Community Brag Posts

I started this project with just one of the Bristol Outdoor Lounge Chairs. I ended up liking it so much I decided to complete the collection with anther chair, a love seat, and a table. I got the designs for the other pieces from OldPaintDesign.com Poplar was my wood of choice because it is a hard wood that will last but won't break the bank. I also had a really hard time deciding how to finish it. Initially, I was going to paint the wood but liked the natural wood grain of the poplar so much I just simply put a few coats of polyurethane on it to preserve it. I ordered the cushions from Restoration Hardware this fall when they were on sale and even then they were expensive, but I love them. (Brown was the only color on sale.) Finishing the pieces was much more time consuming than I thought it would be.The first chair took much longer and required much more sanding since some of my joints weren't flush. The rest of the pieces combined took me about as long as the original chair. I wised up after completing the 1st chair and did the majority of the sanding before I assembled the boards together. Next, I am going to build an outdoor dining table to match.

I built this bed for my parent's guest room at my sister's house. It is very similar to a bed mom had been wanting. They wanted a king size so I had to do some modifications to the original plan - primarily adding 16" to all width measurements. I also used 10 - 1x8s for the headboard panels. That made the panels slightly too wide, so I had to rip a little bit off the 2 end panels.

The hardest part of the project was getting it in her house! The legs made it about 1/4" too wide to fit it thru the door. We were about to remove the legs (which would have been a disaster since they were glued, screwed and painted on) when we finally figured out the right angle to squeeze it in. I had to touch up the paint in a few spots once we got it in position, but that was much better than having to remove legs and put them back on. We still need to get plywood for the mattress to sit on and I'm going to add a middle leg for extra support since it's a king. I will probably eventually build nightstands to go with it. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out since this is my largest and "fanciest" project so far.

We built this as a birthday gift for family members and boy were they excited. We, though, were not excited to let it go. So happy with how it turned out. The plans are good for reference but make sure to make your own measurements when using milled lumber from a big box store. Some of the the changes we had to make on the fly were to the back and front panels having to use a different combination of board sizes to fill it in without massive gaps. Its recommended that you lay them out first before attaching them to the frames. Also the measurements on the cooler lid were smaller by 1/4" to 1/2" of what's listed in order to get a snug fit. The shelf on ours is two 1x6's cut to the width of the whole project (around 16.5") and then the shelf brackets were also 1x6's cut to a length of 10". Brackets are mounted inside the legs using wood glue and three 2.5" screws through the backside/inside of the cooler box to hide (obviously done before the cooler was inserted). For drainage we attached a 2" piece of 1/2" inside diameter clear tubing that was fed/jammed through the cooler drain and pulled through the other side and then a 1/2" push on adapter, threaded on the other end screwed unto a 1/2" faucet head. Drilled a 3/4" hole about 2.5" (center mass) from the 2x4 cooler base through the middle piece on the side. We placed the cooler in first and used a pair of pliers to grab the clear tube and line it up with the hole and then pushed a long screw driver through the tube from inside the cooler in order to guide the faucet head/adapter combo into the tube and stiffening the tube so it didn't collapse when pushing it on. We couldn't decide what do to with the center display piece and then remembered we had a can of chalkboard spray paint left over from another project. We spray painted the whole menu board and then painted the "logo" at the top before clear-coating it with a protective enamel. Its a snug fit so the pressure holds it in place but you could also use velcro strips on the back if that tickles your fancy. We took the snug fit route that way if they didn't want the menu board in. A 1/2' hole was drilled towards the top so they can use a finger to pull the board out.

This was a fun project.  The plans are written so that many of the boards don't need to be cut.  It's made from cedar that (thank goodness) was on sale.  I made the raised beds twice as deep as was called for in the plans because I wanted to minimize bending while I garden.  That added to the cost of the lumber and the soil.  I also like the way it looks.

I found it helpful to measure and cut the boards as I went.  This was crucial for fitting the door.  The most difficult part for us was working with the hardware cloth and trying to make it as smooth as possible.

It has been effective keeping deer and rabbits out of the garden.  Things that can fly in are another issue.