Community Brag Posts

With another baby boy arriving in August, my one and three year olds are moving to a "big boy" room. My oldest decided he wanted a bunk bed and as they both are obsessed with tractors, when I saw the "John Deere Tractor Bunk Bed" plan, I was sold.

We would be needing a twin sized bunk bed though not a toddler. I used the classic bunk bed plans and simply modified them to suit our needs. I moved the ladder to the front, added a rail on the bottom bunk and added a small ladder to the side for my one year old to climb into the bottom bunk.

Once the the frame of the bed was complete, I added the tractor accessories. A couple of storage cubby shelves with fabric baskets for toy tractors which act as stairs up to the ladder and make the tractor bucket at the front. Also, the wheels which are made from joined 1x6s as I find plywood hard to sand and paint to the quality of finish I like. A cab & roof from 1x4s framed together. A side mirror that I decoupaged a picture of another tractor on. I used push lights for the headlights as well as a reading light above each bed (they're on timers so they'll turn themselves off). A steering wheel (play equipment access from toys r us). Also, I built and mounted by the head of both beds a "flat wall book holder" so they would have somewhere to store a few books.

My boys and I are fairly new to building so I spent a lot of time planning and measuring to ensure it would all come together in the end. It paid off because it all went smoothly (even with "help" from my boys). It's not perfect but they're very happy with the result. We also built a John Deere themed "Just my size closet" and even finished with over a month to spare before the new baby arrives! :)

Just want to say a quick thank you to Ana both for the amazing plans and also the inspiration to take on these projects. The time spent with my boys building as well as the resulting treasures are priceless and I would have never realized what we were capable of had I not stumbled upon your website and been so inspired by you and everything you've accomplished. Thank you!

It had come time to renovate our powder room bathroom. We were on a tight budget so we decided to build our own vanity & add a little twist to it! We splurged on the granite countertop, vessel sink  and faucet. Thanks to Ana White we built our vanity for less than $10! The plans were easy to follow . . . .we are so proud of our wood vanity!  link to our blog: http://www.houseofrumours.com/shiplap-powder-room-diy-vanity/

RusticX living room set with a tea/steel wool-vinegar treatment and a paste wax finish.

Thanks Ana for this amazing project!

This is the cooler stand presented by Jenny from Birdsandsaoap. Very easy to build and always ends up with someone asking to buy it or have you make them one.

I built ledge shelves for our kitchen using reclaimed wood I painted teal, then silver, then flat black (Napoleon).

Love having them. :)

I built this cabinet to store magazines and diapers (towels when the time comes) in the small 1/2 bath.

The top was made with left over oak pieces from when I ripped out the carpet and 2x12 stairs and replaced with oak treads.

Ah behold the allure of a really good set of plans. :) Famous last words, "it looked a lot easier on paper!"

I happened across the wonderful plans for the Farmhouse Table on this site. Then I saw how it only took Handy Andy a mere 2-3 hours to make his out of reclaimed wood and thinking I would enlist my retired carpenter father to help me, easy peasy, right? Well, that was the plan anyway. :)

A couple of things to note, I purchased new fir wood as it was the most cost effective and frankly the least problematic in regards to finding the straightest boards. I did vary the design in that I added the shelf under the table for both storage as well as a footrest for diners. The design I ended up with was a little more complicated and I tried sanding as much of the boards from the beginning as possible in order to try and cut down on the amount of time spent on my knees later. Yeah, that was a nice thought.

Dad and I followed the plan provided, allowing my modifications for the footrest/shelf and I also made my top 45" wide. (I have another dining table that I had hopes of butting them together for large dinner parties if needed and wanted them relatively the same size). I will say that what I ended up with was an extremely heavy table which I transported home to stain and varathane on my own.

A couple of weeks later, well, the project took more than 2-3 hours (heh) but I am really happy with the results. If I were to do it again, I would probably have stained it a tad darker as this was my first staining/sanding/varathaning project and I took a little too much of the stain off sanding. It's okay, maybe someday I will strip off the varathane and restain it. Then again, it took so much time to do the first time maybe I won't!

A couple questions:
I would like to keep my table outdoors, but would like to add low profile metal feet to protect the wood. Does anyone have a suggestion where to look for heavy duty feet?

Second, any suggestions on how to get the spar varathane off my concrete patio? Yikes!

Thank you Ana for the wonderful plans!

This is my modified version of the farmhouse table. I wanted to be able to sit 6 people at a 6' table, so I decided to go with a different style of legs. It is still very sturdy.