Community Brag Posts

From the Fire Station Loft bed, this was modified to accomodate a full bed underneath; essentially making it a bunk bed.  The bed underneath is an Ikea Fjellse. The footboard was made to look like a fire engine backing into the fire station.

I built this outdoor sofa out of Blackwood. I tweaked Ana's plan to include a backrest and a support in the front, as my planks are only 23mm thick.

Built this as a garden shed so I had to modify the front into a small 26 inch door.

My shed size was 5 x 4 as I had limted space.

My roof is angled at 10 degrees.

I used my new Kreg jig for the door that was fun!

Frame is from 2 x 3's.

The total cost for me was under $70 as I salvaged the cedar, 1 x 4's, roof felt, and shingles.

Paint for the trim was a $5.00 oops.

I am more than pleased with the outcome.

I built the potting table first before this.

So this was my second item to build and I really enjoyed it.

Can't remember much more about how I built it as I started it a while back.

This site is really amazing.

These chairs are fairly easy to make. The side boards were the hardest part.

Potting bench with a few modifications to fit our space.

Bill N

I used the armless chair plan, and altered the one armed plans to make two chaises. Then I increased the size slightly to accommodate the 25x25 pillows I bought. This took about 12 hours with one person working. I am super proud of it! Finished today, and will eventually stain after the wood has dried out a little. Thank you, Ana, for making straightforward plans that gave me the confidence to do my first woodworking project!

Andrea in Michigan

I built these chairs last summer, they came out amazing! Everybody loves them! Thank you Ana. I also built the sofa for my sun room. Pictures to come.

As part of my backyard overhaul I've added an outdoor shower and chalkboard against the wall of the house. There's also a small sand pit and deck area, so the shower comes in handy to wash the dirty feet. I had a few pallets sitting under the deck for years and finally put them to use. Some cuts here and there and some sanding and they look great. For the floor mat I just cut the pallet piece you can see in one of the photos in half and framed it with treated 2x4". The chalkboard is a plain sheet of 2x4' project board primed and painted several coats with flat black exterior paint. I used this over the 'chalkboard' paint because it's exterior grade. It works great, even better than chalkboard paint imo. The frame is made of the cut slats of the pallet, just glued and nailed on. The fence also is a cut pallet. I just made random cuts about half way through on varying angles which resulted in two mirrored halves of the pallet. They fit the space perfectly. I love the random look of it and may give it some paint eventually.

I'm a high school teacher and like flexible seating. I needed something that is very sturdy and can take a beating from teenagers. I used Ana's "2x4 Outdoor Sofa" plan, made it longer, added some extra braces, and here it is! My new classroom couch.

My daughter needed a loft bed to give her more floor and storage space in her bedroom. I modified the original plans to fit her twin XL bed, which is 5 inches longer than a regular bed. I also added an extra 2x6 across the back two posts for extra support.

Cutting and assembly was relatively easy; I glued every joint and used pocket holes per the instructions. I sanded using 80, 120 and 220 grit. The finish is a Minwax "parchment" water-based stain, with 3 coats of Polycrylic. All pocket holes were pre-drilled prior to finishing.

I assembled the platform and footboard in the garage and brought it into the house as a single unit; same with the headboard. I brought in the rails separately. To assemble, I marked 1 1/4 inches from the outside post edges, and used wood scraps/clamps to align and hold the rails while securing them with pocket hole screws.

My daughter's mattress is very high; it rises only about an inch below the top of the top rail. So I build a bed-length shelf which also had the added benefit of providing a little more height/protection against her rolling out of bed in the middle of the night (see pics).

In all, I was surprised at how long this took me. Probably because I'm a novice and this was only my 2nd project. The totals are:
- Cut and assembly: 14 hours
- Sanding: 25 hours
- Finishing: 2 days

After finishing, I left all pieces in the garage for 5 days to air-out before bringing into the house.

Total cost the lumber was $125, 1 qt stain @ $13, 1/2 gal Polycrylic @ $50 per gal, and $20 hardware for a total of just over $200.

12/16/14 UPDATE:  Posted a plan for this project, linked in this brag post

This is a variation of the Easy Jewelry Box plan. The completed measurement is 11” wide, 14 ½” high, and 7 ½” deep. This one has a center “tower” with 5 drawers 5 ½” wide, and a wide overhang on the top and bottom, which covers the 2 side doors that open out for hanging necklaces. The drawers are lined with embossed felt, and the drawer bottoms and insides of doors are covered with sticky-back felt. The 2 removable ring drawer inserts are some scraps of 1” foam, covered with scraps of the sticky-back felt, with slits cut into the foam with a utility knife (cut the slits into the felt first, attach it to the foam, then cut the slits into the foam). Cost breakdown: antique brass knobs: $28, sticky back & embossed felt: $14, hooks: $15, wood: $35, hinges: $7, paint: $5. (already on hand: finish nails, glue, sandpaper, left over stain & poly) . I worked on this a few hours a day over a long weekend, probably about 12 hours total. Finishing took most of this time, the build was actually only a couple of hours.

A fun project to make ending with a functional product to boot!  I went all out making sure that each truck/shelf would coordinate with each grandson's theme/decor in their bedrooms.  Chase, who will turn one next month, has a super heroes/comics theme for his room.  Therefore, I selected Captain America as the star of the big rig shelf.  Red, white & blue paints, some wooden shapes and some creativity and Captain America was ready for Mr. Smiles.