Community Brag Posts

Mission Style Dog Kennel

This project was really pretty easy. The hardest part was holding the pieces just right so they ended up where we wanted once the kreg jig hole screws went in. Also, we had to be sure not to overtighten the screws and cause splitting.

 

We did have to make two adjustments to the plans. I think the first was a typo...where it says 2 - 1x2 @ 15 3/4" (door sides) they should actually be 1x3 based on the images.

The second adjustment was the plywood for the back 17 3/4" x 21" ended up too wide for the end to fit on, so we made it 17 3/4" x 20"

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$100
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Early American stain and satin polyurethane.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments

Knox11

Sun, 12/24/2017 - 17:17

This was my first wood working Project! I learned alot about what to do and not to do for future projects. We are excited about how it turned out!

4 in 1 Entrepreneur Stand

Submitted by jkjackson on Thu, 12/23/2021 - 19:55

I LOVE the hot cocoa stand but wanted to make it “year round”. So I also created accessories for lemonade, fireworks and snow cone stands. The signs are reversible. They are made of metal and attach with magnets. The banners also attach with magnets. There are hot cocoas, gingerbread cookies, peppermints, lemonades, iced cookies, a cake plate, fireworks, smoke bombs, bottle rockets, sparklers, snow cones and a snow cone holder that flips over to become a crate.

Comments

Farmhouse Bed-My first build

Submitted by MattB on Tue, 04/19/2011 - 17:40

This was my first project. My wife saw it and told me to make it :)

Now I'm hooked
I already bought wood for my next two projects.
You rock Ana !!!!!
Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
100-200
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Dove white
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Hailey Platform Bed Modified for Recycled Wood and Building in Small Spaces

This was my first building project! The bed is built almost entirely out of found wood. I modified the Hailey Platform Bed plans to suit the dimensions of the wood I had, and my very small work space.

I did most of the building in my living room and my apartment's miniature courtyard, which is much narrower than a bed. Because of this, the bed had to be able to be disassembled until after it was stained. The modified plans use brackets on the corners - even these were found! Most of the wood came from discarded pieces of other beds, found in the yearly big garbage collection. The centre support strut can also be disassembled, and is attached with a joist bracket.

I think the actual assembly and finishing of the bed could be done in a day, even for a beginner like me, but I spent many hours sanding the old finishes off of my found wood so I would have a uniform finish.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
20
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Cabot's Water-Based Stain and Varnish (all-in-one formula) in Sutherland Teak; 2 coats applied with a foam varnish brush.
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Comments

JoanneS

Sun, 06/23/2013 - 06:00

Congratulations on your first build! It looks great! All that sanding you did really paid off -- your finish is so beautiful and smooth! Love the teak color. Great job!

dtherio

Thu, 07/03/2014 - 12:02

I just found this website and plans. I think I am going to build this for my new bed. I like the modifications you made to take it apart.

As I will be building a king sized bed, I will have to be able to take it apart in order to bring it into my room. Thank you for the ideas.

Patio Table

I looked around to buy a patio and found they were often quite expensive or they were poorly made out of metal that would rust. I had some scrap pine and some table legs from an old table I wasn't using so decided to make a patio table myself.

For more details, check out my blog:
http://www.woodworkingfourdummies.com/blog/patio-table

Cheers,
Ian

Estimated Cost
$20 for paint
Wood was scrap
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Paint and Polyurethane
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

Modified King Farmhouse Bed - Taller headboard.

Submitted by Ijc2000 on Thu, 12/28/2017 - 10:09

Modified the standard farmhouse king plan a bit. Made the headboard 4" taller and utilized 1x4's and 1x3's to fill in the headboard instead of 1x8's. I used 2x8 from front to back for the runners and horizonal 2x6's just under the lip of the 2x8 for the matress to sit on. It turned out great and we get lots of compliments. 

Estimated Cost
$350
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Picture included. Used the whitewash before using the restoration hardware technique.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Queen Platform Storage Beds

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/26/2021 - 13:01

My husband and I made two Queen Platform Storage Beds for our "Carriage House" apartment. They are a beautiful and functional upgrade! Thank you Ana for sharing your plans!

Comments

Reclaimed Wood Headboard

I built Ana's Reclaimed Wood Headboard.  This was the easiest piece I have built so far!  Very quick!  You can see the steps I took to finish it at our blog http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2011/04/diy-headboard.html

Estimated Cost
$50
Estimated Time Investment
An Hour or Two (0-2 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax Dark Walnut Stain and Minwax Polycrylic Gloss
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project

WALL-MOUNTED WINE RACK

Submitted by crowner123 on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 14:54

This was a rack I helped my dad make so he could give it as a wedding gift. This is an attempt to build from plans that Ana posted here:

http://ana-white.com/2011/11/wall-mounted-wine-rack-dont-forget-erase-y…

We took 2 long long cherry boards with bark still on the sides, and ran them through the planer. Then we ripped them down the center to be able to use bark ends on each side and book-matched the cherry colors, but most people wont have to worry about that since they wont be using "found" cherry.

The back board is made up of four 1x7s cuts at 28.5 inches long. You can use whatever width you want, we just wound up with 7inch pieces. Then we used a Kreg Jig to screw those together flush (see picture of back). Once those 4 pieces were together we sanded the edges down to make the backboard smooth and flush.

The 8 mini shelves were 1x3.5s cut at 10 inches long. The middle and bottom shelves were 1x5s cut at 24.75 inches long. Again, we were using limited wood and had to adjust our measurements to make it work.

We spaced the bottom shelf flush with the bottom of the backboard and then would space 4.5 inches between the top of that and the bottom of the next shelf. Make sure there is still room for your wine bottle to fit between the floating shelves. ALSO, MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE FLOATING SHELVES ACROSS FROM EACH OTHER LEVEL WITH ONE ANOTHER. You don't want your shelves to look lazily placed.

The way we placed the shelves on backboard was...involved.
- Clamp the shelves in place on the front of the board and trace them with pencil.
- Remove the shelves.
- Marke holes to drill within center of the trace.
- Drill those holes from the front of the board to the back.
- Reclamp the shelves back on and use the holes in the board to mark the clamped on shelves from the back.
- Unclamp the shelves and fully drill the shelves by themselves while they were not attached. (BE CAREFUL TO DRILL STRAIGHT and never come through the top or bottom of the shelf)
- Sand off your pencil marks after your drilling.
- Re-clamp the shelves to the backboard.
- Use 3" screws straight from the back into the shelves.
- Use 8 screws per big shelf and 3 screws per little shelf.

Then it was just slow and steadily clamping, tracing, drilling, re-clamping, drilling, sanding, re-clamping, and screwing the shelves on... You have to follow that pattern for each shelf or you risk ruining your shelf and if you have limited wood (like we did) that is not an option.

We also put very small pieces of wood to keep the bottles from rolling off their shelves. These were just scraps we had lying around and tapped them in with small finishing nails.

Good luck!

Estimated Cost
$50
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
These photos were taken pre-finish. That is just how beautiful the cherry looks! We will be spraying on a high gloss clear finish and we'll be done.
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Table

Submitted by bosox43 on Sat, 06/06/2015 - 18:49

Great project, super easy to follow instructions and really easy to modify with some simple math.

Perfect weekend project, started the table around 1pm on Saturday, finished the bench and had the garage cleaned up and sitting at the new table by 330pm on Sunday!

Thanks for posting the plans, they were very easy to follow!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$75
Estimated Time Investment
Day Project (6-9 Hours)
Finish Used
Deck table
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Faux fireplace

Submitted by nhsarah on Sat, 12/30/2017 - 12:00

I live in an apartment, so I had everything cut for me at the nearby hardware store except the trimming. I scaled it so that it fits in my living room. It was my first woodworking project since high school, but I’m happy with how it tuned out. Thank you so much for the easy to understand instructions!!

Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
Paint
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Shou Sugi Ban (Yakisugi) Cornhole Boards

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/26/2021 - 14:48

I'm James Farquhar, designer, and fabricator. This is the second set of cornhole boards I built this year. This set is the regulation size of 48" x 24" according to the American Cornhole Association. It is made from fir 2 x 4 s and pine 1 x 4 s (6 per board). Each board is glued with Titebond II and countersunk Torx top screws (#8 1-1/2 inches). It is coated with Minwax polyacrylic (8 layers sprayed on) and Howard's bee's wax (3 layers). The boards are secured with 3-inch toggle latches in pairs. Kayak carrying handles with four screw ports; I used the same Torx Screws I used to put the boards together, extra for strength. The total weight of the boards is 60 pounds. I used a Texas Flame Thrower to Shou Sugi Ban (Yakisugi), as a finish.

Comments

Dresser with Open Bottom Shelf for Changing Table

Submitted by karahart on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 13:46

My husband and I built this dresser to use as a changing table in our daughters nursery. I explain the build process (with photos) in this blog post : http://mekhart.blogspot.com/2011/03/nursery-room-biggest-build-yet.html and the finishing process in this blog post : http://mekhart.blogspot.com/2011/04/nursery-room-finished-dresser.html . I'm so thankful to Ana...I love that almost every element of her nursery is home made!

Estimated Cost
150
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Paint with a whitewash over top and glazing on the edges. To see more details on how to replicate this finish, check out my blog post here : http://mekhart.blogspot.com/2011/04/nursery-room-finished-dresser.html .
Recommended Skill Level
Advanced

Workbench

Submitted by e1p2m3 on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 06:52

This is from the "Workbench to Get the Job Done" plan. Instead of using plywood for the shelves, I used 2x4s cut to length which made the piece extra sturdy. I also left a little overhang on each of the ends for clamping things (I wish I left at least 3" on each side, but I think I left about 1 1/2").

Estimated Cost
50
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
None
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Wedding Panel

Submitted by brittanyj on Wed, 06/10/2015 - 08:40

So glad to finally make this beautiful panel wall art for a friend for her wedding. The last name is Iverson, so the tree stood in for the I. I made it on cedar pickets ripped in half and sanded, kona stain, then designed my tree/lettering/birds in Cricut, cut it out, and painted. Can't wait to give it to her!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$2
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
varathane kona, spray clear top coat, acrylic paint and markers
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Farm Table w/ Pocket Holes

I did a few thing different than the plan calles for. I used kiln dried douglas fir 2x8's and ripped them to remove the rounded mill edge. For the stretcher I used 4x4 rather than the 2x4. Where the bread board is attached I put a very small bevel at the joining edges of the bread board and table to create a visual distinction.

Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Minwax Espresso stain and Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Narrow Farmhouse Table

Submitted by kylihoot on Sun, 05/01/2011 - 14:32

This is my favorite build so far! When I saw the plan I pretty muh obssesed over it for weeks until I finally gave in and here it is!
I must confess...I have no where to put it haha. I don't care, I saw it and had to have it.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$40 maybe a bit more for others...employee discount ;)
Estimated Time Investment
Weekend Project (10-20 Hours)
Finish Used
I used wood conditioner on the table top and end support aprons, and followed with a stain called Provincial.
I then primed and painted the legs satin high hiding white. I took my sander and distressed the edges, and finally rubbed on stain over the paint and quickly wiped of the excess. IT looks worn, but not too worn as the husband is not to excited about old looking stuff.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Vintage kitchen shelf with hooks

This is my first project. I had to shorten the width of the shelf to fit the space I had for it. The board on the back is also a 1x4 instead of the 1x3 that was in the plans. This was a great first project for anyone.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
N/A. Since this was my first project, I had to buy wood, tools, paint, hooks.
Finish Used
First I used one -coat of mini-wax oil based stain in Colonial Maple. The color was nice but a bit too "orangey" for my taste. I then used one-coat of mini-wax water based stain in toffee. Much better results for my taste. The final clear coat was also water based.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Book shelf with reading nook

Submitted by Knathu121 on Fri, 01/05/2018 - 20:24

I made this book shelf with a reading nook for my daughters nursery. I found one you can buy online for $250 and decided I could make it for much less. I used 1 x12’s and the cushions were made by my mother and grandmother. All together it cost about $65 to make. 

Estimated Cost
$65.00
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Comments

Ana White

Sat, 01/06/2018 - 11:41

This is adorable!  I love the entire room!

We've had a couple of people ask for plans.  If there aren't any available, would you be willing to let us draw some plans up from your photos?  Thanks! Ana

Knathu121

Sun, 01/07/2018 - 09:11

I don’t have my cut list anymore but rough dimensions are as follows;

height - 23.5” 

width 44.5

depth- 12”

I tried accounting for the width of the wood in order to make each square on the bottom 10x10 and the 2 middle shelves to be 12 inches high and the bottom on the middle shelves to be 10” wide. I wanted to have at least 20” for the seat while also having 2 wide enough shelves at the top to be able to put things. Sorry but I don’t have the angles of the 2 side walls for the sitting area. I know that’s a pretty rough explanation but with the things I’ve seen you make I’m sure you can make do!

 

 

Knathu121

Sun, 01/07/2018 - 15:43

I don’t have my cut list anymore but rough dimensions are as follows;

 

Height - 23.5”

width 43.75”

Depth - 12”

 

I tried making dimensions to account for each box on the lower level to be 10x10 and the boxes in the middle to be 12” high and 10 inches wide. I wanted the seat to be at least 20” but I miss calculated the angle cut length and my seat is less then 20”. I can’t remeber the angle I used for the walls (sorry!) but I wanted to make sure that the top shelf was wide enough to put stuff on it. I know this is a rough explanation but based on the incredible stuff you make I’m sure you can work it out and make some pretty awesome plans!

Twin Farmhouse bed

Submitted by mamato4 on Wed, 05/04/2011 - 22:45

Our first project! Love this website Ana, Thanks soo much!!

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$180.
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
I used almost the darkest blue paint out there, paint slats or stain before you put together...we learned that the hard way.
Recommended Skill Level
Beginner

Coffee Station Cubbies

Submitted by scokenour on Sun, 06/30/2013 - 19:29

I wanted to make something to organize the coffee supplies in my office breakroom, so I made these cubbies using the same basic concept as the Vegetable Bins. I used 1 - 8' 1x4, scraps for the angled pieces and 1/4 plywood for the back and front of cubbies. I was able to construct primarily with glue and nail gun. I chose "intermediate" level because you may need to make tricky cuts using your miter saw that beginner may not be comfortable with.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
$8
Estimated Time Investment
An Hour or Two (0-2 Hours)
Finish Used
vinegar/steel wool stain, paste wax
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate

Comments