Community Brag Posts

My 8-year-old and I built a shelf for his room, based on the Rolling Cubby Bench plans. (The paint job is all him. He originally suggested trying to paint a picture of an eagle on it, we ultimately settled on a partial flag.)

I'm fairly new to woodworking, and this was my second of four projects I've built using plans from this site so far. Cutting and assembly was just a couple of hours, but finishing stretched this out into a several-night project.

My father-in-law built this for me using Anna White's plans. He tweeked a few things to add somethings I wanted to add. A huge sheet of white board bought from Lowes was used to make both easel sides and the shelves. Once he had it built for me, I painted the lilac paint color onto the wood and whiteboard shelves. The black chalk board side was made by using black chalboard paint. I wanted it to look cute so, I added a black boarder on the white board, and then used a cotton ball with the lilac paint to make the paint blotch style on both sides. I cannot wait to use this in my classroom!

I'm building a doll bunk bed from Ana's plans later on for a friend's daughter.  I figured that since I had all the materials to do the linens, I would get that finished now.  I used the plans from Ana's 18" doll mattress instructions and created these two sets of beds - they're "sisters" but not twins, since I ran out of materials to make 2 quilts.  Since it's going to one recipient, I figure she won't mind having 1 quilt and 1 blanket that coordinate.  The mattresses were SUPER easy to put together, and I opted to keep them plain without buttons, in case I want to make fitted sheets at another time.  Took me about 10 minutes to make each mattress.

I loved these little ledges, especially since I had the perfect scraps for them. I needed a little extra storage in our story-time corner, and these were perfect. Took me one nap time to get them cut, assembled and painted! SWEET!!!!

I am in the process of remodeling/redecorating my tiny house. I started with the kitchen and am now moving into the living room. The two rooms are connected so I needed something that would match the "beachy feel without being obvious" style I am trying to accomplish. I also needed a place for my files, printer, etc since I don't have an office. My house is very small so I have to consider function in every piece of furniture I own. This table was the PERFECT solution! It hides my seldom used but definitely necessary office supplies while looking super cute and brightening up the room.

As you can see I made a few slight changes to the look of the trundle. I made it look like three "drawers" instead of the two in the plans, and used manila rope instead of handles or cutting out the shape in Ana's design. I also lined the inside of the trundle with felt to protect my computer, etc. from the hard surface of the wood. I couldn't help pick my favorite color, since you can't see it while the trundle is closed. Though not pictured here, I added a bracket for files as well (they didn't photograph well). I picked it up from a woodworking specialty store for $15.

All in all it was an easy second project for me, I had it built and nearly finished in a weekend.

I had no experience building furniture prior to this project but I wanted a 12 ft outdoor table and could not find one.  This tables center section is 8 ft and was built roughly following the plans for the farmhouse table.  I added two 2 ft extensions at each end making the overall table 12 ft.  The extensions included aprons so when installed they look to be part of the table.  The extensions just plug into the end apron of the center section with 2x4 oak braces which engage in the apron and under the table approximately 2 ft from end.  There is no visual sagging of the extensions. I finished the table with Sikkens DEK finish.

I needed a new desk and found some plans on Ana's website.Made a little modification to it for a little more work space. Turned out great I thought. Had never used pocket holes before, I think I'm hooked now.

When we moved into our home we had minimal furniture pieces. On a tight budget and not wanting to buy something that was made of veneer, I stumbled upon the attractive and functional plans for the cube shelves. I love that I can "add on" to the set with additional pieces if I want to in the future. But for now, one set of cube shelving is just right for us.

This was the first project that I used the table saw by myself, and while it went just fine I do think it would have been helpful to have another set of hands around. Piecing together the first two joints was a bit challenging with only one set of hands holding the wood and putting in nails. But once I got a few done, the piece really came together quickly. It literally took me just a few hours to cut the pieces and put it together. It's the sanding painting and priming that can take some time and patience!

This was my third or fourth project and it was pretty tough. I started out with the basic build which was pretty simple and then I got to the end where everything was built except for the drawer slides and boy was it rough. I think that i spend half of the time on this project doing the drawer slides and half the time doing the build and the finish. I don't want to discourage anyone from doing this project but make sure you don't get in over your head. Check out my profile I am willing to do builds for people for an inexpensive price.

http://ana-white.com/users/daddydrew

My daughter's room needed more storage and the closet was the perfect place to add some! Visit the blog link for more pictures.

This was my first project for our newly purchased house. I built it in the 1-car garage and patio of the duplex we were living in prior to our move. I haven't put the trim pieces on yet because it we moved and started using it the day after I got it screwed together.

Fun project! This headboard is HEAVY and sturdy. Mine ended up being more expensive than other people have reported theirs to be...about $100 total for wood and 1 box of nails...not sure why that happened, but I got the cheapest wood I could find at Lowes and that's still what it ended up being. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out and am excited to add it to my pair of nightstands that I made from the site. Thanks Ana!

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.