Community Brag Posts

My entry was filled with a huge armoir/bar, that made the entire house feel cramped...So, I moved it and replaced it with this beauty!

I wanted a shelf, so I used a 1x12 trimmed with 1x2's for this.
I modified and went with 5 drawers instead of 4...I have 5 boys, this way they each get a drawer for their stuff.
I also alternated finishes on the top boards to create a striped look.

Notice something missing? The hardware for the drawers! I cannot make up my mind on which ones to buy. ;) Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I like the straight lines of this piece, so I want the pulls/knobs to be somewhat contemporary.

Was so easy with ANA instructions and the results were an a amazing accomplishment!

I used ideas on your site for inspiration for my current back yard shed.  I did a lot of research before choosing one.  If you've never built a shed before from scratch, it can be a little daunting, especially if its a larger shed.  I also documented my whole process from the laying the foundation to putting the last nail on the shingles.  Here's the link for you to my blog post:

http://www.justmeasuringup.com/blog/the-shed-project-phase-1

It was a lot of fun for me, and a huge wow factor to impress my friends ;)  I store everything in there from my riding mower to all my patio furniture in the wintertime.  It's such a useful thing to have.

I spent around $1500 and it took about 2 months to complete (working on it while having a full time job - otherwise would have finished a lot faster)

Great wood bar stools!

by Dennis

I needed a large box to use at the base of my stairs for shoe storage, so this is it! I made 2 compartments, and put handles on the side for easy moving. Being solid wood, this thing is heavy and a lot larger than it looks.

I wanted to do Bri-wax as a test on a smaller project before possibly messing up a larger one. Bri-wax advised me to wait a week to let the stain 'cure' prior to using the product. The stain was beautiful prior to using Bri-wax, but didn't look nearly as good when the wax took off some of the stain and kind of changed the color. I love the look of the Bri-wax finish, but probably won't be using it again (unless the finish has been cured for a long time). Bri-wax also told me not to use it over varnish or poly, as it would damage that surface. I would be interested in hearing from you guys who have used it successfully on top of other finishes.

My dad built this for my daughter.

My son needed a coffee table to help him with his physical therapy. I didn't want to buy some plastic piece of shit from the store so I made him one. He loves toy cars, and in addition to the custom stain work I added a feature that will hopefully encourage him to stand and play. It can be removed when he grows up and he'll have something hand built to remember my love for him.

I did a step by step and posted to Reddit. Here's the link =)

https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/4vhbyl/diy_shitty_on_purpose_coff…

The herringbone back was the most time consuming but the wife loves it. Will update after it's finished.

I found a place on the Naval base here that is a storage for broken pallets and other wood scraps. I picked up a variety of pieces and decided to make an endtable. My sizes of boards are all different than the ones in the plan, but the overall look is about the same. I created my own 2x2s by cutting 2x4s in half. All of the wood was free and I used Kiwi brown shoe polish for the finish. My drawers are actually a door with hinges. I have two shelves on the inside.

I saw this project posted online and thought it would be a nice improvement to our patio since we just added fire pit benches this would be a great addition instead of dragging the old plastic cooler out every time we entertained.

Once I got all the cuts done it was like putting together a big puzzle. For the most part I did this one my own on the floor of the garage. If you have the space I would suggest doing all the screwing together atop a table and off the floor.

I was very happy with the outcome and I look forward to finding more projects here to add to our backyard.

Super proud of these! Made them on my own while 7 months pregnant! Wonderful plan! Thank you!!!  

I have been wanting to build a workbench but just hadn't decided on a plan. I stumbled across one here and decided to go for it. It was easy to build, easy to follow the plans. I had fun building it and I'm super happy with out well it came out. This is my first big project and it's only my 3rd thing I've made.

The only deviation from the plan that I did was that I used 3/4" plywood for both shelves instead of just one. And I only did this so that I wouldn't have to buy a second piece of plywood. And I used 3" screws on the whole thing.
Also... I cut 3" off the height so that I could add wheels and it be the same height.

$18 - 2"x4"s
$ 7 - screws
$24 - Plywood
So about $49

The wheels... well... if you go to Lowes... I spent $30 including the bolts. Then I went to Harbor Freight and got some different ones for under $20. So I'd shop around on that. Or... you don't need them if you don't want them.

Our first build! After finding a vanity top we loved for our DIY bathroom renovation, my husband and I went in search of a chunky, open base with simple lines and a shelf on the bottom. Nothing at the store appealed to us, and I had been talking about all the projects I wanted to build from Ana's site for weeks, so we decided to try the Simple Open Farmhouse Style Vanity. We would just add a shelf to the bottom and omit the top!

This was a really easy plan to scale for our sink, and because we were not doing the top we could make all the necessary cuts with a chop saw.

The only purchases we had to make for the base were screws, slats and a 12-foot-long 4×4 that the guy at the store cut into four 36″ pieces for me. It’s pressure-treated lumber meant for outdoor use, but it was on sale and they didn’t have any other 4x4s. The rest of the materials were 1x4s and 2″ screws that we already had on hand.

For the bottom shelf, we just duplicated the spacers, aprons and skirts from the top, and placed wide slats over that. They look crooked in the photo because they haven't been glued on yet, and using the baskets makes them shift around!

With the vanity top in place the counter height is a little over 37 inches. We are tall people, so this is a tall sink! Perfect for our first build. Thanks Ana!

Very straightforward build. Lowes didn't have many 2x4's that didn't have some sort of warp or bend in them so the bottom shelf had to be trimmed slightly to fit. 

There is a sweet spot with the vinegar/steel wool that takes some mixing and testing to find. To strong a solution and the wood turns nice and brown to weak and it's a hardly noticeable light grey. My advice is get a strong 3-4 day old solution and mix 50/50 with vinegar and test on scrap, wait and hour or so to dry and adjust the mix from there until you love it. 

I finished with minwax polishing wax.

My chicken coop!

We have been sleeping on a inexpensive platform bed for the last 7 years and after falling in love with this website (thank you Ana, I am constantly bragging and showing your website to others) I decided to build us a farmhouse bed as my first project. I started this project back in October 2011....yes it took much longer than expected, but I have 2 kids a husband (so make that 3), a full time career in the military and a house to maintain. That and we got the news I am pregnant back in Nov!!! The head board and foot board did not take long and luckily we had a very mild winter here in NC (boo to no snow though). I decided to save some work and money by reusing the slats and hardware from my old bed to avoid buying more wood or having to get a box spring for our mattress. Unfortunately, that was my huge delay, I cut and stained my sideboards, bought what I thought would be great bed brackets and found myself with a space that was to wide for the slats and on top of that my husband managed to loose one of my brackets. Needless to say, months of sleeping on a mattress on the floor with my head board and foot board on either wall mocking us every night due to my overwhelming frustration and fear of having a colossal headboard fall on me while trying to work. I called upon the assistance of a good friend of mine (Christie you are amazing!!) to come over while my husband was out of town in May (I figured this would be a good time to surprise him, plus keep his opinions from making things take longer). So lots of how the heck are we going to do this and finding out the bed frame brackets I purchased were not as strong as they appeared (they broke!!). We got some new wood for the sides and some long bolts to get everything together and worked a whole Saturday to get it complete. Added a few L brackets to get rid of the wobble and its sturdy as a rock! It may have its flaws, but I love it and don't regret any of the time and stress it took to build it. I now have a beautiful comfortable bed to sleep in every night to patiently wait for my third little girl to arrive. It should last us for a very long time especially since I made sure that it could come apart and go back together for any future moves the military may take us.

I cannot wait to start my next project.....and hopefully it wont take as long this time ;).