Community Brag Posts

I've been working on these bathroom vanities for a family building a home. These are made of gorgeous Greenheart lumber. I have only worked with pine and spruce up to this point, but this wood is truly stunning. It has been quite the adjustment to work with, and I've broken my share of bits and screws :)

All of these together took me about a week to complete. Had I been working with a softer wood it would have taken no time hardly, but the hardwood....that's a whole other ballgame to me!

They will be adding 2'' thick concrete counter-tops on these when they get installed. I love the simplicity of their look!

Lesson learned....... Drilling straight holes is critical.

8 foot long photo ledge inspired by $10 ledges project plan, http://ana-white.com/2010/10/ten-dollar-ledges.html

I used a 1x4, 1x3, and a 1x2 and added some crown molding to the bottom for a little something extra.

I was so excited to see this plan and knew what to do with the wood I had recently acquired when an old home was being destroyed near my house.
Love the site and the projects are too much fun!

I painted mine black and distressed it. Stained the top and distressed parts with MinWax American Walnut poly stain. Hardware from Van Dykes Restores. Used piano spring loaded lid supports for lid.

I made this for my daughter for Christmas last year. Well, actually Santa did, or at least that's what she tells people. I had one of the big companies cut the lumber for me, but a few boards were cut incorrectly. I live about 25 minutes from a local hardware store and needed to have them re-cut. Luckily for me, my father-in-law is handy and he brought out his circular saw and helped me even out my boards. Then, for Christmas I got a gift too - a table saw.

WOW this was our first build. We had some money to get started so went and bought new miter saw and sander, kreg jig, basically everything we needed to build it. Tools aside we spend only about $100 on the lumber to build the coffee table and 2 side tables.

Eric cut notches in the X instead of using 2 separate pieces for the other side, so they fit together like a puzzle piece. it was a learning experience of trial and error, but he got better and better each time.

For the finish i used the tutorial of dissolving steel wool in vinegar and then added a coat of strong coffee which made an ugly green-gray color. I happened to have picked up a can of "autumn" wood stain that when applied made the color pop and look amazing. (thank goodness because i was so frustrated and wanted to give up) when we do this again (cuz i just sold the set we made) i will be better at sanding everything nice and smooth, and do staining/painting of the Xs and the top separately before putting everything together.

I dont recommend the steel wool and vinegar stain, it smelled terrible and was hard to apply because it was watery and ran a lot plus you cant see the color develop for a long time so its hard to see what was wet and what wasn't. yuk. The Minwax "gray" stain they just released would most likely work a lot better. those small can of stains for $6 are big enough for all 3 pieces we built so really i don't think i saved money buying the steel wool and vinegar.

Anyway this was way fun! Cant wait to build again :)

I pretty much just followed the plans.  It turned out a bit more colourful that I expected but I've already sold it so I guess its okay.  I'm going to make another one with a bit more toned down colours.  I also created a matching night stand.  I didn't follow any plan.  Just used the ideas from the bed build.

King Bed made with wood shims. Matching nightstands and mirror

I made this bed for my daughter's Koalas (they are about the same size as the American Girl dolls).

Clara table with chalkboard top.

Modified the bed so that is was not as tall as the original project plan. We also changed the molding on the top to a 2x4 with a angle cut and then a 1x4 on top. The bed can only be positioned one way in the room and we didn't want to cover the window with a real high head board. Thank you Ana! You rock!!

Kentwood night stand and matching headboard!

This project went pretty smooth. I built the sink box out of 1x6 and 1x8. Total cost (if I got the right stuff the first time) would have been about $120. Most of that is in the faucet (a $25 laundry faucet from Home Depot), pulls (about $4.50 each), knobs ($3 each), and hinges. I also purchased the wooden discs for the stove at Michael's for about $1 each. I used common pine and sanded it smooth before painting, which saved a lot of money over the more polished pine products. I used stainless steel spray paint for the fridge and stove door, and leftover paint for the rest of the sink and stove. I glued all joints and used my finish nailer rather than a Kreg Jig. I had a hard time finding hinges that will work, so keep that in mind. I ended up buying some of the European hinges that were surface mounted on the inside, and they work well. One suggestion - if you're planning on mounting these next to each other remember not to allow any overhang on the countertop. The plans call for a slight overhang, and I had to do some messy cuts after I had the cabinets assembled to correct that. I ended up attaching the cabinets together for added stability. Overall this was a surprisingly simple project. I'm considering building another cabinet like the sink/stove without any doors just for some countertop space and additional storage.

This is the second time i made these tables.  The first time was for my son and his fiance to match the farmhouse bed that i made for them but i did not do the inset drawers.  Tried but couldn't get them to sit right.  My niece liked them and didn't have any tables to go along with the bed her new huband's grandfather had built.  I love the inset drawer look so i tried again.  The first one i had no problem with but the second one had to make the drawer box over a couple of times.  I did differ the pattern a bit and used 2" top instead of 1 inch simply because i had some leftovers.  I also used drawer slides instead of wood slides.

Tryde Media Console plans, with slight modifications.

This was my first real project after building a very basic woodworking bench. It might look a bit daunting but is actually very simple - build the box and add some legs. Keep your cuts square and accurate and have a lot of wood filler (putty) on hand for mistakes :)

Tricky parts of this project were:

1) building it here in Australia - our wood sizes are different, and untreated 4x4's are not easily available.
2) hinges - I hate them! Still can't use 'em and may never do again.

I began this project sticking pretty much to the plans Ana posted, just making the width of the console a little narrower as my tv is 36" wide only.

Then I saw a post by the Shanty2Chic sisters who made a Apothecary Media Console with stained doors project and I fell in love. To be honest I wasn't crazy about the open sections on each side of the Tryde Console anyway, and I thought adding doors would be easy. Plus the glass knobs used by the S2C sisters were gorgeous! So I guess you could say this is a Tryde/Apothecary Media Console hybrid.

So this project is pretty much as Ana wrote it except it's narrower, and has doors with faux drawer fronts. And as it always goes the longest part of this project was doing the finish.

Please please read about this on my blog - I go into a lot of detail about the build and finish process and I make a lot of mistakes so you don't have to.

I will be posting the matching hutch project soon as I've finished that too.

UPDATE: You can read all about the matching hutch here

I modified the Braden Shoe Shelf plans to fit our entry space. I also wanted 4 cubbies, one for each family member. This was a Huge learning experience for me but I loved every minute.

I followed Ana's instructions  except for my bench was 56" in length and stained the top red bottom brown.