Community Brag Posts

This was built using Ana's plans plus an inspiration photo my daughter took at an antique store in Chicago.  Notice the lower shelf stabilizing the bottom of the table. It also had to break down into sections to be moved three hours north to her apartment in Chicago.  Used lots of glue, and my trusty Kreg jig.  In the background is a tufted ottoman I also built at the same time.

Took the fancy hall tree bottom and added Mimi's hutch to the top. Added a little bead board to the bench and top edges to cover up the plywood, and voila! My wife's Christmas gift. 

I'm really happy with how this project turned out.
To attach the beds together I deviated from the original instructions and instead attached the headboard header to the headboard itself instead of to the feet of the upper bunk as directed. I used 3/4" dowels to attach the two beds, drilling 3" into the bottom bunk (through the header and into the posts), and 2" into the legs of the top bunk. This way the beds will easily come apart. They are incredibly secure, and incredibly heavy!

Was inspired to build this table after a visit to R.H. with my wife and realized a table this size and style would cost us about $3000.

So I decided to build myselft.  With a little help from Ana's plans and my own modifications, I think I got pretty close to the Restoration Hardware Trestle Table.

I bought the pedestals at Osbornewood.com and asked them not to drill the leg holes and ordered it in pine.  That was the most expensive part of the table, about $380 a piece.  The rest of it is Douglas Fir.

I created a template and shaped the feet myself out of 4X8 beams.  I was able to use my jig saw and a Bosch 10" blade.  I made the rough cut with it and then sanded the rest of the shape using my belt sander.

The pedestals have a hollow center and were too tall so I cut them down and created plugs and glued them into the pedestal.  The bottom plug has a large threaded rod and is glued and bolted to the feet, and the top plug was used to create the horizontal supports for the table top.  I too created a template for this and used a jigsaw to cut the shape.

I then used Minwax American English, then weathered oak, (Like in one of Ana's stain posts).  I then wanted to give it that weathered/reclaimed wood look so I add a fair amount of the White Pickling stain.  I wanted a little less of the red tones and more brown...I may sand and refinish it someday, but it is in the house for now and can't wait for our first dinner party.

Absolutely loved this build!  And it has become so handy to have for all the storage it provides.

I adjusted the original plans.  

• Combined the hutch and mail sorter into one unit.
• Stretched it 1 foot taller, spaced that out between several shelves.
• Combined 2 drawer units into one.

One of the projects that I've wanted to tackle for a long time has been adding built-in bookshelves to the sides of my existing fireplace. This fireplace (and I'm assuming the mantel) was original to the house and I wanted to create an addition that would look seamless and tie into the existing woodwork. I began designing a piece above the mantel to give the fireplace some height and then I designed the flanking bookcases to match. All of the project details and free step-by-step instructions can be found on my website at: www.momthebuilder.net

I used 1x6’s as opposed to 2x6’s for the base as well as the 19” pieces thus I cut the length of the legs to 27 3/8 the difference of 1 ½ inch from the plan.  In addition, the plans did not specify as to the placement of the legs on to the 19” pieces and thus I attached the 17 ½ bottom shelf braces and then attached the legs to the top.  I finished the project with MinWax Classic Gray stain which gave it an antique finish followed by a finishing wax.

I built this for my daughter Keila.  She loves it and her friends do too!  Took me one day.  I painted the entire bed in deck paint.  It completely eliminated all
Splinters!!! I added the slide, a USB plug, cup holder, and fan.  

We had a dark corner in the living room that was needing some light. I had two vintage pendant lamps (amazing thrift store find) and leftover barn wood from my farm table build. I decided to build a frame to hang the lights in the corner. For less than $10 I have a completely unique lighting solution.

Handmade by novice

My husband bought me a Kreg jig for Christmas since I've been wanted to make some Ana White projects. Love how the first one turned out. Team project with hubby for our entry way. 

My husband and I decided to tackle this as our second woodworking project together. We have been wanting a larger dining table that would comfortably seat 6 people and easily squeeze in 8 if needed. We decided to build Ana's turned leg farmhouse table, adjusting the dimensions and choosing slightly different legs. These variations better suited our dining room space.

We purchased the "Modified English Country Dining Table Legs" in soft maple and 3 1/2" diameter from Osbourne Wood Products, which totaled $136. The rest of the lumber was made up of pine boards from Lowe's, which totaled around $40-$50. When assembling the 1 x 10 boards to make the top, we used a biscuit joiner to help our slightly bowed boards stay flat. Once the table was fully assembled, we painted the base in Lowe's Antique White (satin finish) and stained the top using Minwax's Special Walnut, then applied at least two coats of Minwax's polyurethane in satin finish.

We made a couple of mistakes along the way which actually worked out for the best, giving the table some rustic character. Being relatively new to woodworking, we neglected to thoroughly wipe the 1 x 10 boards of all wood glue before the glue dried, making it difficult to remove later with sanding. Some wood glue remained, which showed up later once boards were stained. We ended up liking how this turned out to give it some charm and more of that 'handmade' look.

Added a shelf and made the console a microwave cart for my mom.

For a few years, we used a normal wooden wall hanger (a normal wood wall hanger means a piece of pinewood plank screwed on the wall, which had 7 double hooks on it), we decided to find some new ideas. We found a nice idea, a pine beam that looks like it’s part of the structure, passing through the wall, on which a lot of wooden hooks are fitted.

This was my first DIY furniture project!

The materials cost less than $50! Of course, I did buy some fun new
power tools!

Thanks to http://ana-white.com for the great plans!

I learned quite a lot from this. The nightstand will go in our guest room but the next project will be Master-Bedroom-Worthy! I’ll try to share what I learned with you here so you can avoid my mistakes.

I cut all my pieces first. I used super cheap wood because I wasn’t sure how good I’d be at this. Needless to say, they weren’t all exactly straight so my “squaring up” didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped.
Lesson: buy straight boards

Then I went crazy with the Kreg jig and drilled all my pocket holes. I tried to use pocket holes for all the connections.
Lesson: just follow the directions

Another thing I'll do differently next time -- I'll sand and finish all the parts at this point before assembling the piece.

I can't wait to try my next project! Thanks Ana!!!

So happy with the way my Balin Console Table turned out.  I altered Ana’s plan just a bit by adding 1x2’s to the sides at the top and bottom to recess the side panels and I added drawer slides for easy opening as well as trimming out the front of the drawers to recess the drawer fronts.  Thank you Ana for great plans!