Community Brag Posts

I'm a furniture builder now! This is actually the fourth project built from Ana's plans, but the first one complete and gifted. I bought my materials in the morning, and had it together by late afternoon. Now choosing colors, trim and do-dads to embellish was a whole nuther thing. I opted for chalk paint with a wax finish, and distressed her. She has mirrors on both sides as well as two, double hooks for hats, belts and jewelry.

My grand daughter is one pleased princess. Me too! I'm proud of myself.

Thanks Ana for the terrific instructions, encouragement and education you provide.

We built this dog kennel as a donation to a fundraiser for our favorite dog rescue. It was auctioned off at the silent auction and all the money went to the dogs! :)

We used cheap furring strips for the majority of the project. We also had some leftover beadboard so we used that for the sides & back panel. We painted the base antique white and made a nice top out of some scrap lumber & old hardwood plywood. It took about an afternoon to assemble but another few days to sand and paint. We finished it while all 4 sides were separate to make it easier and it was still a pain to paint. This would be a great project to have a paint sprayer because it is sooo hard to avoid drips with this design.

The whole piece cost us almost nothing to make and we love how it turned out. We need to make ourselves one for our dogs!

The best part of this project was seeing it go home to someone who loves it and all the profits go to the Basset Hound Rescue!

Thanks Ana for the plans we couldn't have done it without you!

My bed frame dimensions were 60 wide by 80 length. So that is the inside demension after assembly. My headboard posts were cut to 54". Headboard panels are 31.5" (11- 6" boards). My posts were made from combining two 2x4s together. I plan on mounting the metal bed frame to the inside of the bed rails.

We are going for a rustic look in our teen sons bedroom. He has some large books that will not fit onto his bookshelf so a pallet wall shelf seemed like a perfect solution.

This project literally took five minutes. If you don't have a sawsall it would probably take around 30 but still pretty quick.

Starting to get colder here in SC. I know the northerners will scoff at me but I'm a wuss when it comes to the cold... and I want my warm garage spot back. That means cleaning up my scrap wood and finishing the big projects that won't fit in my little project/craft room. So the past few weekends I have done a few scrap projects that had been on my mind for a while.

First was shelves for our oddly shaped walk-in-closet. Most of the wood was salvaged from my old dresser/armoir with a splash of scrap whitewood boards to finish it up. I love being able to see everything right when I walk in now.

Second is a simple tie rack for Mr. Lodise so he doesn't have to put them on a coat hanger any more. One more step to getting everything in the closet more visible.

Third is a holder for my hair dryer and straightening iron so they don't have to take up counter space anymore.

Best of all my car now fits in the garage again :)

My husband was able to build this no problem from the provided instructions! We used beadboard over plywood for the headboard and footboard. 

I built this as a place where my husband can store his keys and wallet. This table has nice, clean lines. The simple angles fit with the many pieces of Asian décor that we have.

Followed the plans closely. Used a roman ogee bit to add a decorative edge to the top. Used strap style hinges instead as well.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to use the under portion as storage or not, so I am leaving it unfinished until then. The plan was perfect for my house as the laundry room is relatively small. In order to make sure I didn't have to lift anything major in case the washer/dryer needed cleaning/repair behind them, I modified the plan to include 2 4" static wheels from the Home Depot. I am going to skirt the pedestal later, but needed it framed and functional for the dleivery of the washer dryer. instead of using 4x4 for the uprights, I laminated 2 2x4's and lapped the joints for additional strength. I also made the pedestal 22" total in hieght as I am 6' tall and wanted to minimize bending (spinal surgery 2 years ago)

Even the delivery men were impressed as I was able to pull the pedestal out for them to easily lift the washer and dryer on top of it and slide it back into place. The pedestal is perfectly stable and doesn't move at all during a wash cycle. I still plan on securing it to the walls once the drywall is completed with a pair of L brackets.

My first Ana project- took the spa bench and added doors. Thanks for the easy-to-use plans, Ana. Still learning, though- I ended up buying three sets of hinges before I was happy!

My summer-long project (admittedly, I was lazy about getting it done) was to make built-in bookshelves for our huge family room. For the bookshelves themselves I cobbled together plans from different sites, and modified them all to fit our space/needs, and the cabinets are built after Ana's cabinet plans, modified to be as thin in depth as the bookshelves. Doors on the cabinets were a pain, but they are also my favorite part of the whole shebang with their beadboard inserts. Moulding at top and bottom finishes out the look, and caulking in all the gaps helps give it cohesion.
I could not be happier with my built-ins. I feel like I have a library now, and it got all of our books out of boxes and onto shelves. Yay!

This entire project cost around $80-$100 because I acquired quite a bit of free wood off Craigslist. I also got wood from the scrap bin at Home Depot for great discounts. Since this would've likely cost near 1k to buy, I am quite pleased.
Anytime you are making projects without real plans, it take quite a bit longer and more mistakes are made. But, to have something completely customized to your needs and space is better than any price tag/time you can put on it!

Tools used: drill, kreg mini pocket hole jig, orbital sander, countersink bit, miter saw, jig saw, HPLV paint sprayer, clamps, circular saw

I built this pantry cabinet as gift for my son and daughter in law. Their kitchen doesn't have much storage space so this is what we came up with as a solution. I combined features I liked from a couple of Ana's plans. I wanited the piece to look a bit more like a piece of furniture than a cabinet.  It was built in 2 sections so that it is easier to move and position. The finish is an organge tinted stain with several coats of polyurethane for protection.