Community Brag Posts

Yes, my husband and I share our bedroom with 6 dogs and an occasional cat (or 4). Our older dog (Petra) has slept on our bed for over 10 years, and she's getting too old to jump anymore. We didn't want her to feel like she was getting kicked off the bed, so I made Petra her very own bed at the end of ours so that she wouldn't feel left out. I was inspired by MurdaRae's dog bed (http://ana-white.com/2012/06/doggie-daybed), and thought it was genius to use a toddler/crib bed. So I went looking for plans on Ana-White, and came up with a mixture between a couple of twin bed plans. I love that the plans are easy enough to modify my sizes, and come up with exactly the custom solution that I need. This was my first big project using Bri-Wax. The last one was kind of a disaster when the wax changed the stain color to something not-so-great. With this project, I learned to wait at least 2 weeks before attempting to wax it. I was blown away with the results. It is a beautiful subtle satin finish that feels great to the touch. Plus, I can easily touch up all the dog fingernail scratches that will inevitably occur. When I re-assembled the bed in my bedroom, I actually nicked it in a few places. No problem -- slap on some more Bri-Wax! My Bri-Wax was 11 years old, and pure liquid. I tossed it in the fridge (per Bri-Wax's recommendation), and it was as good as new. The only real problem I had with this project was leaking sap from one of the 4x4s. I'm still fighting this today. In talking with Rustoleum/Zinsser reps, they said that no sap could penetrate their "Seal Coat" shellac product. After 5 coats, the sap is still penetrating, but only if I turn it on it's side or upside down. I'm still baffled. I made the mattress cover out of a dog blanket, and made the cushions from some remnant fabric (suitable for dogs and weekly washing), so this was a fairly inexpensive project. It was a success because Petra slept in her bed from the fist night and loved that she had all the room to herself, and no boston terrorists (I mean terriers) attempted to bother her.

We are getting a puppy in a couple weeks and we want to crate train her. We have a small house so the only place we have to put the crate is in the living room. Needless to say, we needed a way to make the crate look good in our living room. That's when I found the plans for the rustic x-end table. The dimensions were almost the same as the dog crate. I only had to change the dimensions by a couple inches and wallah! Now the crate doesn't look out of place and I have a place to put my laptop and phone! I ended up ripping the 2x6's just a saw blade width down to get rid of the rounded edges and that made the top come together smoother. I also planed down the top a bit as well. In some spots, you can hardly tell they were 2x6's laminated together! I used two different stains on it. The first coat was a tudor stain but I wanted to warm it up a bit so I put a coat of antique walnut on it as well. I am very very happy with how this turned out. Now my husband would like me to build a coffee table to match!

I didn't make any changes , his orginal design was great. Hope these pictures help others. I tried to link to the modified-simple-outdoor-dining-table but wasn't able too.

Added kitchen and dining room storage by building bookcases / shelf units to fit under the peninsula breakfast bar overhang. It's the simplest possible "box with a toe-kick", loosely based on Ana's plans for a bookshelf and the closet master system.

Much of the "working time" was stain and finishing time. Actual cutting and assembly time was under 3 hours.

No dimensions: every breakfast bar is different.

1 - The boards were cut to fit under the overhang, with 1/8 or less clearance. Top and bottom of unit is between the upright pieces.

2 - Width of units was also cut to fit. One unit is the width of the lower section of countertop (appx 23 in), the taller section was divided into 2 equal units (appx 21 in)

Shelves were cut about 1/4" narrower than the insiude dimension of the unit, to allow for insertion and the shelf pegs.

3 - Toekick space cut to match the cabinet on the far side of the peninsula. Used a circular saw and then a hand saw to finish the corners.

4 - Drilled pocketholes in the top and bottom boards.

5 - Used Rockler's jig for drilling shelf pin holes in the 6 uprights. Oops! I should have drilled every possible hole. I drilled every other hole and don't have the shelf flexibility I really need.

6 - Stained and topcoated everything, let it dry.

7 - Assembled each shelf unit, using corner clamps and a carpenter's square to make sure it was square. The bottom shelf is screwed at the same level as the toe-kick.

8 - Slid units under the overhang, shimmed them firmly under the countertop.

9 - Added shelf pegs and shelves

DONE!

Doors could be added, using the hinges for inset doors on frameless cabinets.

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NOTES:
The units are backless. I considered nailing a 1/8 hardboard back onto them, but because the finished back of the peninsula is visible behind them, and they are shimmed into place to prevent slouching it was not needed.

Cost is low because we had some 1x12 boards in the attic. Already had the tools and stain from earlier projects. 3 1x12 x 6ft boards were new, the rest were salvage.

I modified the origianl plans by making the cabinet taller.  I also built 2 cabinets and trimmed them both together to make it appear as if it is 1 giant cabient.  It measure over 7 feet tall and just over 6 feet wide.  I did add an additional 1x2 brace in the center of the cabinet to help support.  I also cut an additional 1x4 to use a brace when anchoring it to the wall.  I also chose to add an additional 2 trim pieces to each door because they are much taller than the original plan doors.  

I followed your idea but i think my bench is a touch smaller. I decided to add arm rests on each end, I kept the top beverage ledge or "Bever-ledge" as I call it and ofcourse I added rope lighting along the underside. This was my first ever DIY project.

This was my first project building something from this site. I absolutely love it! We didnt add the X's because the miter saw was at my dad's house, which I was kind of sad about, but I think it still looks good. Not too bad for mine and my husbands first build! 

With six people in our household, we were in desperate need of easily accessed storage for our off season clothes/gear.  This ended up being a perfect solution.  We customized shelf heights to fit the bins that we use for storage as well as made an area for our cat box (at the bottom right).  It's such a relief to finally have everything tucked away but easy to get at when we need it. 

THE MOTIVATION
After a recent washer outage (that I was ultimately able to repair myself), my wife and I talked about eventually replacing our front-loading washer/dryer set.  One of the bullets I hate biting is paying the exhorbitant prices for the matching pedestals for new washer/dryer sets.

Having just bought a good set of cordless powertools, and having watched my father when I was a kid build countless household fixtures, window dressings, furniture pieces, etc., I decided to try my hand and construct a permanent platform for our current washer/dryer set, thereby eliminating the need to ever buy manufacturer pedestals again.

The existing pedestals were a standard 15" high, with a storage drawer, which we felt was still not high enough for comfort.  And, the washer pedestal drawer was entirely inaccessibl due to the 2" walls on the washer drain pan, so its drawer was totally useless, wasted space.

And, lastly, we really wanted more space for clothes baskets full of laundry, which we generally stacked (full and haphazardly) on top of the machines.

THE CHALLENGES
The largest challenges were mainly logistics, and gravity.  The washer/dryer would have to be unavailable for at least 2-3 days while they sat disconnected in the next room waiting for their new home.  So I coordinated with the family so they'd know when they needed to have their laundry done, or tough it out until I was done.

There was no way to know for sure what the drain connection for the washer pan looked like until I got the washer out.  So it was a small gamble that I'd be able to get the parts needed to extend the drain pipe up to the new platform right when I was ready for them.  Fortunately, this was no issue at all.

The biggest challenge turned out to be toward the end when it came time to lift our 230-lb. washer onto the new platform.  I seriously considered disassembling the washer to the point that I could remove its molded concrete counter-weights, but instead (and arguably stupidly) elected to use a large hydraulic car jack to raise the washer.  This ultimately worked, but I have to STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST trying this.

THE SPACE
Our laundry room is also the "mud room" between our kitchen and the garage.  It is only large enough for the two machines, and the walk way between the two doors--in total, about 70.5" square.  Building the platform from wall-to-wall made the most sense, and minimized framing by fastening edge framing directly to the wall studs. 

THE PLAN
Pretty basic:  2x4's all around for the edge framing--back and sides fastened directly to the wall studs, and front 2x4 supported by two, notched 4x4 legs.  3/4" plywood for the subsurface, and 1/4" laminate faux-wood flooring on top (left over from reflooring, so it matches the floor below).  Bore holes for the washer pan drain and the dryer vent.  1" quarter-round molding on the sides, and 5.5" face piece flush with the top of the molding across the front (spare lauan I had looks perfect).  I also made a point of putting the machines on the platform before the face piece since it might have been in the way or damaged.

Anyone will tell you that it's best to at least sketch out what you want to do so you can minimize surprises, forgotten parts, etc.  I, of course, did virtually none of that, and made several course changes and corrections along the way.  For this project, I was lucky that I didn't need to backtrack at any point, and probably won't learn this lesson any time soon anyway.  However, you SHOULD.

TAKE-AWAYS
The main mistake I made was while gathering the platform dimensions for cutting the plywood.  It was only blind luck that kept me from having to do it more than once (and having to buy more than one 4x8 sheet).  I know that it's actually very unlikely that two adjacent walls are perfectly square, so I made a point to measure the width between the walls at the back and at the front--and, sure enough, found a 1/8" difference--wider at the front.  But when I measured and marked the plywood for cutting, I measured both distances from the precut edge, and then cut.  By doing this, I inadvertently assumed that one of the back corners was perfectly square. 

What I should have done was used a carpenter's square in each back corner to extend a square line from the back edge to the front, and then measured from the square lines to their respective side wall.  This would have accounted for neither back corner being square.

Fortunately, my mistake wasn't big enough to keep the plywood from fitting, but it was very, VERY close.

GIDDY
I honestly couldn't be happier with the finished project (or more smug).  We've raised the washer/dryer 9" higher than they were (24" off the floor), and we now have basket storage underneath all the way across.  I placed two 24" plastic cabinets on top, which still leaves room for the detergent right over the soap inlet on the washer.

And, most importantly, I got to use every powertool I own.  Kinda beats "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" thing, huh?

Garage shelving using costco 27 gallon bin.

Tanni

My floor-to-ceiling garage storage is 6' w x 8' h. I wanted to utilize the entire height of the wall for the rack. I also created a small cubby at the end for tall items like brooms, poles, etc. I also added 2x4 pieces on the top, sides and foot of the rack so I can add doors to hide the clutter stored on the shelves.