Community Brag Posts

This is the project that inspired me to start woodworking. I'm a bookaholic and have always used cheap, particle board bookcases from Walmart for storage. They're fine for the price, but over time the shelves bow and they NEVER survive a move. When I outgrew the three units I had, I balked at buying a fourth, which I didn't really have room for anyway. Enter Ana White! This is actually based off a brag project under the IKEA Lack Inspired Bookcase. What I love best about building my own is that I can customize to suit my needs. I was able to put almost twice as much shelving into about the same area. And if I outgrow these, I can just build another!

Built by What Once Was Old Furniture Design submitted by Kari Baker

We get lots of inspiration from you Ana! We started building the sliding barn door cabinets from your plans and since have built several of them. We have also altered them to fit our customers needs. They are very popular here in Texas. The sliding door cabinet in this picture was used as a credenza in a home office. We also added a sliding keyboard tray under the computer screen. The printer is on a sliding tray as well, so it can be pulled out when in use. Base of the cabinet and desk is new pine and we used a lot of pallet wood for doors and shelves. It would be a treat to be added to your brag board, you can see lots of our work, lots of which you should recognize at What Once Was Old Furniture Design . Thank you!!

I love this table. I needed a little console table for my bedroom, and this was a prefect fit. It took me a day (not including buying the lumber), and it was fun to build. This was the 2nd project I have done, and I am really proud of it! (PS i found one on the pottery barn website that looks very similar for $600!) I spent about $50 on lumber, and already had the rest of my materials:)

Beautiful and functional. Nobody believes I built this :)

I made the table and then added a box with a top to it for a sandbox sand table. 

Needed more storage and this project was so easy. Tied in the baseboards and crown for a built in look.

This was the first furniture DIY project for my wife and I. We loved the look of the original farmhouse bedside table plans but they were bigger than what we needed at the moment and didn't want to try to cram them into our room. The mini plans were exactly what we needed. For a first time build, I am pleased with the results and we ended up spending about $75 plus the cost of stain for the two tables. Similar, all-wood night stands run around $200 per table so it doesn't get much better than that. We opted for the Minwax Dark Walnut stain.

Hi Ana!  This project was pretty much inspired by ALL the great things you build on this site, as well as from watching a 'Fixer Upper' marathon (hence, the white color and shiplap).  Last Christmas, I promised my sister that I'd build her a hall tree since she's now up to 10 grandkids and needed more hooks for all those coats and hats.  Unfortunately, I also came down with a WICKED case of vertigo, so no power tools for yours truly. : (

Well...  The vertigo finally cleared up, so it was time to get out my trusty ol' Kreg Jig and fire up the tools.

This project started with 2 4x4s.  I cut 17 1/2" off each, then used the long pieces as the back and the sort pieces as the front legs.  Then I built a rectangle (shored up by some cross supports) out of 2x3s and used those to attach the back legs together with pocket holes.  I did the same thing with the 2 front legs, then attached the 2 sets of legs together with shorter pieces of 2x3s that framed up the side.

Next, I added a front to back support to the underside, and then attached the bottom of the seat on top of that.  I built the front, back, and side pieces of the bench section by cutting a couple of 8' x 8" x .5" planks to size, and attached 2 pieces to each side by gluing and nailing them to the frame.   Then, I rans some shiplap up the back (glued and nailed to the back frame) and topped it all off with a mantle.

For the seat, I used a 12" project board ($11 at Lowes for a 6 foot section) because I love all the knotty details and nail marks.  I framed it out with 1x1 and attached with pocket screws on the underside.  I finished that piece by staining it in Rustoleum Dark Walnut.

As for the rest, I just framed the shiplap section with leftover 1x1s, then sanded and stained the whole piece with the same Dark Walnut stain (so that something would show through after distressing).  Finally, I applied 2 coats of Rustoleum Linen White Chalk Paint (LOVE that stuff!), distressed it, and topped with one coat of Minwax 1 Coat Poly (ALSO love that stuff), and added some hardware and country do dads from Hobby Lobby (Rustic Hooks, 'Bless This Home' Sign, Decorative Doorknob, and "Mitten Clip" for wet mittens and gloves coming off little hands) .  What do you think?  ヅ

Barn board flags made from a dilapidated barn.

I was looking for a plan to build a miter saw cart but also wanted to include my table saw.
I was leery about making a permanent station for the miter saw in case in needed to move the saw for an inside trim job so I made the miter portion of workstation portable.

This took me longer to build than I expected -- maybe because I was working from scraps and had to figure out what would fit where along the way. Also, I initially cut all the side pieces with parallel cuts. Oops. So I had to re-do them all.

For more info, check out my blog post!

I made the back slats taller on the second chair (salmon colored one) so I could just lay my head back. They were so easy and I can't believe I did this myself! We made the baby chair with the scraps and our grandbabies love it!

First stab at this table turned out so well a friend bought it off me and I had to build a second.