Community Brag Posts

I started my son's bedroom set back at the beginning of January and have finally finished! I began by building the matching dresser (http://ana-white.com/2014/02/rustic-dresser-and-bedroom-set) and then started the bed only a week ago. The night table was taken from http://ana-white.com/2011/06/mini-farmhouse-bedside-table-0 - I had built it over the summer, but I couldn't get my pocket holes on the inside of the table because my drill wouldn't fit, so I wasn't going to use it.. until I realized it was the perfect little bedside table for a two year old who might destroy it anyways!

Back to the bed... I just had this vision of what I wanted my son's room to look like after seeing the rustic rolling dresser plan, and I stumbled on the Emme Twin bed plan. It was kind of perfect, but I didn't like the whole "window" look on the headboard. I still may add a divider on the foot board, but haven't decided yet. Regardless, so I envisioned something else with the same concept of the Emme twin bed. Building it exactly the same way without the dividers, I ordered the clearance shams from pottery barn that matched his new quilt and bought another piece of half inch plywood. I cut it in half and left about a quarter inch on each side of each piece of plywood to accommodate the fabric in between the 2 by 4s. I added one inch of foam and a couple layers of batting, matched up the two shams side by side, folded them each around the batting and foam, and stapled them. They fit perfectly into the headboard with some 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch screws (There is a gap from the fabric on the back, so your screw needs to account for that. You could put like a 1x4 onto each panel to screw through, but I placed the back plywoood attached to the 2x4s too far in, so it would have made the panels "float" and I wanted the fabric of the panels flush to the back plywood) holding them to the back plywood attached to the 2x4s. I wanted the padding on the back of the headboard because I always hear my son slam his head into the wall when he's sleeping and i just wanted to make sure he wasn't hitting the dividers that were on the EMME twin bed.

The bed was so easy to build, stain and finish. It turned out exactly how I had envisioned it. I had to lower the side rail 2x4s because I bought a ten inch memory foam mattress (You can see the foam mattress and pillow rising in the picture!) and didn't want it coming above the headboard, but now I don't think I'll need a guard rail since he is so close to the floor! The 2x4s sit 5.5 inches up from the bottom of each leg. I also added quite a bit of length to the foot board legs because I wanted the footboard to come above the mattress. I wish I had realized that there was much nicer plywood at Lowes, but when I asked, they told me "this is all of the plywood we have" and I got stuck with the ugly stuff.. I will fix the footboard with some nicer looking plywood, but it's good enough for now!

Thanks for the plans Ana! Here's what I came up with.

Farmhouse table from plans. Shortened length to 6.5 feet to fit our area. Good plans.

My wife has always wanted a king sized bed. While my hobbyist woodworking skills are not (yet) to the point where I can create the mahogany sleigh bed she has always dreamed of, I think she has enjoyed the farmhouse bed that I built for her X-mas present. We bought a new gel mattress for the bed, which sits on a few sheets of plywood over a frame of 2x4s. While we have no current plans to move anytime soon, using some of the advice of commenters/posters, I constructed our bed and frame with bed rail brackets and hanger joists that will allow us the option to disassemble/reassemble it in the future.

We used the free plans. I bought the materials and my son-in-law built it and it only took a day!  My grandkids love the playroom now. We have a nice pool in the back yard but when the weather is not good for swimming, the kids were easily bored. Now, the weather doesn't matter!  Thanks, Ana White, for inventing and sharing!

See post on blog: http://www.atouchofarkansas.com/2012/05/icoffee-table.html

This was my first "build" and was a lot of fun. Very quick and very easy. I'm so happy with how cute it turned out!

My brother recently became a homeowner and asked me to build him a dining table for his new (and first) house.  He picked out the Farmhouse Table plan from the site and I spent a few weekends building this table for him. The most time consuming part of the project was sanding and applying the stain & polyurethane. 

Coped the design almost to the "T." I loved this design because I only have a small shed to work out of and this stand for my miter saw was much needed.

The major difference between the original and my design are the folding arms. I was working within a very small budget and couldn't afford the fancy folding arms so I was able to do a little creative thinking and decided to go with a removable piece of 1x3 that is wedged under the arms with a block installed on the "leaf" and the main table. I used the old pythagorean theorem to figure out how to make it a level 45 degrees. With a little playing around I have both arms completely level and the stand is perfect!! I am excited to get some other projects on the way now that I have somewhere other than the ground to work with my miter saw.

I didn't use any pocket holes, but am picking up a Kreg jig set from someone this upcoming week and am looking forward to putting that into some use on my next projects!

I had fun with this project. I needed a long and narrow desk for my son's room, and this was perfect. It was sooo easy. I used countersink drill bit and filled in with wood filler. I sanded to smooth it out and make soft edges. I stained first with a black cherry stain, then spread teal paint around (was inspired by a lot of rustic wood and teal pieces that I saw at homegoods), then coated it with kona miniwax stain to darken it up. I put a clear polyurethane finish on it to protect it. Super easy and I love it. Got all of my wood for under $30.

Simple and easy to build from plans provided

Beautiful farmhouse bench by Leila Adams

Ok I decided to construct my very first project - a small outdoor table that would look a bit ancient mostly because the need for it in my house has been screaming since I could remember. I would selfish to say that I did it alone but I got a bit of help from my hussy. I'm happy that the kids love it and all struggle to have lunch on it.

I had been wanting a patio sofa for a long time and while googling prices for the 1,000th time I found a link to Ana White's wonderful website. I can't say how grateful I am to Ana White. The fact that she puts all of these plans online for free and asks nothing in return speaks to her character and what a kind and generous person she is. Helping people build things and helping them learn at the same time! Anyway, I followed the plans explicitly and purchased the cushions at Ikea.

Got my new Kreg Jig, picked up a brand new master kit on craigslist for half the normal price! The table went together beautifully and the chairs were simple as well!

My husband and I searched at least a hundred plans to find a simple bunk bed for our girls and Ana's Loft bed was a perfect base plan with a few changes. We wanted a lower bunk, top and bottom, since our girls are young (ages 5 and 2.5). The youngest just moved from the crib so by putting the bed lower we are able to skip the side rails. Overall we cut 10 inches off the height of the original loft bed plan and still have plenty of room in the lower bunk. I can sit up comfortably on the lower bunk and the youngest can even stand. We went with another 8 inch board for the top bunk rail, it was simpler then the rail with cap but achieved the same overall rail height. We knew we didn't want a ladder in their room because our 2 yr old is fearless. So for the stairs my husband just ended up winging it, loosely basing them on the Storage Stairs plan, creating basic cubes so we can still let light in and have storage. We also didn't want the steps to be high up in case the girls fall from them, which is more common then them falling off the top bunk. At 32 in. high (the bunk is 61 in) both of them can still climb in the top bunk without issue. At first the steps didn't have the tall "cube" at the back but the platform just wasn't that big so the long cube was an add on and gave it the perfect size and heft. We couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Thanks Ana for your awesome blog and the great plans that you post. My husband also built the original play kitchen and it is amazing! I'll have to do another post with pics of that.