Community Brag Posts

This is the 2nd Rustic X Coffee table I built. This I built as a wedding gift for my Brother and His wife. Instead of the X posts on the ends I opted for a column design on the end. It was actually a little more time consuming but I think it looks great.

I built these modern storage benches for some friends of ours. They needed some space to store their little girls toys. They planned to use some wicker baskets they had. I took the measurements for the baskets and built the storage spaces around it. 

I turned some old oak shelves that I got from an estate sale into a 3' wide Scandinavian slat bench.

Needed a patio table for this space and decided on this plan. After the build portion, the stain finish really made it complete. Now time for some summer get togethers.

This was my first venture in building furniture. My granddaughter needed a new table and chair and insisted I could make it myself since I built her a playhouse (from a kit.) That's when I googled and found Ana White's amazing site and all the easy to follow plans.

I chose the Clara Table and Childrens Storage Chair. They reminded me of school - and my granddaughter who was 3 at the time loved playing school. Plus, since her parents plan to homeschool, I thought this would be a great starter setup.

I started with the chair. I did struggle with screwing it together, so it's not perfect. But it is sturdy; the storage box helped with stability too. After struggling with the chair, I decided to buy a kreg jig like Ana suggests - and boy did that make a difference! The table went together so fast and easily, I was literally in shock. And it's so strong I can sit on it. I'm sure if I had tried building it with just screwing the regular way, it would have been wobbly.

I bought a 24"x36" tabletop instead of using the 3 boards joined together and so had to adjust the measurements of the apron pieces accordingly. I thought it would make a smoother writing surface. I originally intended to paint it all white, but the grain on the top was so gorgeous, I decided to stain it - and I stained the chair seat to match.

This project was so much fun and came out so nice, I decided to build a toddler bed from Ana's plans. You can see that project here: Toddler Bed

A fleet of 3 wooden boat planters built in the traditional style of a clinker creel boat (Orkney Longliner).

My husband used the plans from this website to make a single Murphy bed. He didn't make any changes, save for building the frame out of solid poplar and using birch plywood for the flat surface the mattress sits on when it's unfolded. We trimmed it to mimic the the lines of a built-in in the same room, and stained it Jacobean to make it look dark. It's a solid piece of furniture and is saving us tons of space.

Table was built for my daughter, now she wants me to build the End table and Sofa table. LOL

Can't believe I forgot to share this.  Fixing to make two more!

I liked the design of the barnyard dinner table and needed a table on the patio for family get togethers. I modified the table plans to seat 10 and made it bar height. I also finished the top vs planks. Came out great.

We made two of the Farmhouse Bedside Tables to go with the Farmhouse Queen Bed with Arch. The nighstands went together quickly and are beautiful! You just can't beat the quality for the cost to build them. My husband added a piece of wood behind the drawer to act as a stop so the drawer doesn't push in too far. We chose not to add drawer slides because the drawers are perfect without. Another great plan.

I altered the dimensions from the plans slightly to meet my needs. I added self-closing, heavy duty hinges for the doors because a basic euro- hinge from home depot would not hold the weight of the doors with glass. For the finish, I sanded the edges slightly after painting and used a minwax stain maker to stain the sanded areas giving a clean, distressed look. I used gel stain for the first time on this build. Softer woods such as pine or alder are prone to blotchy finishes when stained. I built the top out of Alder and stained it with gel stain from general finishes. I am very happy with how the top turned out after using the gel stain. I did not have to use a pre-stain conditioner either.

Made these two in about 3 hours. Instead of wood glue I used construction adhesive. Now to sand and stain then add cushions.

Make your own hanging coat / purse / bag rack with scrap woods and some inexpensive hooks. To see more details, please go to : http://mekhart.blogspot.com/2012/08/tutorial-hanging-purse-diaper-bag-r…

I used Ana's plans and modified the top, I used 3/4 MDF with hardwood flooring. I then used 2" door casing for edging.

This is a super easy build, but it cost us WAY more than the estimate. By the time we painted and hung it the total was closer to $150. 

We we squeezed the swing into the crack between the pillar and wall of my back porch. It barely fit, but we are a family of six so I wanted it to be as big as possible.