Community Brag Posts

This is the first project of any kind I have built from the Ana White website. It is for my grand daughter (her 1 year birthday present)I built this project from the large covered sandbox plan. I followed it pretty close to the original plan. Cut the wood at my home and then packed it in my SUV to be assembled at the grand daughter's home 30 miles away. It turned out great. Mom and Dad just need to get the sand out there now and we are set to go...

Our home had a window seat that was only 14 inches deep and too small to sit on lengthwise. The before photo shows it just before I started the demolition phase. I had found the mudroom bench with easy drawers plan and decided it would work for our space. This was my first DIY woodworking project. I bought a Dewalt 12-inch compound bevel, sliding miter saw, a Kreg Pocket hole jig, and a Kreg straight-edge guide, and I plan to use them for future projects. I really enjoyed following the plans and building this project.

I got all of my wood at my local Lowe's by sorting through a lot of boards to find the best ones available. I found a nice-looking sheet of hardwood plywood for the top and sides. It was expensive ($84), but I wanted to try staining the project rather than painting it so that it would complement our flooring and other furniture in the room. I decided that if it didn't work out with the stain, I would paint over it.

A local Benjamin Moore paint store did a great job at finding a stain that would match and could be painted over if necessary. It only required one coat of stain to achieve the desired color, and I applied three coats of polyurethane over it.

We ordered a custom cushion with a cover to match the size of our new window seat with drawers. We, and our doggies, are very pleased with how the project turned out! Thank you, Ana White, for the excellent plans and video!
Gene St Germain, Poulsbo, WA

My husband and I worked together to build this project. We built the bottom in November 2010, then built the top hutch in January 2012. The project itself was easy to understand, but holding everything together and getting it square took a bit of work. We do not have a Kreg Jig or clamps, either of which would have been very helpful. However, we were able to complete it using our own best efforts, and we are very pleased with the results.

I was drooling over Ana's Faux Fireplace plan and it was perfect! Low profile, beautiful, and I knew I had to have it. We had a bunch of leftover 3/4" MDF and didn't want to spend any money on this project so we constructed the Faux Fireplace out of ripped MDF, a leftover 1x6, 1x2 and some quarter round! We made the faux beam top out of 1x4s as a slip cover that mounts to the wall.

We painted it with the off the shelf antique white paint by valspar that I had leftover and some "American Walnut" stain for the top. I painted the wall behind it in black chalkboard paint. This is the first piece of furniture we've made that pretty much serves NO function but I love it sooo much.

I put a basket in the opening with some christmas lights, burlap and chunks of 2x2s (I want some birch logs in there!) and they look pretty lovely when plugged in.

This is a craft table following the Modern Craft Table Plans.  There were some adjustments to increase the size of the table to fit the entire width of the window.  The final dimensions of the top turned out at 72" x 36" and fits my wifes cutting sheet perfectly on top with no overhang.  The project did turn out a little taller than anticipated (built it as if it was a standing workbench or elevated) so that posed an issue with the foot pedal but overall, the wife approves.  Future additions may be to add a drawer and attach a couple of adjustable lights, but on to other projects to improve her craft room.

This was my first build! I do enjoy this bed unfortunatly i found ana's blog just after i had built it. next time i build a bed i am totally building the farmhouse bed to match the farmhouse nightstand i also just built and will post. hopefully ana in her busy life will find time to post a plan for a farmhouse tallboy dresser to match!

Built this media center for the den. I had to resize all the pieces smaller to fit the console between two doorways.

I made this for my 2 year old daughter. She absolutely loves it! I'm glad I only made two levels, because she uses the top to play with her toys. The open bins make it easy for her to find what she wants to play with and she even likes to put things away. I had extra shiplap boards, so I used them for the back.   The back is a bit higher than the top, which helps keep toys from falling behind the bins.  I secured it to the wall with furniture straps screwed into wall studs.  The only tricky part of building this was figuring out the angle cuts. I built this about 6 months ago and it has held up very well. It is a very sturdy design!

This build was so simple and fun to make. Just like Ana stated in her video, it really only took me an hour to build. I plan to do many more projects that I find on Ana's website. This project still has a little bit more work to do like staining and sealing but will finish that on another day real soon.

This was the plan that started my addiction! We had just gotten new mattresses, and we needed a new bed frame. All of the furniture stores have dark stains, and we wanted something natural and bright. I was searching one night found your site, and that was it. A few changes, increased the height of the headboard and footboard, wanted a slight overhang on the top of each as well. Also added an additional 2x4 between the legs of the headboard for support.

This is a sofa table made from 2x6 framing lumber. I did the bottom shelves a bit different than the plan.

Built this using Ana's plans, thanks Ana!!!!

My third project from the Ana-white.com site. Our daughter's books and toys were outgrowing the toy box and small magazine rack we were using, saw this plan, no brainier. It led me the the land of nod website, to see the real deal, and I liked the version with the closed top better, so I modified the plans to fit my needs. Added some trim and oak veneer for the edges, a little stain, and waa laa... Found some boxes at lowe's, perfect fit. We'll move it into her room after I build a new media console for the living room

My wife wanted a farmhouse dining room table for our new house, I wanted to get into woodworking so these plans were a perfect fit. Bonus was adding a few tools to my collection! Revised plans to two pedestals and shortened about 2 feet. If I were to do over I would have stained and poly'd separately, but I tried to save steps because I was finishing inside the house and didn't have time for separate steps before leaving town. Ran into a few hiccups along the way but both my wife and I are happy with the end results.

We've built so many of these coffee tables, but this one has got to be my favorite. Isn't the stain so dreamy?

I think the biggest thing about this coffee table is to finish it properly. We like to plane our boards down so it gives it a bit more of a seamless look - but real rustic lovers don't need to do this. 

We sanded the coffee table down with 120 grit paper & then stained this table in Sunbleached Oak by Varathane. It's literally the most stunning color. Blends with almost any decor. 

Once that was dry, we applied two coats of polyurathane 

We took down a wall in our basement which left us with a gap in between the ceilings and two ceilings at different heights...the beam filled the gap perfectly!

For the holiday markets this year, some other dog related businesses, along with myself, colaborated on dog stockings! I really wanted to feature the stockings and not just decorate my booth with generic ornaments etc. My boyfriend was kind enough to help me with this project and it has been a hit! I think I am going to change out the decal with chalkboard though. The decal just looks to cheesey and I think the chalkboard will give it a more rustic and crafty fell. Thanks for the idea!!