Community Brag Posts

My daughter needed a loft bed to give her more floor and storage space in her bedroom. I modified the original plans to fit her twin XL bed, which is 5 inches longer than a regular bed. I also added an extra 2x6 across the back two posts for extra support.

Cutting and assembly was relatively easy; I glued every joint and used pocket holes per the instructions. I sanded using 80, 120 and 220 grit. The finish is a Minwax "parchment" water-based stain, with 3 coats of Polycrylic. All pocket holes were pre-drilled prior to finishing.

I assembled the platform and footboard in the garage and brought it into the house as a single unit; same with the headboard. I brought in the rails separately. To assemble, I marked 1 1/4 inches from the outside post edges, and used wood scraps/clamps to align and hold the rails while securing them with pocket hole screws.

My daughter's mattress is very high; it rises only about an inch below the top of the top rail. So I build a bed-length shelf which also had the added benefit of providing a little more height/protection against her rolling out of bed in the middle of the night (see pics).

In all, I was surprised at how long this took me. Probably because I'm a novice and this was only my 2nd project. The totals are:
- Cut and assembly: 14 hours
- Sanding: 25 hours
- Finishing: 2 days

After finishing, I left all pieces in the garage for 5 days to air-out before bringing into the house.

Total cost the lumber was $125, 1 qt stain @ $13, 1/2 gal Polycrylic @ $50 per gal, and $20 hardware for a total of just over $200.

A fun project to make ending with a functional product to boot!  I went all out making sure that each truck/shelf would coordinate with each grandson's theme/decor in their bedrooms.  Chase, who will turn one next month, has a super heroes/comics theme for his room.  Therefore, I selected Captain America as the star of the big rig shelf.  Red, white & blue paints, some wooden shapes and some creativity and Captain America was ready for Mr. Smiles.

The table is one that I have been waiting for my husband to retire from the Marines to make me. We moved so often while in the military that I knew there was no need to buy expensive furniture just to get damaged. When I found the plans for this I was thrilled.

The edges of the table have been sanded to resemble the worn weathered look.

Please forgive the pictures. I will retake soon.

Created this door with pine wood tongue and groove lumber and pine wood planks. Purchase barn door hardware / track from Jet.com and door handles from Hobby Lobby. 

This replaced my Master bath door and I think came out pretty good. Thank you for the ideas!!!  Jeff M.   Brownstown, Mi

Followed the plans pretty close on this one. 

We struggled with the angles because we made the table bigger than this tutorial suggests but all in all, awesome build.

I made this garden trellis with cheap 6' cedar fence pickets ripped down to 1 1/2" strips. Get the free plans and tutorial at The Handyman's Daughter!

This table is made from beautiful reclaimed wood from local Washington DC buildings.

The matching benches are a great space saver for a small space!

I built the Lydia Daybed for my nephew's new big boy bed. Was a little worried about doing the fancy decorative corner pieces, but just adapted the design a little so it was not such an intricate cut. Everything turned out great and there are a few more pictures on the blog, www.atouchofarkansas.com. Thanks! JM

Thanks for your video, Ana!

I had a bunch of salvage wood boards and wanted to offer my wife the space she'd always wanted for gardening for our wedding anniversary.

Your plans inspired me to build her this bench, adapting the design to the materials I had.

She loved it!!

Elodie :-)

A friend asked me to make a headboard for him as he couldn't find anything online or in store that he really liked. 

I was up for the challenge and always love working with wood to make new and exciting things so, challenge accepted. 

This was my first attempt at a headboard and I think it turned out pretty nice. 

Knotty pine face with a cedar frame. 

Looking forward to my next project! 

This was my first table I built, very happy I found these plans. The legs were pressure treated 4x4's which made it very heavy one I put it all together. Thanks for the plans Ana!

We (myself and my girlfriend) decided to build this daybed after considering several options for a new sofa. With three big dogs we knew we wanted a big sofa and after looking at many $400+ options we saw several issues (besides cost), The biggest was the availability of slip covers for easy cleaning. We went with the daybed route because a mattress is far cheaper than foam for sofa cushions and twin sheets are readily available for low prices in many colors.

Obviously I altered the plans significantly as I wanted a chunkier, heavier frame that would withstand the abuse of day to day life. Also I removed the canopy as it's not needed indoors. The rear legs are 4x4 nominal which I resawed to 3x3 actual. The rear frame is 1x3 nominal horizontal pieces with 2x3 nominal boards as the verticals. These have rabbets cut in them to join with the horizontal pieces. The bottom support for the mattress is a 2x6 resawn to 2x5 actual and rabbeted to fit each vertical and the legs. Also, the top two horizontals are longer to fit into rabbets in the legs - this allows the back structure to be far stronger.

The sides are constructed of 1x3 horizontals with the leg and arm cap being 2x4 nominal resawn to 1x3 actual. The verticals were rabbeted like the rear to accept the horizontal pieces. The front crossmember is a 2x6 nominal block planed to match the front legs.

Joinerys consists of the following -
All rabbeted joints are glued and brad nailed together.
The legs and arm/top caps are pockted screwed to the horizontal crossmembers.
The front, sides, and rear join with 3 1/2" deck screws and 5 1/2" lag bolts.
Stringers/mattress supports are 2x3 nominal.

Finish is Behr premium plus interior latex eggshell paint/primer sprayed with an HVLP sprayer.

If anyone is interested I can take some measurements and more photos. Right now we just have our old futon mattress on (we're saving to do some other projects).