Community Brag Posts

Vintage Crate

I left off the casters, but added a one inch foam pad covered with outdoor material to make an ottoman. I made sure the top was removable so we could also use it as storage. I've got a little material left over to make a matching throw pillow.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$13 for the wood, $7 for the handles and $5 for the material. All other material I had on hand
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax stain and polyurethane semi-gloss
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Library console table

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/16/2016 - 11:09

My husbannd has built a handful of things using Ana's plans, but this was my first time doing everything on my own (aside from asking where to find the wood filler in our messy garage).  It was super easy to cut and put together and turned out perfectly for my girls nights stand/book shelf.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Adirondack chairs for Canada Day!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/30/2020 - 05:19

made 2 sets of these 2 x 4 Adirondack chairs (with the occasional guidance from my woodworking hubby) and they turned out awesome! I went with a more modern look by not rounding the tops and love how they look! They’re sturdy and comfortable and my only complaint is I’m 5’3” and my legs don’t quite reach the ground so I’ll just have to make a footstool!

Estimated Cost
$50 (CAD)
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax Ebony stain
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Voila! Une table. First Furniture Project, thanks to Ana and all Braggarts

Submitted by beis0052 on Mon, 08/27/2012 - 09:44

So I built this table in the last few weeks. I am looking to make furniture for a living at some point down the road, being sort of tired of my current profession. Starting a new hobby takes some initial investment, but my wife was enthusiatic. The whole table took about 4 days of work. I ran into a few problems with sizing of some of the pieces but they are all covered in the commments sections.

Materials: Fir for the legs, red oak and walnut on top. You may notice the top is pieced together a little differently than Ana's plan. This is due to some creative problem solving. Namely, the 1X6s for the top weren't quite the right width.

Finish: Satin Polyurethane (4 coats) and Minwax Cherry Oil based Stain (1 coat). Note, the spray cans of polyurethane are a waste of money.

Entire project was 350 dollars. I Probably could have done it for 300 or less had I more experience. Now I need some chairs. Saw some cool ones here. http://wudfurniture.com/furniture/wud-chair/
Whaddya say Ana? Plans Please! :)

Estimated Cost
350
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Satin Polyurethane (4 coats) and Minwax Cherry Oil based Stain (1 coat). Note, the spray cans of polyurethane are a waste of money. Sand lightly in btween coats of Poly.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Bench Right Coffee table

Submitted by Nick862 on Wed, 09/21/2016 - 00:07

This was my first real project and I am happy with how it turned out. 

Estimated Cost
80.00
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Chest of Drawers

This is a 10-drawer cabinet that I designed and built. It's the first woodworking project I've ever undertaken. It took about 2 weeks to complete the build (between bedroom remodeling and this project), but I think it can easily be completed in half the time. The cabinet carcass was built with 3/4" plywood. The drawers were built using 1/2" plywood. The drawer bases are also 1/2" thick as I intend to store some heavy items in these drawers. The drawers all measure 23" in outside length and 17" in outside width. The bottom 4 drawers measure 10" deep (internal dimension). The top 4 drawers measure 3" deep and the 2 remaining drawers measure 6" deep (internal dimensions). The drawer banks (Each vertical set of drawers) are separated by a 1.5" thick center wall (glued two 3/4" plywood boards) to allow fastening of drawer slides using 3/4" truss head screws. All joints on the cabinet carcass and drawers are glued and pocket screwed (512 pocket holes all told). Having the Kreg K4MS pocket hole jig was a time saver compared to the Kreg R3 jig that I had before as I was able to "assembly line" the pocket hole drilling process. The drawer fronts were designed to be flush with the outsides of the cabinet and have a 1/8" gap between drawers (both vertically and horizontally) and were made out of 3/4" plywood. They were then veneered with White Oak Veneer sheet and edge banding

Estimated Cost
Around $250
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
The chest was finish sanded to 400-grit and then stained with Varethane Golden Oak stain (2 coats), followed by 2 coats of Fast Drying Satin Polyurethane
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

King Sized Hailey Platform Bed

My husband's grandfather helped us build this bed in his shop. We built it in about 5 hours and I stained and sealed it over the next few evenings. This was one of the most affordable and simple plans I came across to customize for my new chemical-free mattress. It is extremely sturdy and supportive. I really like the blog post Crab and Fish did on the brag for the Hailey Platform they built. You will find it helpful if you are interested in building this bed.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$120
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Rustoleum Ultimate Stain in Kona with Polyurethane finish
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Alok (not verified)

Wed, 01/16/2013 - 09:03

Did you use Kreg Jig and screws from inside? If yes, How many for each corner ?
or used screws from outside ( to join the main frame). f yes, then what size?

seesaw

Submitted by gtg352j on Mon, 06/23/2014 - 19:35

This was our first foray into a built-it-yourself Anna White project, and WE DID IT!!!

(and you can see from the picture that it's structurally sound!)

It took a little longer than the 45 minutes in the plans, but was finished before the birthday party :-) Our kids ( 5 and 7) even had ownership in this project and enjoyed helping sand.

Only modification we made to the plans was to turn the seats 90 degrees to make a bit more of a seat so that our 2 year old could seesaw too.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$60
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
polyurethane
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Boot rack

Submitted by Taa-daa on Fri, 09/23/2016 - 17:31

My garage is in a different dimention now! Thank you Ana!

I had a bit of trouble with the length of the dowels but overall I am so happy with it.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
I used scrap wood we had left from the previous project so I am not sure
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Taa-daa

Sun, 09/25/2016 - 18:56

I have to say I will be making a few of those! I find the plan you designed is simply awesome! The boots are of the floor which simplifies the cleaning, the dowels are not very long so you wouldn't stumble upon them, the spacing is great! I can go on and on about this one very well thoughtout !!!

Liberty Wall Art

Submitted by buffy0506 on Thu, 08/30/2012 - 13:45

I thought I'd start building again with some decor that didn't need to be perfect. I needed something to spruce up my garage, something my son couldn't break while shooting baskets - this seemed perfect! I didn't have all of the scraps I needed so I did have to buy a few boards, but my friend wants me to make her one now and she'll supply the pallet. Since I planned to use it outside and wanted it to look weathered, I used semi-transparent deck stain, watered-down flat white paint and hit it with a sanding block, hammer, rasp, bottle caps - anything to scratch it up a bit. Then covered it with satin polycrylic (because that's what I had around the house).

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$20
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Behr Semi-Transparent Deck Stain in Wedgewood and Barn Red
Clark & Kensington Flat White Interior Paint (mixed 50/50 with water)
Satin Polycrylic
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Comments

Mini Flat BookShelf

Submitted by kenmc on Thu, 06/26/2014 - 01:18

A mini flat shelf for my daughter. Initially sized to fit on the landing until I realized I had just built her a ladder to climb the banisters, so relocated it to the hall.

Width increased to 630mm between uprights to allow 3x A4 books side by side. Height is 830mm to fit initial planned location.

Painted with Annie Sloan Duck-Egg Blue distressed at the edges and waxed with Annie Sloan soft wax.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
€20-€25
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and wax
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Little Boy's Version

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 09/26/2016 - 11:23

Thank you for the great plans!  I modified it a bit to fit our needs.  I made the footboard identical with the headboard; added feet from Osbourne Wood and finials I found on Etsy.  To accomodate the feet, I made the vertical corner posts flush with the siderails and head/foot boards.

Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

YellowKlondike

Mon, 09/26/2016 - 11:28

I forgot to mention that I went to Ikea and bought slats for their toddler bed to use as the mattress support for mine.  They were $9.99 discounted to $5.99 and it was a lot cheaper and easier to just use that as the support.

Lounge Chairs

Submitted by rhn0489 on Mon, 07/06/2020 - 11:50

This is a realtively easy build. Simply follow the instructions and it will come together beautifully. I have down a couple of these so far and this one was actually narrower than the plans called for. The lady I built them for wanted the center section to match her cushion width as closely as possible so I simply used one less cedar 1x4. It turned our perfectly.

I have found most of the plans I have built from this site are pretty simple and most of my time has been spent on the finish.

Estimated Cost
$270
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Helmsman Clear Gloss.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Modified Camp Loft Bed w/Bottom Bunk

We were looking for a bunk bed system with stairs instead of a ladder. We had previously used a bunk bed on our vacation and our daughter was having trouble going down, she kept missing the ladder rungs. We searched online for beds with stairs but they were all too expensive. Then my husband found this site and we both looked through all the different plans. There are so many great plans for little girls beds, but in the end we decided with this one. It was the easiest for us to alter by adding the bottom bunk. We also liked this bed because we thought it the safest for our youngest who would be trying to climb. This is our first ever project built. We had tons of fun building this together and then letting our 4 yr old help us with the painting. We basically started with nothing in building this bed. We bought all the stuff except for the saw, sander and drill, which we borrowed. To add the bottom bunk, we made the distance at the bottom 6 inches, and then followed the pattern of separation for the railings that was used for the top. But it was only the bottom 2x6 and one round of the 2x4s for the railing. Since it was the bottom it didn't need to go as high as the top, just enough so our youngest won't roll in between the mattress and wall.

Estimated Cost
$200-$250, includes kreg jr, sandpaper, paint, clamps, saw horses, screws
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
paint and primer in one
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Aisha

Mon, 09/03/2012 - 08:29

I love your bed! I'm in the process of doing exactly the same thing with mine! I also found it was the easiest plan to alter in terms of adding a bottom bunk. Good work!

AmandaAK

Fri, 06/21/2013 - 18:20

I love it and would like to know if you changed the overall height of the bed to add the second bed underneth? I hope to make this a bunkbed for my kiddos.
Thanks

Patio Makeover

Submitted by Chris 1975 on Sun, 06/29/2014 - 08:47

This is my 10ft long picnic table (which is bar height) that we built for the patio. We needed better seating for parties and BBQ's. I will post the plans later! Also featured is the couch that we designed and built with the center table.

Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
minwax stain
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Double Farmhouse Bed

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/02/2016 - 06:34

This was my first Farmhouse bed!  I am totally in love with how it turned out!  These plans were very detailed and easy to follow.  I added some fancy trim like in the Mom's Fancy Farmhouse bed. I also changed the way I attached the side rails.  I used siderail supports from Lee Valley as I wanted to be able to dismantle the bed for easier moving if needed.

I am also thinking of adding a trundle to it.

 

Thank you so much Ana, for these wonderful plans.

I have made numerous items from your site and will continue to do so. 

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
150-200
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Varathane Triple thick one coat stain-Expresso
Varathane Triple thick one coat clear finish.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Bench

Submitted by carlablock on Tue, 07/07/2020 - 10:10

Fun to make and so pretty!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
30.00
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

DIY Playstand

My husband and I made this completely fabulous DIY playstand for my niece's birthday. It turned out fantastic. Ana's plans were straightforward and easy to follow. The most difficult part was making the buntings, but even those turned out fine. The only recommendations that I have beyond what is in Ana's post are use a good piece of plywood since it isn't easy to sand, and to put the extra velcro for holding back the theater curtains on the back. My cost is a little higher than the one on the original plans, but I also factored in the cost of the different fabrics, velcro, etc.

You can read more about it on my blog.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$100
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Cedar colored stain, chalkboard spray paint.
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Comments