Community Brag Posts

We remodeled our basement and added a master bathroom. The vanity space we had needed a custom vanity. We saw the Balin Console Table here and thought it would work nicely. It does! The four 12x12 drawers hold everything we need to use and keep discrete and the storage space underneath works nicely for extras that need to be away but quickly accessed.

These were the inspiration pieces for the 1-Board cedar desk accessory set plan. These were made entirely of scrap wood. These sets are all painted, they will be gifts for the girls at work.

The wood for these is some 3/8" plywood (crate and pencil cup sides), 1x2 (bottom of business card holder and ends of pencil cup), some 1/2" x 1 1/2" craft board (sides of paper clip trays, business card holder), 3/4" plywood (bottoms of paper clip trays), some small squares of Wainscoat paneling (sides of gray pencil cup), some 1/4" plywood (bottom of pencil cup), some 1" strips of some old painted lauan (old project, pulled apart and the wood is being repurposed) and a couple of little pieces of 1/2" x 3/4" S4S (fronts of business card holders).

You can see the mishmash of different materials in the shot of an unfinished set, and also the stack of them waiting in the wings on my work table (it's starting to look like a Jackson Pollock painting :) heehee)

All the paints and materials were left overs from other projects. I hadn't decided on the finishes yet while I was building. These would be even easier to make if I had finished all the pieces first!

It was fun building these, it's great to be able to take something that may have gone in the bin, and make it into something lovely. I'm hoping the girls like these!

I've got a cube drawer plan in the works (a 1-board cedar with 2 drawers, and also have measurements for a 3-drawer from 3/8" thick craft board and 1/4" plywood, like the one on the table). I'll get to those soon.

Followed the original plan but substituted branches from an oak tree for the X brace to give it a more "Adirondack" look.  Geneously sprayed the branches with a clear polyurethane coating to seal the bark.

Enjoyed building this with my son.  Thank you Ana.

Built this a little smaller - only 15" deep and 42" wide for use behind the couch with multiple functions - laptop desk, dining room buffet table, and behind-the-couch-set-things-on table. Love it!

Tricky parts - the drawers. Because I changed the dimensions, I built the drawer box to fit my new dimensions and installed it. Then, I cut the sides of my drawers 10" deep (the smallest drawer slides I could find and a perfect fit). I laid the Hettich ball bearing drawer slides (from my local lumber and cabinet supplier, not big box) in the drawer box and trimmed down my drawer front/back until they fit nicely. If you're interested, it was 15 1/8" wide.

Nail gun is a must on this project!!! And remember to glue and use 2" nails.

I used the Kreg jig to build my drawers because I'm familiar with building drawers that way and feel comfortable getting them squared. I highly recommend the Kreg jig!

Then, I attacked it with my orbital sander until it was nice and smooth.

Love Ana's great patterns!

After living in the basement with our young children for the first few years after moving into our new home, we were ready to claim the master bedroom on the main level. We made it a winter project and re-did the whole room (good-bye lavender walls). We made the headboard from Ana's "Reclaimed Headboard" plans and one of the night stands from the "Kentwood Nightstand" plans! We love the final look and saved ourselves a TON of cash in the process.

We built this corner cabinet shelf in three days (only because it is over 100 degrees here, so we had to wait until 9:00 at night to work on it) for our office space. We love, love, love it and can't believe how nice my corner cabinet turned out. Only our second building project ever. :)

This Adirondack chair was done in pine. I followed Ana's plan, with only one modification ... went with a wider armrest. I thought the wider armrest would be handy for resting a drink.

There were a few of these floating around pinterest so I just looked at a few pictures and kinda winged it.  It is made almost just like Jamie’s except I used additional 2x2’s as you can see in the pics… I needed something to thread the bungee cords through.  I tied them off on the top and bottom.  I ordered a roll of pink bungee cord off of amazon.  This is actually two years old as you can see from how much it has filled up.  I also went back and added additional rows of bungee cord between all the others as stuffed animals were falling out.  Again, I winged it.  Having plans will make this build much easier!!

Our kitchen table buggered out so I decided to give making one a try. This was my first project. With seriously low funds available- I asked around to family for scrap lumber. Turns out the old lumber in the barn was black walnut! I had to plane and join it by hand so it took quite a bit longer to make.
I made the table one foot shorter and one foot wider. It seats 6 comfortably on the sides. Thank you so much for the plans!

My husband and I bought our California king Sleep Number bed several years after we bought our solid wood bedroom furniture and it was too big to use with the bed that came with our dressers. After our most recent move, I decided I would have to finally part with the dressers in order to have a bedroom set that matches, which was hard because I love the simple, classic style of the dressers. Then I found this site and the plans for the Cassidy bed.

To make the Cassidy bed work for us, I extended height of the side rails and footboard to the floor so that our little dog could not hide under the bed when it was time for her to go into her kennel. That means I had to buy two sheets of plywood, one for the headboard to be cut from and one for the footboard to be cut from, and I bought 1x16s instead of 1x12s for the side rails. I also adapted the entire dimensions of the bed so that it fits around the plastic platform of our Sleep number bed, so we did not need to use the 2x4 slats. In fact, we did not use any of the 2x4s in the plan. The side rails are hung on the scrap lengths of the plywood. Finally, we did not decorate the headboard with door shims.

In the end, the bed is incredibly solid and beautiful. Afterword, I finished it to match our dressers, which I had stripped, as well.

I built this saw several years ago using plans i got on the internet. At the time I needed a way to easily breakdown full sheets by myself. It is extremely accurate and easy to use. With the removeable wings attached it opens up to over 12'. It easily collapses for storage. I would reccommend this to anyone who does not have the room for a professional quality cabinet saw. It took me about a weekend to build. All parts were readily available at my local homecenter and hardware store. I since have gotten a cabinet saw and a tracksaw so sadly this saw now sits in a corner of my shop.

I needed an entry table and when I saw this plan for a bedside table I knew with just a couple of size modifications it would be perfect for me. It is a little taller and wider that Ana's plans, but other than that is true to her design. Couldn't be happier with the new table!

I wanted to make something using the plethora of scraps in my garage. I ended up making this shelf that calls for 1x6 pieces with 1x8's and I didn't even have enough for that so I cut down some 1x12 pieces and used those too. The long part of the shelf is actually two pieces screwed together using pocket holes. Check out my blog for more on this project!

We used 2x4s instead of 1x4s to make it more sturdy. We had to adjust some cuts accordingly. I bought the cushions at Target on clearance.

I am finally getting around to the final touches on the home we built.  I have a small pocket office that needed a sliding barn door.  I build this door out of 3/4 inch plywood framed with 1x2 oak boards.  I added planks of scrap plywood, 1x boards, and pallet wood.   I added some different colors to make for a fun industrial/modern look.  I made the barn door track out of steel purchased at a local metal shop and wooden wheels purchased online.