Community Brag Posts

Using Ana's plan as a guide, I built two of these sofas to fit an outdoor cushion I already had. I used wood from our old deck -- a great way to re-use and save money, too!

Wanted to make a loft bed for my 4-year-old son's room that could accommodate a toddler bed beneath it for when my 1-year-old daughter eventually starts sleeping on her own. I was torn between the Chelsea and Cabin bed plans, but eventually settled on the Chelsea because I liked the look of the headboard better.

I looked through all the brag posts to get modification ideas. I ended up mostly stealing ideas from "chadwickstafin", and like him took the great idea from "groovymom2000" to use chalkboard paint (though I only used it to paint the side of the desk end, since I knew the bookshelf end would be mostly blocked by a ladder). I decided to skip the decorative feet and just extend my 2x2s to the floor for extra strength, a mod that most people appear to be doing with this plan. I saw some people using 2x3s in place of 2x2s for added strength, but I can confirm that 2x2s are plenty strong enough on their own (2x2s are stronger than people give them credit for, and there's 8 of them here to distribute the load).

Like chadwickstafin, I cut my headboard a little differently, and I used short lengths of scrap 2x2s cut at 45-degrees to brace the top and bottom corners of both end units. There is no wiggle to the bed at all, it's stabilized so well. I also added a middle support to the short rail, just for a little extra safety, and secured the inside ends of the railings to the headboard/footer with pocket screws. I skipped the filler pieces for the railing, and just did a little extra sanding to make sure all exposed corners were smooth and splinter-free. I made the opening to the bed a bit wider than the plans, 15" instead of 13". I used 2x3s for the ladder, which gave me the sturdiness I wanted without the full bulk of using 2x4s, which looked especially chunky next to a loft unit made with mostly 1x boards. I played with some different angles, but eventually went with a 15-degree ladder. There were some leftover plastic handles sitting in my garage (originally from an outdoor playset ladder before I replaced it with a climbing wall), so I added those near the top of the ladder for some extra safety. I put some color-changing strip lighting under the bed, so there would be plenty of light for the desk and bookshelves (my little guy loves to just plop down on the ground beneath his bed and read).

I spaced the 1x3 slats about 3.5" apart (used scrap 2x4 blocks as spacers). Because my wife or I will lay in bed and read to our son at night, I easily added a couple 2x2 support rails under the 1x3 slats for extra mattress support. I'm a big dude at 6'3 and 250 lbs, and the slats alone WERE strong enough to hold me when I did a test, but they bowed just enough in the center (unnoticeable to me up on the mattress, but I had my wife watching the slats for me below) that I felt I should add a bit more support. Now there's no bowing at all.

I also used Ana's Top Bunk Organizer plans to give my son a little extra storage up top (and a place to set a glass of water during the night), and painted it to match the bed's color scheme. Everything was sanded, painted, sanded again, repainted, and then given a couple coats of polycrylic (the painting process took longer than the cutting & assembly!).

Cost-wise I was extraordinarily lucky. We have a Habitat For Humanity ReStore near us, so I was able to get my paints and a 3x6 sheet of MDF for $15 total. I also had some rebate cards from Menards (regional hardware store, similar to Lowes or Home Depot), plus happened to go there on a week when pine wood was on sale, so I got all my lumber for less than $60.

I could not be happier with the end results, and my son absolutely loves his new bed.

This one was a lot of fun

We are in desperate need of toy storage in our playroom. We are planning to build several more of these bulk bins.

My first attempt at making something this caliber!

This was my first ever project. I would have done a good amount differently if I had to reconstruct it now, but it came out pretty good and definitely serves its purpose.

These are the changes I made compared to the original design:

• Increased the length to 69" to fit our room
• Added center posts to support the extended length
• Doubled the top thickness
• Routed an ogee on the underside of the top
• Extended the top and bottom deck by 1' all around
• Increased the post height to 12"
• Chamfered the corners of the vertical posts
• Enclosed the sides with inset panels
• Painted to match our baseboard trim
• Added furniture slider feet to make it easy to move on the tile

It definitely took longer than I would have liked, but I could do it much faster if I had to do it again.

First project in a quite a while for me so wanted to go with something simple.  Was able to complete on a Saturday.  Only thing I wanted to do different was 2" thickness on the top.

This was one of my first projects. I had some challenges with the cuts... I rushed through (since I had my 1 & 3 year old assisting) and didn't make exact cuts... as a result, there was a lot of trimming to do on the legs. Also, the pressure treated wood that we purchased was very weak and even with drilling pilot holes, I experienced quite a few splits when putting together the legs of the benches. (This is why I only have one bench, actually... I still need to buy more wood...) Otherwise, I love the table!!! I think I attached the legs of the table differently than instructed, though I can't recall what I did.. and we ended up cutting a 2x2 to tie in the legs (from mid-X to mid-X) for extra support. (My 3 year old son was leaping from the table and we wanted to make sure it could meet his demands.) We LOVE it overall!

My daughter had talked about wanting a loft bed for a long time so after of plenty of research, we went for it. The shelves of the bookcase, except the top and bottom, are made from 3/4 plywood I had laying around. I did my best to utilize as much lumber that I already had in the basement to reduce costs.

Underneath the bed is LED Rope Lighting and the gaps under the rails were stenciled with the bear paws since my daughters nickname is Little Bear.

People have loved it enough I think there's a couple people that are going to buy the supplies so I can build it for them. The one thing I wish I had during the construction was an oscillating multi-tool to trim off the Kreg plugs. I now have one and plan on using it a fair amount.

On to the next project!!

Ben

Built this to replace a shorter, store-bought media table that was just a dust collector.  I really enjoyed building this, especially making the hardware by hand. Thanks to one of the other builders for the plans to build the iron door hangers.