Community Brag Posts

I started this in my garage this winter so that it was ready for spring. Nothing in this is too complicated but it requires some patience. It was all worth it to see how excited my daughter was to finally play with her friends.

This was our very first project EVER and it came out beautiful! We needed a dinner table and couldn't find anything that came close to the thousand dollar Pottery Barn Benchright table. While searching for used furniture I came across these plans to build my own. After days of begging and convincing, my husband agreed to help me build it. Now he thanks me all the time! It was so fun and easy.

We did have a couple hiccups with the measurements. Ana did say to read through the plans and comments first, but we failed to write down and remember what others suggested. That being said, these plans were very easy. We took our time building this table since it was our first time using a miter saw and our first time building anything. Our table was a little more expensive than other braggers because we didn't use reclaimed wood and since we are beginners, we botched a couple cuts and had to buy a few extra boards :). After sanding, we took some chains and a hammer to the tabletop and legs to make a more distressed and rustic look. We painted the bolts and pipe black with Rustoleum Flat Black. Our pipe was longer than our table, so we had it cut. If you buy your pipe from Lowe's, they will cut and thread it for you. We couldn't find any hardware that look anything similar to the Pottery Barn Benchright. We checked Home Depot and Lowe's, but decided to settle with some plumbing knobs that screwed in the pipe. Once we painted everything and put it all together, we actually loved the pipe knob look more than the Pottery Barn table hardware!

This table is so darn sturdy and will last forever. I can't thank Ana enough, and thank you to everyone that posts these brags, because you helped me convince my husband and myself that we could do this!

So I altered the Emersen Buffet a little. We needed a changing table and I liked the idea of having the baskets handy for diapers, ect.. I will add the changing pad topper after we get the actual pad.
The door is from a weathered pallet I reclaimed.
I must say this is my first large project of this type. I would have NOT been able to do it without Ana White's site. However, now I feel capable of a lot more.
Thanks so much.
T S

I used whitewashed clear pine for the bases and maple for the tops. I also built a corner table to match. I used a Kreg Jig for the first time for all 3 tables.

I read about a SIP, or self watering planter in Family Handy Man April 2012. There planse we expensive and compicated. These were easy and fun to make. I like the I dea of using 50% to 90% less water, and only watering once a week.

I added a post down the middle to help with bowing.

I found 5 foot cedar fence posts for $1.28 at orange. Including glue and screws $10. I have the palsit lininn, the withe piping on hand. HTe drain pipe was $6. for a total of $16.

Orange had a 2 x 2 plastic Self watering planter $30, big savings

I say starter only if you are not ripping, but using 1 x2 's

This was a media cabinet that I designed for some friends, and I've got a full how-to and FREE PLANS up on my site at

http://www.iliketomakestuff.com/reese-custom-media-cabinet

This version is five feet long. The sturdy top was made from scaffold boards. I nailed four stout 3" oval nails into the joining edges of two planks, then cut the projecting heads off at angle. Putting plenty of glue along the nail-free face I sash cramped the whole lot together overnight. Once screwed down I filled holes and cracks with epoxy woodfiller, gave it a though sanding and splashed on a generous amount of Danish Oil just to seal it from spilled coffee etc. Now all I have to do is line the shed...

These little birdie feeders ended up being part of our Easter festivities. It was such a quick and easy project. I can't wait to hang them and see the looks on my kids faces as the neighborhood birds fly up for a snack.

We had almost all of the wood on hand from previous projects, they only thing we bought was the board for the faces.

This stain color photographs blotchy looking. It does not look that way in person........

I used beadboard for the sides because I had some left over. I'm glad I did. I really like the way it looks. I also used trim on the outside of all the drawers. It really gives it a polished look. You could also use it if you have uneven gaps where the drawer slides in.

One other thing I did was use a solid piece for the top. I wanted it to be a smooth surface. I then trimmed the top piece with trim that I used on the Fancy Farmhouse Bed I made. I wanted to tie the two pieces together.

I've never made anything with drawers before. It is a bit more challenging, but not that bad if you are careful. However, I am not looking to build anything with drawers again for awhile :>}

Naturally we based our plans on the space and the railing we needed.  But it was easy to  do once we had the vision and the supply list Ana White provides.

Scrap wood build for a dog bed. I built a new couch to replace the chair she destroyed and used the old chair cushion in her new bed. Has kept her off the furniture and on her own bed ever since.

First try at building a piece of furniture myself. I am inspired to do so much more projects like this now.

One of my best friends got married a while back and for their wedding gift, I wanted to build them a piece of furniture. I had purchased a piece of 1x12 from Lowe's a couple of years ago because I thought it looked cool and finally found the right project for it.