Community Brag Posts

I have some pallet wood and decided to make some Christmas trees.  They were really fast and easy.  I cut them at a 45° and just glued and nailed them together. 

This dollhouse was super easy to make! Harper (the doll) wanted an open concept living/kitchen, and that is the first floor. Second floor are the bedroom and bathroom. Top floor is the closet. The roof is made from 3.5" slats of luan glued together and painted with black sanded paint. Notice the baseboards and crown molding? My granddaughter helped cut windows out with a jig saw. I still owe my granddaughter a garage and patio with pergola, and kitchen appliances and chairs, but that will wait until summer when she can help craft/build them. 

Harper's bed is modeled after the farmhouse bed plans available on this site, but I used smaller scrap lumber. I wanted milk paint but was unwilling to pay the high price, so I bought a sample jar of antique ivory paint and watered it down. It turned out great!

My wife and I completed our son's loft bed in December for his Christmas present. My wife found this bed on Pottery Barn's website and I found these plans on Ana White. Everything was pretty straight-forward. It was a great project and we had a lot of fun building something together. We made a few mods to the plans like height and the railings. I really like how it comes apart for moving and our son loves sleeping up there! Protip: Be careful with the wood glue where the bed is designed to come apart. I got a little sloppy and had to do some hammering to disassemble for staining/sealing. Everything went back together very easily, though.

I have added a few things to make this workbench comprehensive. I added a paper towel holder, go Jo holder, cord hooks, electric bar,  and I enclosed the sides and put a door on the front and a hinged pegboard on the back which makes it able for me to store all of my tools and lock them up.

Using the plans for the modern table and simple stools, I made some modifications so it could be a bar height pub table and stools. The stools took the most time, with all the supports and keeping it level. The table was easy and I am super happy with the addition of the x's on the sides. I think it gives it a more professional look. Turned out that the angle I wanted them at wasn't possible on my miter saw, so I just had to mark the angles and cut with a jig saw. Screws were overkill for them and split the wood, so finishing nails did the job. The top was salvaged from an old ugly mdf topped coffee table. I sanded it a bit and with many coats of stain, achieved a match to the rest of the wood. Yay! Breakfast nook, complete!

This Rekourt dining table was a slightly more complicated build as it involved planning for removable extensions. I finished the base using a slightly off-white milk paint from Homestead House Paint Company (Canadian) with a distressed finish.

The tabletop was stained using a process of Orange Pekoe Tea solution, followed Steel Wool and White Vinegar solution, stained with Minwax's Dark Walnut stain and finished with an oil-based satin polyurethane from Varathane (Canadian subsidiary of Rust-Oleum).

To achieve the distressed and antiqued look on the base, I first applied stain on the edges of the base and on some middle parts where I knew I would sand down.  I then applied vaseline on certain spots that I had stained which created a beautiful effect of crackling paint. I then painted the entire base using VOC-free milk paint from the Homestead House Paint Company.  I even went over the vaseline spots. As soon as the paint dried, the spots that had vaseline, you could immediately notice that the paint had not adhered to the wood and it started cracking which made these wood pieces appear old and weathered.

For the extensions, I carefully cut out two openings on the first leg braces that touch the bottom of the tabletop.  These were JUST wide enough to allow two 2x4's to slide in and out with a bit of force, but without being too tight.  I made sure I left enough space for when the wood would expand.  The extensions are basically two 2x4's support pieces with a two 10" board planked together for addition breadboards. I used the same width of boards as the breadboards to maintain a consistent look.  I painted the support pieces white to contrast with the tabletop and to match the base.

I really enjoyed this one as it challenged me to modify the plan and come up with my own solutions/designs.
 

To see my other projects, make sure to visit my facebook page (only after you have spent enough time on Ana's site!)
www.facebook.com/simplyrustik

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Couldn't be happier with how this turned out! I was going for a rustic look so I beat up and scratched up all my boards before staining. I built with pine. I used walnut stain, then rubbed on a thin layer of black paint to achieve the color.

I tried a few combinations of paint and stain with scrap, then let my wife choose which color combo she loved best!

Made two of these fabulous kitchen helpers! One for my niece and one for my own active 2 1/2 yo daughter. She loves to bake with me and is always underfoot while I'm cooking dinner. This has made her so independent, she gathers her own supplies and pushes it around the kitchen to reach whatever she needs. Came out of the shower to find her scooping ice cream into her bowl for breakfast... Thanks Ana!

I built this in my spare time over a couple weeks.  I am really happy with the results.  It was easier to build than I expected, considering this was my first builf that has a drawer. I am wanting to build the storage bed, and I am trying to get a few practices in with drawer making first.  We draw names for Christmas in my husbands family and I drew the name of a wine lover.  I hope she likes it!

After painting this bench, I customized it by adding the child's name, as well as some other art to it using black acrylic paint.  Turned out awesome!

My son was finally ready for a big-boy bed and I found the plans for this bed on this website (ana-white.com). My husband and I built it w/o too many problems (this being our first attempt at building a piece of furniture). I stained it with "classic black" stain for a rustic look and my son, Max, picked the "cars, trucks, construction" theme and I ran with it. I installed some rope lighting and a closet rod (along with curtain clips and a bed sheet) for a super cool play area underneath. Along with some vintage signs, new signs, old license plates and automobile decals - my son now has a big boy room he LOVES!

Made in South Africa. Have a cutting list which takes into account our timber lengths.    I made it on my own on my dining room table. I did the tops and then transported it in a flat pack in my car to the farm (4 hour drive) and completed the assembly and placement there. I painted it with wood preservative before I started to ensure that it was all coated. As we were placing it on a covered veranda I stapled 100 micron black plastic to the base. It is perfect for outside as the lid ensures that all animals and other creatures are kept out of the sand. I used washed sand for the box as the kids using it are toddlers and it is a good idea to include bulk coarse salt to keep creepy crawlies out.

It is perfect for mommies to sit with their toddlers as the seats are a comfortable height!

I added black accent brackets to this project to give it a more unique feel. Love it!

Made these from plans found inside Ana's book. My wife loved them and so did my "little helper".

We built this bed for my three and a half year old son and gave it to him for Christmas. He and also my almost two year old daughter LOVE it! We did modify the plans a little: we added a handle for getting into the bed from the stairs and also added more slats for support.