Community Brag Posts

Very easy and fun project.

This tower is from two or three plans found on Pinterest as well as the plans on Ana White.  The materials are from 2 x 2 or 1 x 5.  Length of legs are 34 inches, all cross members are 17 inches  basically your cutting list is :

Quantity         Size                             Description

4                      2 x 2 x 34                     Legs.  You can change this to taller or shorter.

14                    2 x 2 x 17                     Cross members

3                      1 x 6 x 17                     Safety sides

1                      1 x 6 x 16 7/8              Door (optional)

3                      1 x 6 x 16 7/8              Floor

2                      1 x 2 x 17                     Floor Braces

1 set                                                   Hinges (Optional)

1                                                          Latch (Optional)

1                      ¾ x ¼ x 3                     Door stop (Optional)

Distanced between parts-I used Ana Whites dimensions.

Basic unit.

1. Cut, sand, rout, sand, to size.Do not rout the floor as yet.Save that for later.
2. Drill Holes for fasteners on the cross members.I used the Kreg unit for this.Be careful as the 2½ screws can come out on the finished side (the point) if you tighten too much.
3. For the Safety sides, drill using the Kreg unit.
4. Finish sanding.I finished with 220 grit.
5. I stained before I assembled.Worked great.If you are going to spray paint, assemble and paint.See floor assembly now if you are going to paint.
6. Assemble is easy.Use glue if you want.Fasten 2 cross members to the legs at the top.You now have 4 legs and 2 cross members fastened but do not have cross members fastening all four legs together.They are two separate units.
7. Now measure for the cross members for the floor and attach.Install the top cross members first and work your way down.
8. If using the safety sides, attach these.Install the door if you want at this time.I waited unit I finished spraying the finish to install the door.Install the doorstop when you want.
9. Now attach the remaining cross members to form the basic unit.
10. Admire what you have accomplished.

Floor Assembly

1. I did not use the Kreg drill to assemble the floor.I used glue and 1 ¼ inch nails to assemble the floor.
2. Lay the floorboards on the cross member as if the unit was finished. Scribe a light line on the bottom of the floorboards next to the cross members the floor is sitting on.
3. Remove the floorboards and turn upside down.Put some glue between the boards and clamp.Lay the braces near the line you drew about 1/8 to ¼ inside the lines.This is important-you must have wiggle room for the floor to wiggle.
4. Fasten the braces to the floorboards.After the glue dries, check to see that it fits.
5. Sand, rout and sand the floor.
6. Stain the floor.

Final Finish

1.         I love rattle can finishes.  Deft is my favorite.  Use what you like.  Take your time.

My son and I build these shelving units as a side hustle. We’ve built dozens over the past few years, this was a solo build this AM as he was working at his day job.

Tip: use clamps to hold the pieces of wood together before which put in the vertical supports.

Nice little corner unit.

I made this for a friend whose son is turning 1. I wanted him to be able to sit in the seat without falling out, so at first I just planned on making arm rests (thus destroying the stack element, but he's an only child haha!). I had an extra piece of 1x8 laying around that turned out to be just long enough, and some hinges and a sash lock.

in the first picture, the desk is screwed on. I ended up changing it so he could use the desk longer! little legs can only squeeze into spaces for so long :)

Long story short, for this project I took all of the measurements for the original stackable chair and took 2" off to make it more appropriate for his size, EXCEPT the front legs, which I actually added 5 inches to. The front legs then stuck up from the seat about 5 inches, and i attached a 10.5" 1x2 from the front leg to the back leg on each side. Hinges on one side of the 1x8 board, sash lock on the other, and voila! desk-chair!! and it fit my 15 month old AND my almost 3 year old! granted, it was a tight squeeze for the 3 year old, but he LOVES the desk and I'm planning on finding a way to convert his stackable chair into one :)

Love these two projects in getting my son's room organized, and he loves having a desk for his lego creations and his "projects". We used poplar for the sawhorses that we had cut from family land and planed down ourselves, then purchased a premade project panel for the top. Used a paint sprayer for the blue and finished the top with Rustoleum stain in Wheat with several coats of Rustoleum Satin poly. For the toy shelf we just purchased pine and finished with the same stain and poly.

Loft bed made from the camp loft plans. I used 4x4s for the legs for extra support.

My husband and I made these for our grandchildren for their bedrooms at their new house. Same plan, just personalized each one.

We started with a play table from Ikea, added a 1X3 lip around that and then built a train table top to the same dimensions as Thomas the Train tables, trimmed it with 1X2 and glue thin felt on the base. I built cleats uner the top to fit snuggley over the base table. The train top can be lifted off and the under table is perfect as a leggo table when my grandson is old enough for leggo.

Months ago while browsing online I stumbled across a cool coke bottle opener. I had no idea what I would do with it but I knew I had to have it! So after months of procrastination I finally decided it was time to use it.

I found a cheap esky at kmart and decided that I would be able to make an esky stand and use the coke bottle opener on it. So after a trip to Bunnings for some new timber I got to work. It only took about a week to get it done including staining it.

I am one of 11 children. My parents purchased a new home this summer that had a huge dining room.  I new exactly what I wanted to do for them for Christmas. I collaborated with several of my brothers to build them the tables and benches. I used sketchup to modify the design and then to create a cutlist.  My brothers and I worked on the project over several weeks as time permitted. The results are 2 tables that measure 14'4" long and 44 inches wide and benches to match. All the material was purchased at Menards. 

Old bunk beds were only ¾ width and dark brown. So the room was dingy. Really like how these turned out. I painted the underside of the top bunk white to keep it lighter. Thanks for the plans!

Karen

this is a much smaller version of the $55 Fancy "x" Desk. We did not have the space for the larger version and my son liked that one best, so this is as close as I could come. I also made him the Higher Chair. He is six and very tall with it, but a standard height table and chair still make him sit low enough that writing and working on projects can be troublesome. He loves this, and we had fun working on it together.

My little boy asked for a "big boy bed with a ladder", and we wanted to make good use of space in his room, so I built this loft bed. I continued the 2x4's down one side instead of adding stairs, and raised the height of the bed a bit. I added space in the middle of the ladder section for him to have room to climb in safely. I also added a rope swing on the bottom, where he now spends much of his days looking out his window.

Awesome plans for the farmhouse table. Very easy to follow and the pictures were very helpful.  It took longer due to my schedule but the top took about four day to poly. The bench is also from Ana White. 

I wanted a table that would double as a file cabinet of sorts - so I made this end table with an opening big enough for my file box and the right height for my couch.

The top of the table and the lower shelf and made from pickets from a picket fence that was taken down and the rest was from leftover 2 x 4 s from other projects around our fixer-upper.

Picnic Table that Converts to Benches

After living in a house with a fireplace for 7 years, we recently moved to a house without one. When unpacking the Christmas box, our boys asked where we would hang our stockings this year and that got me thinking about how much I'd like a mantle for the holidays. After searching online, I found Ana's plan (of course she has one!) and scaled it down to fit the one small open wall in our living room. I didn't trust myself to cut an even arch, so I used an idea from another brag post and added architectural elements with leftover 1x2 & 1x3 to a 1x10 (which was a better size for our scaled down version) Lastly, I knew I wanted a chalkboard backing, but having no scrap plywood, I covered a large piece of cardboard with chalkboard contact paper and tacked it on the back before installing. Super happy with how it turned out and look forward to using it for many years to come!