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Our 6 month old is crawling now and we had to hurry up and baby proof the house. As an added bonus this dog proofs the down stairs at our house as well. The "barn door" side is made from 1x6 and the back is 1x3. The stain is called Gunstock which my wife is obsessed with. She is talking about staining every piece of wood in the house with the stain which I will NOT be doing. It took me around 4 days to finish it completely and put it together. I built the frame in about an hour. I let the wood glue set for a day, then stained one side. I gave that stain 24 hours to dry and stained the other side. Then I followed the same process to clear coat it. I clear coated it three times and sanded between each coat. I had bought a latch kit and installed it. I am very happy with how it came out.

Here's a dog bed that my boys and I built about a year ago (our very first build). Pretty basic but our pups love it! 

After searching all over the internet, we came up with this. I love how it turned out and how it change the look of the room.

Been a while since I had time to actually build anything worth posting about! My wife wanted some items for her Kindergarten classroom this year, so built several items, most inspired by the Farmhouse family.

This was my first build and I learned A LOT and watched A LOT of youtube diy videos. The main take-away from this project is not to build in the freezing cold if the finished project is for inside. I finished this project in below freezing temperatures and I noticed that the wood expanded (increasing slightly the gap between the finished boards on the top) when it was brought inside.

I built this from the original farmhouse table plans with no kreg jig although I did buy and use a pocket kreg jig to make the extensions. The main modifications were using 4x4s such as were used in the Country Living magazine spread that inspired this build and also making modifications to allow the addition of 15" extensions at each end of the table's bread boards.

My first challenge was figuring out how to build with the 4x4 legs instead of the 2 2x4s screwed together. In order to accomplish this i had to use a chisel to create the corner lip that the table top frame would sit on. I added photos of this so I hope it will help someone. Chiseling these 4 corners (one on each post) only took an hour or two and was so worth it for the look of the 4x4s. Just measure carefully and work carefully with a sharp chisel. I actually removed half the wood by sawing off the corner at a 45 degree angle. Remember when cutting your boards for the table ends that a 4x4 has different dimensions than 2 2x4s screwed together. Compensate for this in your cuts.

Another challenge was hiding the screws on the table legs and table top. I was leaving the finish natural so didn't want to use wood fill. I accomplished this by getting a countersink bit and then buying wooden dowels the same diameter. For these screw holes, after finishing screwing, I put a dab of wood glue in the countersink hole, inserted the dowel as far as it would go, used a fine hand saw to cut off the dowel flush with the table and then used a hammer to make sure the dowel was in tight and flush.

I had trouble figuring out how to attach the table top frame to the table legs with the long screws from the plans so I included a picture of this step. Its really easy but I was not able to use three screws as the plan calls for. I used two instead and it has been very solid. I used the long screws as proscribed.

Finally, I wanted to build extensions (2 2x8 boards kreg jigged together) so I could increase seating up to a max. of 12 persons, so I needed to cut out 2x2 gaps on the table ends. I also included a picture of these in place. To make room for the 2 2x2s that extend under the bread boards and table top to brace the extensions, I left out one of the 2x2 cross beams at each end of the underside of the table (the boards that the table top boards screw into).

I hope this is helpful to you!

I stumbled upon the Ana White website (and subsequently the farmhouse bed plans) via something I saw on Pinterest. I had been bugging my husband for bedroom furniture for years, but there were always other bills to pay. So when I came accross that BEAUTIFUL and super-inexpensive-to-build bed, you can imagine my excitement! I sent a link to my husband, who was equally excited, and a few days later we have this georgeous new bed!

Only things I bought were the wheels and dowels. ALL of the wood came from Home Depots "dryer boards". Those are the boards that come under bunks of lumber. The Home Depot stacks them up out back and gives them away to any one that wants them. Easy to make 1x2's and sometimes 2 x 2's. Last night I made some 2 x 3's. I only need 2 more to make Ana White's Lift Top Coffee Table

  After looking high and low for a solid wood bed that wouldn't break the bank for my daughter's 3rd birthday I discovered this site and the plans for the Twin Panel Bed.  The plans were easy to follow and I managed to build this entire bed with nothing but a mitre saw, a 4" electric sander, a power drill, and an R3 Kreg Jig. 

  I made a few modifications to the original plan, such as dropping the headboard height to 54", using baseboard moulding instead of  crown on the top of the headboard, and not using moulding around the feet of the footboard.  It was simply finished with 3 coats of a white melamine finish paint I had left over.

Easy to build, easy to customize, perfect for totes

We have been searching for 3 years to find a sectional that would fit around our fire pit. The only thing we ever found were two curved sofas that cost $5000 needless to say, we kept looking. When I saw the weatherly plans I knew that I could modify them to curve around the fire pit. The piece is made up of three sofa sized pieces and connected by two triangular pieces. The HARDEST part of this project was finding the dimensions for the triangle pieces. It took 2 days, my dad and brother throwing trigonometry formulas at me, and a lot of trial and error. After that it was easy! I combined the plans for the sofa and the loveseat, so the loveseat would have the ends on them.

From watching Olympic gymnast Simone Biles on the television to running, flipping and twirling all around our living room — my girls LOVE everything gymnastics. Both girls began competing with a local gymnastics club. Now that my oldest has moved up and is pretty serious about practicing her beam handstands and dismounts, she begged me to build a raised balance beam with suede covering so it would have a similar feel to her beam at the gym.

If you can relate to this, or even if you have a new gymnast (like my youngest in the pic above) wanting to improve their skills at home, then this comprehensive tutorial on how to build a raised balance beam is for you.

Full plans available on my blog The Creative 'Carr'penter. You can also find and pin this tutorial on Pinterest here.