Community Brag Posts

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

I used the plans from Michaela's kitchen island, but modified the top. Instead of 2x4s pine studs, I used black walnut boards a friend of mine had lying around. They were ~1x8" boards so I ripped them to ~4" width and ~60" length. They were a little warped so I glued and screwed them togther using a Kreg jig (best tool ever). This made a huge difference and there was only minimal gaps (1/16") between the boards. I ended up borrowing a belt sander from another friend to take out the 1/16"-1/8" lips in the boards. First time using a belt sander and it took a few minutes with 80 grit across the grain to get a level surface. Used 120 grit paper with the grain to smooth out the scratch marks from the 80 grit. Attached the top to the base with screws, finish sanded with 220 and 320 grit, cleaned up the dust with a tack cloth and then applied a few coats of polyurethane. For the drawers, I couldn't find 21" slides so I ended up modifying the drawers for 20" slides. Another fun and satisfying project!

I built this bookcase for a friends son for Christmas. She sent me a sketch of what she wanted and I drew up the plans in sketch up. I built it out of plywood and capped plywood with poplar strips. I made the Cedar shingles out of Cedar shims that I cut down to 2 inches, I used corrugated metal for door panels to give garage look.

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.

Finished this project using scrap pine for the frame and shelves and old barn wood for the doors/siding/table top. Turned out great, can't wait for other projects to finish.

This is my build of the sliding door console. I built this for my wife after she insisted we needed this for our dining room. The build overall was pretty easy, after my wife decided to change the paint color 3 times (yes, after we had bought the gallons, and I had it completely painted every time). I will say though that if you plan on painting this then you should use plywood for the front facing boards of the frame. I built mine over the course of about a month and after I had painted it I noticed significant wood shrinkage on the areas where boards came together. Plywood shrinks minimally if any at all so it should take care of that issue.

P.S. Don’t mind the unfinished construction in the background, we are in the process of installing bigger baseboards, and the planked walls are still unfinished.

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.

Enjoyed this project. Already have a request to build a whole set. 

Love the easy to follow plans!!! Make sure you have room when building....this a Big bench.

Rob V.  

My wife wanted me to build her a coffee table that looked like an industrial cart for about the last year. I saw this plan on the Ana White web site, and it was just what she wanted. The hardest part of this was finding the wheels for the cart.

Well, as my first project off of ana-white.com, I decided to make my two little guys the Little Helper Tower. I had seen store versions that cost $200 or more, so was excited to be able to have something that we wouldn't normally be able to buy.

It was supposed to be a Christmas present. It was finally painted and ready to go by mid-March. Which is to say, I couldn't find time to work on it too much, though it also took me much longer to do than what Ana said, which is not unusual for me.

The main problems I faced were 1x2s that I bought wet and that warped by the time I got around to using them; not having an honestly flat surface to work on, not having lots of experience with my jigsaw, so my top arches and bottom curves are not that attractive, and using some leftover red paint that took about 3 layers, plus the primer, to cover well.

In the end, I have a working helping tower with a movable floor that both my kids, now 2 and 4, can use in the kitchen (mainly - we didn't make the folding kind because the hinges were way too expensive!, so it doesn't move around too much) and it has helped my little guys help me on endless baking projects. My 2-year-old still can't get out of it himself, but my 4-year-old swings on it like a monkey. Thanks, Ana, for all your inspiration! I have a list a mile long of projects I want to tackle. Hopefully I'll get to one soon!

I recently started collecting vinyl records and wanted to show some of them off but also have them readily available to play.  I saw some options online but decided to make some shelves myself.  No judging my music!  :)

More details and instructions on my blog:

http://www.woodworkingfourdummies.com/blog/diy-record-display-shelf

Made this corner cupboard in an afternoon. It was easier than expected especially with the sliding compound miter saw, and the kreg jig haha!

I had a friend doing a class for a church activity on refinishing furniture. I think she mentioned to our leaders that I build furniture so two weeks ago she emailed me to see if I would be willing to participate and take a little time to talk. I said of course, and then in my true fashion of loving a good get-together and having a tendency to overdo things, I said, "we could even do a little project too".

I went onto this site printed off 5 projects under $30 and let anyone that wanted sign up. I figured the easiest way to let people build a project in an hour and a half was to pre-cut and pre-drill everything (Thank you to my new Kreg jig that let me rock that part out no problem)

I ended up cutting and drilling for 26 orders!!! EEK! I was a little like a mad hatter running around helping people that had never even held a drill before (so please excuse the LACK of pictures, including none of me doing anything at all :( ) But I think it turned out awesome and everyone was so excited.

I just wanted to post this as a little tribute to Ana for all the amazingness that you are. Thank you for helping those scared to even start.

King Storage Bed with a built in bookcase as a headboard. Tons of storage space and turned out great especially at night.

my second Projects))))

My husband and I enjoyed building this for our boys. Our wood supply store didn't have enough 1x4's so we purchased 1x6's and ripped them down to an even 4" instead of 3.5 as with a 1x4. We also increased the height by 5.5 inches. That gives us a little extra room to do nightly reading at the bottom bunk. The slats (2 sets) in the bottom are just from IKEA and at the time we just threw them down there and I forgot to set them up in place for a true final photo. Oh well. They've enjoyed the bed for over a month already 

my first build