Storage Bench
![](/sites/default/files/20230106_151758_0.jpg)
Lessons learned.
![](/sites/default/files/20230106_151748_0.jpg)
![](/sites/default/files/20230106_145506_0.jpg)
Lessons learned.
Please forgive me for this for being a bit long....but i am excited!
Our daughter picked this beach hut bed to be her new bed that she would be getting for her 3rd birthday. Her older sister has a loft bed and was always climbing up so we liked the idea of it being lower for her. I had saved some pics from other sites and then showed them to her, she didnt want the girly house one's :( no she wanted the one i had actually saved for her brother. lol...
Anyway then i went hunting and could not believe my luck when i came across this site with this bed and plans!
My husband...ye of little faith didnt think we could do it but was willing to follow my lead and have a go!
This was our 1st ever time for builing ANYTHING!
And what a undertaking, however it all came together very smoothly and we are both so very proud of what we have been able to achieve.
Things we did a little different...
We altered the ladder on an angle to make it easier for her to climb (alas also for her 20mth old brother as well), also made the ladder upright supports x3 instead of x2, so the ladder now supports both our weights.(see pic) We made little window sills on each of the windows, added a book shelf inside as she is an avid 'reader' screwed in a light from you will know where. :) On the other 'open doorway' side which is against the wall we screwed on 2 x cross beams using 1x2 pine just for our own sakes to know that she cant fall from that side. We also added some dowell fixed with some saddle clips to hang the material from across the open section.
She has been using this bed for 2 weeks now with no problem.
You have made our daughter a very happy little girl,and parents (she is having day sleeps again now:)) because without your site we would not have known where to start. Thankyou very much.
Wed, 09/21/2011 - 09:27
Great job on your first build! We're in the process of picking a first bed for our daughter and this one is definitely in the running. It looks great!
Cindy from Indiana
Wed, 09/21/2011 - 21:39
Thankyou for your lovely comments. We are so very proud of how it turned out. Even better than we thought. Every time i look at it i think "wow, did we really do that" And yes it was our very 1st build. We now think that if we have done this as a 1st build then we can pretty much do anything....lol...and my to do list is filling up fast.
Thu, 09/22/2011 - 10:26
AMAZING!!!
I have been eyeing these plans for a very long time, unfortunately my kids are too small for this bed, I contemplated on making it for outside, as part of a tree house of some sort, but never got around to it. You did such an amazing job, I am truly jealous and hope one day I can have this at my house! Love it!!!!
Thu, 09/29/2011 - 09:58
Seriously, how cute is that!?!? I wish my girls were younger! Absolutely LOVE this! Great job!!!
Fri, 09/30/2011 - 05:11
Thankyou for your kind comments, little Madison is still loving her bed, sitting up in there during the day playing with her dolls and reading her books, and yes still having a day sleep...loving it....we are in the middle of a teenager loft bed with a mini robe walk-in underneath for one of our other daughters. Not as cute as this but will post pics when done. :)
Sun, 10/02/2011 - 04:33
What a nice job, i am jealous. Looking at the job you have done and you say it's your first job is unreal. Looking at your children please send me your husband and i will look after him. lol you are one lucky gal
Tue, 10/04/2011 - 03:35
Yes i agree with reno queen. Send me your hubby i will pay more haha.Where do i find one like that ? They don't make them anymore haha .What a nice job. This is the best i have seen so far. Would you build and send to New Zealand? How much? i am willing to pay freight etc. Regards Janelle
Sat, 10/08/2011 - 02:56
Great job and yes i second that, send him to me ,if he is the one in the pic he is rugged .lol top job
Thu, 10/13/2011 - 15:25
Yes ladies that is my husband in the pic and yes our children are simply gorgous....As far as builing this bed for you Janelle, customs would not allow it because of the wood. We sometimes race jet boats in NZ and the boats can not have 1 speck of mud, dirt or any natural by product on it anywhere. Yes they can spray it with chemicals but would you really want your child sleeping in it then?? So sorry about that. It really wasnt to hard, my hubby just followed my lead (re:I told him what to do! lol) at the time we only had very basic tools, and we managed great. It was more the hours it took, but also having said that we could only work after kids were in bed or weekends.
Sun, 02/26/2012 - 18:11
Hi my husband and I are about ready to start building. Our daughter is turning 6 in a few months- and saw someone made this 3 year old. We have 8 ft ceilings - but we are adding a slide out the one side (for fun) and would like to make the height of the loft bed a bit higher - anyone do that ?
How will plan change much?
Sun, 02/26/2012 - 18:11
Hi my husband and I are about ready to start building. Our daughter is turning 6 in a few months- and saw someone made this 3 year old. We have 8 ft ceilings - but we are adding a slide out the one side (for fun) and would like to make the height of the loft bed a bit higher - anyone do that ?
How will plan change much?
Thu, 04/26/2012 - 13:11
Hello. I have printed out the plans for this beach hut and I plan on starting this weekend. This will be my first build. Something in the plans doesn't make sense to me. In Step 2, it shows the floor supports for each side of the hut being 20" long, but then in Step 3, it shows the length of the pieces for the windows as only 18" long. Wouldn't they need to be the same width?
Thu, 03/14/2013 - 15:54
Did you lower this bed and if so what was the total height. I love the adjustment made to the stairs. Great job!
This was my first in not just painting but actually building what I was about to craft!!!! I messed up a few times but had a blast and have already started my next build :)
Tue, 10/01/2013 - 12:28
This turned out great! I love it in your space!!! Thanks for sharing.
The Classic Collections was exactly what we were looking for when we decided to re-do our home office.
We needed a piece that served two purposes, a Wine bar and a record stand. I used a plan from the site and altered the dimensions to fit records and wine holders. I used thick wood up top and stained and lacquered it. I added a few extra shelves for glasses and so forth, and put in the wine holders. That ended up taking a little extra on this build but I had a great time doing it!
My step son, who is in college, comes to stay with us some weekends and we don't have a lot of room in the rental we are in. So I built a place for him to put his things and sleep, during his visit. This was an easy and quick build using 1x10's for the frame and 1x2's for the face frame. Being 1x10's it's super low profile and doesn't make the room feel much more crowded, so that is a huge bonus! I built it around the dimensions of this floor bed/sofa that I found on amazon.
Here's a Youtube Video of me building it, if you want to see how it went together.
I really like this design, because I feel it would make a great addition to a guest room, bonus room, dorm room, shared room and more. I ended up attaching it to the wall as you will see in the video because it will be tippy if not. Hope you like it!
The Kids Adirondack Chair. I love these little chairs! Simple and easy to build. This one was a birthday present for my niece's daughter. Read more about this project on my blog.. Thanks Ana!!
Easy to follow, we made in a weekend. We tweeked our dimensions a bit but otherwise pretty straight forward. We ended up staining half and leaving other half natural then put a varnish over the entire shelf. Turned out pretty neat with the two tones.
I modified the "standing high chair" from Ana's plan and from Blame Crayons blog post...so, I did a little freestyling. The standing platform is adjustable height, just like Ana's. My friend asked me to make this for her mom for Christmas.
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 08:36
I lovel your modification to add the entry-step to Ana's plans. I think I will try to re-create that myself, any special tips on adding that extra step?
For my daughter's birthday, I used the plan from your site, but I substituted 1x6 poplar for the top, rather than the 2x6's. Turned out so well that my other daughter wants one as well.
My husband and I had worked on this bed together, and we are so happy with it! We went with taller side tables that we purchased, and just stained the wood instead of painting it.
This was a fun cute project to start with. My husband assembled it (though I wanted to do it he didn't let me). I used spray paint. Though I wish I had made it with a bit sturdier wood or maybe used wider sizes. but overall this turned out well and the kids LOVE IT! thanks Ana!
When I presented my husband with the plans for this piece that is inspired by "Restoration Hardware Printmaker’s Sideboard," I thought he would tell me I was crazy! But he looked over the well-written and thought out plans Ana provides and set out to tackle this cabinet. It turned out BEAUTIFUL! We are so happy with it and can't wait to decorate around it now.
Sun, 10/06/2013 - 17:31
Lovely! I want so badly to make this! But I've got a line of projects that must be done first. So I must be patient...
Thu, 10/10/2013 - 10:45
I know what you mean about line of projects! This one got bumped to the front:) And now lots of little things to do. Finding this website was a blessing (for me!) and a curse (to my husband). haha! I told him I get to build the next project!
I slightly modified the plans on your site and built this bed for my daughter last year and it is holding up great.
I took the basic idea of the Rustic X Console. Raised it to countertop height so I could use it for three stools. I also added a shelf so people sitting on the sectional could put drinks right behind them. Added a charging station to that shelf as well. Topped it with a live edge black walnut slab. Finally, I didn't use the X because the table was too high and the base was too narrow to make the X work. I used a tablesaw to cut a grove in the legs and then put a 1/4 plywood panel.
We modified our plan by use a router on the edges and stenciling the top. We used pine. We left our wheels the original industrial metal .
**This is one sturdy table and easily serves as an ottoman with large groups .
This was my first project ever! I was very happy with the way it came out! I just did a little adjusting to get it the size I wanted =) Cushions for a decent price was very hard to find, I ended up going to walmart and I actually really like them.
It took me a while to complete as I have a little one (turned a yr the wknd I finished) and only worked at night and during naps!
Tue, 10/08/2013 - 19:12
This looks really nice, good job. Isn't it fun to build just what you want!
My first woodworking project ! Already planning others from the ana white site.
This King Size Farmhouse Bed turned out better than I could've imagined! It did take a lot of patience, time, and even left a few bruises but, a few months out, I think I would do it all over again!
We chose the Farmhouse King Bed Plans by Ana White and I read everything I could about it. This would be the biggest project I'd ever done. Through reading comments, I found the DIY Farmhouse Bed - King Version by Ed Hart. He had a few modifications I liked so I bought his plan.
Then, I set to work!
We have a Naturepedic mattress and built this bed to its specifications, including bed slats no more than two inches apart.
Check out this post to see the modifications we made to the Ana White Farmhouse Bed: https://sunshineandrainydays.com/king-size-farmhouse-bed/
Thank you, Ana, for the inspiration to build!
My first project with raw wood and power tools! All I have is a circular saw and electric sander, but it went really well. It took about 3 days because I couldn't work straight through (silly life and all it's appointments!). Thanks for laying out all the prep work with your instructions, Ana!! My next project is a cubby shelf for towels.
Tue, 10/11/2011 - 21:29
What a nice change! Great job. You should be proud of yourself!
Comments
Ana White Admin
Sat, 01/07/2023 - 10:27
Looks awesome!
Every project has opportunities to learn, way to go!