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I wanted to share my most recent build with you.

With only weeks before my son is due I finished his changing table/dresser.

I am still new to this whole woodworking adventure and this was my largest project yet. (Completed project was around $95)

This dresser had a ton of ‘firsts’ for me and along with that I probably made nearly every mistake you can.

My firsts on this thing were:

-pocket holes
-sliding dovetails (to attach the drawer fronts)
-hand-cut dovetails (rear corners of the drawers)
-drawers with glides
-hinged doors
-table top fasteners
-distressing a paintjob

It was built knowing that my wife wanted it painted , hence the mismatched wood used(see pre-paint pics below). The nursery is designed around a rustic theme (see wall shelf unit in the first pic).
I will also be adding a hanging wall clock made from weathered pallet wood in the coming weeks.

I think one of the most challenging things for this project might have been the use of Home Depot lumber.
We were on a major budget so I purchased the cheapest wood in the sizes I needed. This meant combing throught the stacks to find acceptable pieces.
I do not own a jointer or planer, so in order to flatten and correct thickness issues with the wood I resorted to good ‘ol hand planes.
Time consuming, yes. But also very satisfying.

Finally happened upon a walnut slab to rejuvenate the top of my coffee table. I loved the wrought iron base, so I wanted to keep it, but the tabletop height needed increased to protect beverages from labrador tail attacks.

I cropped the existing wood top to serve for the base piece, sanded it down and stained it to blend in with the walnut. Four 2.75" wide walnut strips were used to create cubby spaces under the top slab for remotes, controllers, and keyboards.

The top slab was pretty rough, so it required heavy sanding to take finish evenly. I started with 80, 120, 220, and finished with 400, using mineral spirits to raise and knock down the grain. Finished with four coats of Waterlox original.

I built this table in the summer of 2017 specifically for our new home.  I used the reclaimed barnwood from my wife's grandfather's corn crib barn he built in 1947 along with a few pieces of lumber cut from trees that were blown down during hurricane Katrina.  The table top boards were planed to 1" thick and glued on edge with biscuits.  The table top is wrapped by a ripped rafter from the barn about 2" x 2".  The verticals of the legs are laminated leftover pieces, one of which has the initials of a son preserved from the original barn.  The horizontals of the legs are from pine and red oak Katrina wood.  The table bracing is made from barn rafter material and the metal straps are made from scrap and painted black.  The table itself has no stain, because we felt the true charm would be more appreciated showing the old nail holes, knots, and bug scarring.  It is finished with three coats of clear matte polycrylic.  I engineered the table into two pieces, so that the top could be removed for ease of transport. 

You may see our table in HGTV's Home Town Season 2 Episode 3 originally airing January 22, 2018 at 8 CST.

I loved Ana's upholstered toy box benches that she made and really wanted to do some of my own (three girls = muchos toys). We are remodeling our kitchen, so I decided to use our old cabinets for as much of this project as I could! Fun to keep a little bit of our home with us wherever we move (military family). :)

First big project, big for me anyway. Dresser came out better than I had imagined. I followed the plan exactly step by step except for the wheels part. Thank you Ana for the plans.

Since we don't have a garage or any really good place to keep our tools, they end up all over the house while we're working on a project. So, we decided to build a cabinet that would look nice in our house, and also house our tools. We chose the armoire plan because it has plenty of space.

This project took us forever, so it's hard to really estimate the actual working time. We began working on it back in June, then we were evacuated because of a forest fire.... By the time we got back into our house and we were organized again it was the end of July.... and now finally the end of August it's finished. It took us a while, but it's a great addition to our house!

We modified this cabinet by using 1/4 inch beadboard backed with 1/4 plywood for the doors. We also modified the size of the armoire to make it deeper.

You may remember my green stratton day beds that I built a long time ago- finally I have another project to post- I am soo happy I found Ana White's website. We just got back from a 2.5 week vacation in Israel and my dogs were staying with my sister. She told me they had been sleeping in the same kennel together instead of separately. Their kennels are too small so I decided to build them one using wood I already had. But since they are small dogs, I decided to size it down- but I wanted it end table height- so I built a smaller kennel- 20"H x 19"W x 28"D. but... I added a drawer to the top to bring it to the right height. You can read all about it on my blog- link below.

How to build a simple laptop desk to use when working from the couch. This was a quick build. We added a small storage area for my blogging binder. 

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.