sideboard
Simple sideboard with two drawers.
2. two coats white semi gloss
Simple sideboard with two drawers.
This is my first try at building! Well, I have built above ground gardens but never furniture. Seeing what everyone has done on this site encouraged me to give it a try too. I'm so glad I did and it turned out exactly as I wanted. Now, I have several other projects that I'm excited to start. This could get addicting.
I needed a side table for my office and wanted it to match the decor. I have all black picture frames and accessories and needed the wood to look very similar to what was on the couch. I had planned on painting the bottom shelf but really liked it plain so decided to stain it as well.
After 10 years of kicking around back packs and shoes that are always in the way, my wife decided she would like a Hall Tree for our foyer. For the last year or so I have been gathering ideas from the internet and putting plans together in “Sketchup”. I wanted to re-purpose some old doors and door knobs and was fortunate to find them at local auctions and antique malls. I’ll have to say that finding a pair of matching solid wood doors was the hardest thing to do. I was lucky to find a pair at an antique mall, and only paid $36 for both. The porcelain door knobs are used for hanging our jackets and coats. I found several of these at an auction. I used a piano hinge for the bench and installed a soft close hinge made by “Sugatsune” which I found on “Amazon’s” website
Not cheap but well worth eliminating the dreadful slamming sound of the bench door. I had never distressed anything, but this and my wallet received plenty during the build. I’d have to say the best part of the build was working with my little cookie monster. She was always wanting to help, and I’m gonna let her because you all know as well as I that those days won’t last forever. Not a professional by any means, but Thanks for looking.
Thu, 05/07/2015 - 11:31
This is really fantastic. I love the doors as a design element. I may just have to head out this weekend and find some matching doors.
This is the first bed I have built. It turned out better than I expected. The plans were great and easy to follow. I completed the bed from start to finish in two days. The steps I made from leftover material.
The Factory cart was really easy to put together.
I This project is definitely the most difficult I've ever built. I've done lot of drawer slides before, but for some reason this one was the hardest. I think the culprit was squaring, which was mysterious to me bc I'm careful to take a square constantly. Could've been bowed boards, too. But, after some patience and forcing the boards to do what the should, it worked. I did rip down 2x4's for strength b/c our stores do not carry the upgraded 2x2's and furring strips would just not have been strong enough for a dresser. My son is very happy to finally have a place for his clothes. Thanks Ana for these plans!
I had to redesign the top because my wood was too narrow and warped to make it as per the plan, and I'm too cheap to go and buy some more. I think it worked out OK. I enjoyed making this piece and I'm trying to develop my accuracy in wood working. My patience for the "finishing" element is improving, but I'm still a Sand-a-phobe.
Our little one may be happily playing independently but the second I go to make dinner she demands to be held and refuses to be put down, making cooking impossible. To help keep her occupied but still involved I've been eyeing a learning tower / kitchen helper on Amazon for months now, but at $200 it just wasn't in our budget. My sister-in-law had made a learning tower from a plan by Ana White and suggested I try to make one too. I was unsure at first, I've never made anything more complicated than a birdhouse, but I decided to give it a go!
Please see my blog post for additional photos and lessons learned during this project.
Thank You Ana-White for the amazing plans for this beautiful farmhouse queen bed! Not bad for the first try!
Built by Wndy D Keever-Keefe
"This was my very first build ever. Totally inspired by Ana White, I happened upon her site one day about 4 years ago and have since built lots of her plans."
Dear Ana White.,
First, I am a fan of your woodworkingand I follow you on YT. I like your approach to projects, making it simple and easy but still making very fine pieces that both are nice looking at and good for use.
My former neighbor needed a bench in the hallway of her new apartment; with the desired measures (roughly) 5’x19-20”x18” (150x50x45 cm). And then I saw your mudroom bench on YouTube which inspired me building my own bench according to the general ideas from yours’. So, I made like a frame with 2x3”, then I let the plywood sides proceed down to the floor, leaving a space between the carcass and the floor of 15 cm (6”), for shoes. Three drawers and using a scrap bit as space block for the drawer slides it was not that hard to get them in place. The top sheet is a slab of massive oak that are sold as “shelf material” at our local store (Bauhaus, possibly the Swedish equivalent for home Depot?).
I think it turned out pretty well, and I am grateful for your work, inspiring me and making my own woodworking easier.
Best//Göran Redmo Tyresö, Stockholm Sweden
Fri, 11/05/2021 - 11:36
This is a timeless beauty, I love the mods you made, thank you for sharing!
I emailed my husband the plans for this desk on a Friday night and said we HAVE to make this desk this weekend. I can't believe he actually went for it! Well it turned into about 3 weekends and some nights of painting. We also had some issues getting straight and square plywood and boards with knots in them. He also added some extra holes in the sides for me to adjust the shelves. We used an oil based white paint to finish the desk and looks nice and clean and shiny. I can't wait to get started on our next project! Please check out my blog for more details and photos and information on materials used, etc. (kitcats-studio.blogspot.com/2011/craft-table-made-from-plans.html
PS - {I had one more coat of paint on the drawers to finish so ignore the bare fronts of the drawers.}
This is the first furniture building project that my husband and I have completed. It took us about 5 weekends to complete it- including finishing.
We started with the benches as recommended in some of the comments and ended up buying a pocket hole jig and redoing the tops of the benches before completing the table.
The stain is Minwax Red Chestnut and there are three coats of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane on it. We're so happy with it and can't wait to start the next project!
Built for my sister. Because she liked mine so much :) I also built her an apothecary console to use as a side board in the dining room
very easy. I ordered my pins and ball off amazon
What a great project! Simple and relatively easy. Very stylish chair!
I built this hutch from Ana's book. I made a few modifications to the plans. The stained top and stained back planks are from reclaimed wood. If you build this hutch be sure to choose white knobs. I my opinion, its what makes those hutch pop. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them. - Brad
In reply to WOW by Ana White Admin
Wed, 06/12/2013 - 18:15
Thank you Ana. I love your book and your website :)
Tue, 10/28/2014 - 07:25
Hello! I am currently building this console table and hutch. At the moment, I am stuck on attaching the console legs to the side aprons. The legs are not sitting flush with the side aprons. Did you have this issue with your 2x2's when attaching them to the side aprons? If so, how did you fix this issue? The directions say to attach flush to the aprons but mine won't be flush on both sides, only one.
This kitchen island should be your next project. My wife wanted me to build an island for so long, but I never thought I had the skill to get it done. I can truly say this was only my second woodworking project and it was pretty simple. I learned a lot along the way and made a modification to the drawer rails. The key to my success was the Kreg jig. In the end it was a blast to build and I couldn't have done it without Ana's plans.
The rolling kitchen island is the central point of the kitchen now, even though we have 75'sf counter space to use. It seems to be used by everyone in the family whether it's getting something out of the fridge or using it for serving. Well worth the effort..
MODIFICATIONS: I made two small modifications to the project.
One was the casters. Instead of the plate casters I installed threaded stem casters with a T-nut in the bottom of the legs. The casters are adjustable so it's easy to keep level. The second mod was the drawers. I initially built the drawer with wood rails, but was not happy with the drawer falling to floor, if you pulled it out to far. Living in a humid climate, I could see the original rails swelling and then the drawer would be hard to operate. My solution was to add metal rolling sliders. I had to remove the 2 x 2's on inner cabinet and the 1 x 2s on the drawer itself. I added 1 x 2s on the inner cabinet, mounted 12" metal sliders ($5)) on the 1 x 2s and screwed the other half of slider on bottom of drawer. It may require a small shim behind sliders to make it fit perfect though. I provided photos of this mod. My drawer works perfect now. There is no dragging, no falling out and no wear.
Hi Ana! This project was pretty much inspired by ALL the great things you build on this site, as well as from watching a 'Fixer Upper' marathon (hence, the white color and shiplap). Last Christmas, I promised my sister that I'd build her a hall tree since she's now up to 10 grandkids and needed more hooks for all those coats and hats. Unfortunately, I also came down with a WICKED case of vertigo, so no power tools for yours truly. : (
Well... The vertigo finally cleared up, so it was time to get out my trusty ol' Kreg Jig and fire up the tools.
This project started with 2 4x4s. I cut 17 1/2" off each, then used the long pieces as the back and the sort pieces as the front legs. Then I built a rectangle (shored up by some cross supports) out of 2x3s and used those to attach the back legs together with pocket holes. I did the same thing with the 2 front legs, then attached the 2 sets of legs together with shorter pieces of 2x3s that framed up the side.
Next, I added a front to back support to the underside, and then attached the bottom of the seat on top of that. I built the front, back, and side pieces of the bench section by cutting a couple of 8' x 8" x .5" planks to size, and attached 2 pieces to each side by gluing and nailing them to the frame. Then, I rans some shiplap up the back (glued and nailed to the back frame) and topped it all off with a mantle.
For the seat, I used a 12" project board ($11 at Lowes for a 6 foot section) because I love all the knotty details and nail marks. I framed it out with 1x1 and attached with pocket screws on the underside. I finished that piece by staining it in Rustoleum Dark Walnut.
As for the rest, I just framed the shiplap section with leftover 1x1s, then sanded and stained the whole piece with the same Dark Walnut stain (so that something would show through after distressing). Finally, I applied 2 coats of Rustoleum Linen White Chalk Paint (LOVE that stuff!), distressed it, and topped with one coat of Minwax 1 Coat Poly (ALSO love that stuff), and added some hardware and country do dads from Hobby Lobby (Rustic Hooks, 'Bless This Home' Sign, Decorative Doorknob, and "Mitten Clip" for wet mittens and gloves coming off little hands) . What do you think? ヅ
Our daughter has a very small room. She also LOVES disney princesses. So I wanted to build her a princess castle bed.... but how do you fit a castle bed in a 9x11 bedroom?
There were some plans on Ana's site (good plans), and others on-line. But many of these plans had the bed on the TOP of the castle, and we were concerned with her trying to make her way down if she needed to in the middle of the night.
She also loves her Disney princess canopy bed that she has now... so if I could somehow build the castle around that bed, we'd be set. Which is exactly what we did.
I reviewed several pictures online, and then designed this bed with Sketchup (I LOVE that tool).
There is storage in the stairs, in the towers on the front down below, and in the back up on top. I also put rope lights inside around the ceiling over her bed for that 'Night light Princess glow."
There is also enough room on top for her bed if she wants to put it up there at some point in the future.
The idea for the decoration came from another poster who simply used the Vinyl Disney princess wall decals.
She loves it. Plus its big enough for daddy to read stories to her up in the loft at bedtime!
I've posted the plans on the sketchup warehouse... here is the link...
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=65f7fb029052c660cb6c…
If you can't find it with that search the sketchup warehouse for 'castle bed.'
Sat, 07/27/2013 - 16:17
Nice work. We worried about the height for our three year old, and if I were to build another (hah!) I would definitely make it lower. Carpeting the stairs is a good idea, I think I'm going to do the same. You've done well to cram everything into a small footprint. We're house-shopping now, and the tape measure comes with us. Gotta have 2.8m in the kid's room! Decals are great. My daughter went off hers for a while - nothing breaks your heart like a kid saying they want to give away something you worked really hard to build, even if you know they don't mean it. My wife put on some big wall stickers of a tree with squirrels and birds and suddenly she's in love with it again. Princess indeed (eyeroll).
Sat, 07/27/2013 - 20:53
Interesting your commented today :-) I am doing a similar project for my son for his 3rd birthday (this weekend) making a Lightning McQueen garage for his Ligthning McQueen bed...
Thanks for your comments... the castle project was fun. Its been fun to be able to even do these things now that I've visited Ana's site. And yes- I know its going to be a bummer when they no longer want the castle, or the garage (I had my son's bed in his garage tonight and not knowing better he hopped on the bed and jumped and bumped his head bad... now he's scared to have the bed in the garage- AND ITS NOT EVEN DONE YET!)
Thanks again..