Community Brag Posts

I loved this plan and used some furring strips of wood we already had. Will use finished wood next time. It cost about $5 for the wood and hardware and I already had the fabric. I did use decorator fabric instead of outdoor fabric. Which means if it's left outdoors it will fade faster than outdoor fabric. If anyone doesn't sew but wants to make this chair, please email me at [email protected] because I have a sewing business and can make the chair seats and even monogram them.

This project started with my son having the need for a loft bed. I began building the framing with some 2x4s and my imagination took over. The more I built, the more ideas and details I thought would be cool for whole theme. After finishing the "surf shack" loft, i moved to creating custom made fan blades, switch plates, placards, etc to fit the theme. It was all finished off by installing built-in shelves and painted walls.

The sofa was my first large DIY project that required a fair amount of construction. It took me about a week working a few hours a day. I followed the plans as they were listed but made a few adjustments to accommodate for the size of the cushions. I used regular pine and then cheap lumber for the slats, lesson learned. Way too much sanding and it still didn't have the finish I was hoping for.  

For the chairs: I used a mix of plans from the Bristol outdoor lounge chair (Ana's) and the simple outdoor sofa. I chose to use all sect pine for the chairs, after the hard time I had with the cheaper wood I chose to use on the sofa.  I was much happier with the end result.  I used 1x3's mostly and then added 1x1 composite molding as an accent around the base.

I looked long and hard for cushions before I started the project based on the recommendations from others. I took me a while but I finally found Somewhat affordable outdoor sunbrella cushions at Lowes. These are the Allen + Roth deep seating sunbrella cushions, which I highly recommend. They are very comfortable and dry quickly after it rains.

We estimate that the cost of this project was right around $50, but we had a lot of tools and materials already.  This was a fun project and a great piece for the cost. I would suggest staining as much as you can before assembling those legs!  Staining and applying poly was a pain in the butt!  We used a dark mahogany Minwax stain and 2 coats of Minwax poly. It took us a while to do it because we have a 11 month old that keeps us on our toes. 

We have a room in our basement that has very dark paint on the walls and NO windows, so we were looking for options to add lamps, as well as brighter colors to offset the darkness. I built two modified cabin collection end tables (no doors and the tops overhang by about an inch) for the lamps we already had. Once the tables were done, I saw the plan for the squared headboard and decided it would make an awesome large scale wall decor for cheaper than anything I could buy at the store. I modified the plan but cutting the "legs" down to 34.5 inches, but otherwise followed the plan pretty closely, laying out the pattern completely before I began assembling. It was a tedious process, but well worth it! (I used my kreg jig on both.)
As a side note, our 2x2's are NEVER straight, so I usually glue 2 1x2's together and sand the seam so it appears as one piece of wood.

I was asked by a friend if I could build a reading bench for his daycare and this is what I created.

When I first saw the outdoor sectional plans from Ana I had to build this! The sectionals at potterybarn cost at least $1500 and that is without the cushions. I chose cedar for the lumber because I wanted a high end stained wood look that would stand up to the pacific northwest weather. I purchased most of the lumber from Orange and some of the smaller boards from a local lumber yard. Every board was cut first then sanded and stained before assembly. This made it look a lot more professional and no drips! There are just too many tight areas to do this after it is assembled. I made 2 Weatherly outdoor sofas and used the plans from the Weatherly loveseat to leave the end off of one of the sofas to make an L-shaped sectional. This fit perfectly for my narrow deck which is the beauty of DIY and Ana's easy to modify plans. I  followed the suggestion of another brag post to attach the 2 sofas together with carriage bolts and nuts. It is important to be very accurate with all of the cuts because they have to fit together perfectly for the final product to look straight and measure correctly. Because there a about a million repetitive cuts in these plans I took the idea of another brag post and youtube and created a stop out of leftover lumber which really helped me keep my cuts accurate and saved me a lot of time. I really enjoyed using my new Kreg K5 pocket hole jig on this project which saved me time and my new Ryobi brad nailer that I convinced my husband I needed. I plan on using it on several projects which "require" a brad nailer! I bought six 25" cushions in turquoise from Pier 1 in mid-July which were on major sale and several pillows to match the color. I am somewhat of a beginner so I didn't adjust te plans to fit six 25" cushions so I had to have one cut down to 22" by a local upholstery shop (I could have purchased a 22" cushion but of course they were all sold out). I suggest at least a 3-4" depth cushion that is fairly firm, which Pier 1 cushion were.

I love the outdoor coffee table with built in beer cooler idea that another brag post had suggested.It uses a planter box as the cooler.  I used the same stain which worked well and adequately waterproofed the table. It also has a cover for the cooler when it is not in use. I thought it was a nice addition.

I loved this project and how it turned out! Thanks for the plans and inspiration!!!

Address Sign

This was an easy build and after 2 months I am still in LOVE with it:)

I really love this table, even though it didn't turn out perfectly. I'm not sure what happened, but the shelf on the bottom ended up not fitting well and is sticking out some on one end at a weird angle. But you really can't tell unless you're looking and I plan on just putting that side on the wall. It was REALLY easy to make and took barely any time. I love how the stain turned out (it looks a little darker in the pictures that it really is). I think this table could be used for a lot of different things too and could be modified in height for different uses. Thanks Ana!

We used the Fancy X Farmhouse Table plans to create the table then stenciled the game boards onto the sanded tabletop with a pencil.  After that we scored over the pencil tracing to prevent stain bleed over, then carefully polyurethaned over the sections we did not want stained.  After the poly dried we used a small craft brush to paint the stain in one color at a time.

X coffee table

Once I saw these plans on here, I was thrilled to get started on them. I let the girls do most of the miter saw cuts (with lots of supervision) and they were a huge help sanding. Pine has really sharp edges, so they helped me round down every edge by hand. I would have used an electric sander, but *gasp* I couldn't FIND IT!

Aaargh!

Anyhoo, this is a gift for Daddy for Father's Day! I bought enough wood and fabric for a matching chair for myself. :) The girls are begging for matching kid-sized ones too. :)

I just LOVE how it folds up so flat (last photo below) to be hung under cover outside. :)

I used Connecting Bolts & Connecting Cap Nuts rather than just bolts and I love them!!! I did keep a washer in between the 1x2's to keep the wood from rubbing. PERFECT fit! Check out my last photo below to see it up close.

The bolts fit through the 1/4" holes Ana's plans instruct you to drill, but the caps need a larger hole. I drilled 3/8" holes into all OUTER 1x2 where the connector caps needed to be and kept the inside 1x2 holes at 1/4" per Ana's instructions. Hope that makes sense!

Then I finished them with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint.

Decided to build a bedroom set and like the Rhyan end table, but fell in love with tiled version. So we used porcelain tile on top.

I had some left over Walnut wood, so I decided to make some more Beer Tap handles.  This is a fairly simple DIY that doesn't take that long to complete.  I have already written a full tutorial on my blog:

This was my first ever attempt at making something real out of wood. I've only made some really basic floating coat hangars and docorative rustic pieces to set around peoples houses and a spice rack. I really wanted more of a challenge and this was a perfect place to start. I had to purchase the Kreg Jig and a couple of large clamps but once I got the hang of drilling and filling pocket holes it was smooth sailing. 

The Mrs then finished it off with some lovely rustic baskets and a serving tray with all the latest Southern Living magazines.