Community Brag Posts

Finally took the time to use a lot if my scrap pile.  This one is a bit of a beast to manhandle around the shop, but well worth the finished project!

My daughter had all of her collection of Pretty Pony's in boxes, and like mother, like daughter, she likes working with her hands. She restrings their hair, paints new designs on their bottoms, etc. She loved the look of the 25 cubbies, just wanted them bigger across to accomadate her ponies.
These shelves are customized just for her toys, I used 1x4 instead of 1x6 because I don't want her bumping her head, when she gets out of bed....I didn't need that much width.
My daughter drew the Scalloped edge on freehand, and I cut it out.
Love this project.

This is a table and chair set I made for my 3 year old son and he loves it! I changed a couple of things. One of the things was with the table top, instead of making it rectangular I did mine square. The second thing was instead of doing the three pieces of wood I used a single 3/4" 2'x2' piece of birch plywood I found at Lowes. With the chairs I also did solid piece seats instead of the slats and I decided to do the legs with 2"x2" wood instead of 1"x2" and I found those modified plans here http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com/2011/12/t-is-for-table.html?m=1

This is just a loft I made for my kids. I didn't want to spend over $1500 at PBK for a twin bed size bunk bed. the size is 4x8 enough for them to have fun.

I followed the plans with the exception of cutting off ~19" in length to get the table down to 5.5' in order to better fit my space.

Unfortunately several of the 2 1/2" pocket screws did pierce the top - nothing too terrible or noticeable, but disappointing.  My wife says it just adds to the rustic feel, so that works.

One thing I did that I notice other people not doing: I ripped off ~1/4" from the edge of all boards for the table top.  This gets rid of the "crumb catcher" spaces between the planks which come rounded.  By ripping off the rounded edge, the boards will fit more flush and you won't have such an issue with crumbs getting in between the boards.

This was a fun easy & free project! I had a number of 1x4's left over from building the Classic Bunkbed and we paired that with some old knobs I saved. These 3 peg boards have made a great addition to the foyer of our house. We use them to keep purses, bags, dog leashes, and hats handy and still organized. I am tempted to put up a few more peg boards in our hall now!

This probably took 30 minutes total from inception to installation.

This was my second coffee table. Anticipating that the hardest part would of course be the drawer, I actually started with the drawer and built the rest of the table around that! Made a big difference too. It was much easier.

I took my time with this project with things that I had rushed through before, sanding parts before assembly, dry fitting with lots of clamps at each step, and I took extra care on cutting pieces square.

Since I was able to get the drawer done so much easier this time, the hardest part was the top. I hate how the ends turn up slightly... does anyone know how to stop that from happening?

I spent about a week and a half on this table, working on it for a few hours a day while my son was in school.

I am SO SO SO happy with how it turned out. The drawer was really tight in the shop (no air conditioning) but when I got it home, it has loosened up a bit, and its still just a little sticky, but not bad at all. I just love this finish. It's by far my favorite finish of any that I have tried.

I am trying to sell this coffee table, and my next project is going to be a console that coordinates, but will have the base part painted and the panel top stained. I really need a good job in the near future so I don't have to keep selling these things that I build and fall in love with!!

** On a side note, this coffee table got me a marriage proposal from a near stranger. Who would have thought that making sawdust would be so attractive to guys? LOL.

This is a fun a straight-forward project.  I built it for our littlest one's first birthday as both a doll stroller and a walk-behind push toy.  I used select pine for the stroller, a 1" oak dowel for the handle and some pre-made wheels / rounds.  Wheels were from Michaels (I think) and the rest was from Lowes.

I want to find a way to better secure the wheels, but the plans' method works pretty well.  The axle caps can sometimes fall off so I just check them for tightness every so often.

Best of all, Greta approves.

I made some adjustments to the look of the tower by adding an extra window, I also made the middle part more solid instead of railing since my kids are destructive. I made two more stairs too so no storage under stairs. I have not put the stair railing in, but will use a standard stair railing and the wooden posts for it for an estimated additional 25 dollars, my husband also insisted he do his part and put in additional 2x4 under the top bunk so they have jumped on the bed and the wood doesn’t move. Also made the bottom a bed instead of a loft, but kept the books under the slide and the place to sit in the window. 

I have no previous woodworking skills and learned as I went, there was a learning curve but manageable.

My couches were inherited from my mom, and she loves everything BIG. So I have very deep, very tall and very BIG sofas that need a hefty table to hold it's own between them. I was working on converting the dimensions of the modern farm table on my own, but Miss Ana is known to be a mind reader, and drew up these plans before I finished mine!

I am terrible when it comes to a) reading the advice given in comments and b.) finishing, so I didn't know it would be absolutely beneficial to stain these pieces before assembly... OOPS! At least it's in a corner! :-p

My grandchildren needed a table that they could use for blocks, coloring, trains and just all around fun so with the help from my 4 year old and 3 year old Grandson's we created the perfect table from the rustic x coffee table plans.

So Worth It!

This project was possibly beyond my expertise however persistance, reading and asking for help worked. This table was a 5 month project with a start, a quit, a re-buy and finally a full steam forward to the finish line. 

Although difficult, I learned so much during this build-how to use a biscuit joiner (then reverted back to my Kreg Jig), how to clamp pieces so that they remain even, how to properly finish a table, how important measuring and squaring are, etc...

I have a large sectional so I had to revise the size of this table. Ours is a 3' x 5' table. The most difficult part of building where we live is finding good lumber. There were 3 different types of wood used on the project but thankfully I was able to stain to match. 

Off to start my next project-our son's headboard. Should be a piece of cake. I'll let you know and it WILL be sooner than 5 months! Happy Building! Karla

My wife asked for a terrible particle board bench for Christmas.  When I complained about the quality, she told me to build one instead.  I may have been played.

I found the plans here and the only modifications I made were resizing to fit our space, and adding a tree design to the sides, cut using my desktop CNC router.  The design was purchased from an artist shop on Etsy.

She loves the bench and I saved a few hundred dollars.  I also got to finish another project which is awesome.

I've been wanting the pottery barn decorative ledge forever! I saw the picture online and was hoping I could find a tutorial for it. I ran across a couple but they weren't quite as big as the original and I wanted it to hang above my king size bed. So yesterday I headed out to my garage where I new I had a bunch of scraps/leftovers from my projects as well as my neighbor brought over some of his scap wood. I printed of the PB picture and wrote down the dimensions and got to work! This was my final result.

I decided to build bookshelves on either side of the fireplace, where it was just drywall. I wanted them to be flush with the wall, and the garage is behind the wall. So, I built them into the garage.
I put headers above where the bookshelves would be, and framed the back side in the garage with just 2x4's. I used full sheets of bead board to cover the backs and sides, and tops. Then I bought pre made shelves and put them up using quarter round to support the shelves on all three sides.
I then bought a door frame kit that I liked, that came with fluted pieces for the sides and top with decorative squares to put at the corners. I caulked and painted it all once it was built. I used a circular saw, framing nail gun, compressor, trim nail gun, chop saw and a hammer total. It was a pretty simple project but has made the space much more useable and pretty. My next project is to build a mantle and surround that matches the bookshelves.

Built for 3 year old Granddaughter 2018 Christmas.  Great instructions thanks.  Added ridge cap instead of chimney. Stained floors for the hardwood floor look.

I modified the factory cart coffee table plans to make a coffee table with a removable top for storage. The result was more Pottery Barn than Restoration Hardware. I put a piece of plywood on the bottom, to make an enclosed box. Then modified the frame under the 1x6's of the top, to make it fit snugly in the opening of the top of the box. The sides of the box were 1x12's I had leftover from another project. Actually, everything was leftovers, except the 1x6's for the top, and the castors. The 4 inch castors were painted flat black with high heat wood stove paint (also a leftover from refinishing our pellet stove). I used smaller castors, since the table was already taller than the original plans.