our yard, and convinced my husband that we could build them ourselves. Once he was on board, he suggested we build a pair for our neighbors as a surprise and leave them in their yard while they were out of town. We had a blast and learned a lot. We've had tons of compliments on the two sets of chairs, and during our last neighborhood garage sale, we had many offers to buy them (but we're not selling!). Thanks, Ana!

I wanted to convert my craft shed to my office after I accepted a new job and would be working from home full time. My shed is only 10x8, so I needed something smallish and functional. I modified the plans slightly and I did make a few mistakes. In the end, I think it turned out great for a 50 something grandma who likes to work with her hands!

This plan had comments about the 1x12 being a little short. 

Made this simple house bed for my daughter. Got the idea from Ana white page and made my own.

This is my first build ever...except for a rad cd rack I built in 8th grade shop class.  My husband and I team-worked it as a date in his dad's garage. 

So it all started when my amazingly crafty friend Lee built a toy kitchen for her kids.  I was so impressed and started looking up other people's diy kitchens.  So then I was searching for something totally different and saw the play kitchen on Ana's website (love it), and I got totally addicted and decided I was going to build a dining room table, because we have been using a hand-me-down brown card table and chairs from the 70's since we got married.  (How's that for a run-on sentence?)  I wasn't sure if my husband would take me very seriously, but after I showed him this website, I started noticing him on it all the time.  He's more addicted than I am! 

Fast forward some time and we decided to start with the spa bench as a warm-up.  Once we are in a house with our own garage (God willing in the next few months), we plan on tackling the Farmhouse Table.  Anyway, when we took the kids to Gma and Gpa's, my father-in-law got really excited that there were going to be carpenters in the family, and he took us out to the garage to show us all his tools that we could use. 

We had to buy all of the wood, screws, sand paper, stain, polyurethane, and a paint brush since it was our first project, so it ended up costing about $85.  At least now we have a lot of supplies left over for our future projects!  We had Home Depot make the cuts for us so that we could fit the wood in our car.  We used 1x4s instead of 1x3s because we didn't know that 1x3s were furring strips and not in the same place, but now we know.  :)  We also bought one warped board, which was a total pain.  Don't do that. 

This is probably a weekend project if you count the staining and finisher.  The actual building part only took us three or four hours (please don't laugh at us if that's painfully slow), but we actually took about two weeks to finish it because we have rain, no garage, and three kids under 19 months.  And we weren't really in a hurry.  Anyway, it was fun.  We like to build.  Thanks, Ana, for inspiring us and for making it doable for so many people!  We think you're neat.

Bed Frame and Headboard made from Ana's plans. Frame is very simple. Headboard is fairly simple but a lot more cuts, measuring and attaching. I stained both with Varathane Weathered Gray. I also attached sideboards and internal support 2x4s with bed-frame brackets rather than screwing directly in to allow for easier deconstruction and reconstruction. Used an insert nut on the sideboards to attach hairpin legs (screwed directly into top/bottom boards).

Side tables are just 3/4 birch plywood glued and nailed into a rectangular box. 24x18" Top/Bottom and 18 x 6" sides. Hairpin legs are longer versions (16") of Ana's Amazon suggestions for bed frame. Stained with Varathane Antique White.. turned out ok, but would use a different white stain or just paint them white if I had to do it again, and paint the insides before you build!

This is my daughters new bed. We modified the plans to fit what we wanted. I added drawers to the stairs. Then put shelves behind the stairs. Added doors so we can hide the shelves. We used rope lights inside to add light with her own light switch.

PS Don't mind the date on the pictures. Forgot to change the date.