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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.'

As a beginner I found this very easy to build. I took my time to make sure everything was measured and cut just right. I substituted longer screws for the brackets. The ones that came with the brackets seemed a little short. There's a trick to getting the screws in the brackets. The angled bar swings back to make it easy to attach the screws. Very happy with the finished product.

I saw a picture of marble machine years ago and I finally got around to trying to make my own. I seriously had doubts about getting it working; so I didn’t want to invest money in nice wood. Therefore, besides the dowels, everything you see was made from a scrap 2×4.

As expected, it was a challenge to get mechanism worked out. I had to remake the cup and adjust the pivot point but I eventually got it working as shown in video.

Build Instructions: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-Marble-Roller-Machine/

In Action: https://youtu.be/sel0w0gXGQk

We built this table for my brother and new wife's wedding present. We modified it to use as an outdoor dining set. Instead of using the 1x10 for the tabletop we used 2x6's and for the legs we used 4x4's. We attached the top boards with a Camo fastening system we used last year on our deck (works great to conceal the screws). I stained the frame in Behr Cordovan Brown and the top boards in Behr Cedar Naturaltone. It was our first attempt at building a table and I think it turned out great, only problem was giving it away!

My first pocket hole project! Adjusted plans to make table 50 inches long.

Project is still in progress but so far this has consisted of a firepit, 20x20 slab, 4 cypress columns, bistro lighting, 2 modern outdoor chairs, 1 modern outdoor bench, 4 matching tables, and a project screen.  To come: flower bed, projector storage stand with casters and hinged top, outdoor speakers, and possibly a green egg stand, and extending power to the back of the slab.

I built this table with the dimensions described in the original plans, but made a slight modification by using my Kreg Jig to add pocket holes for attaching the tabletop and seat boards from below rather than drilling down through the top. I'm never really happy with the way a finish comes out after using wood filler, plus not having to fill holes saves a step in the finishing process (which is the really arduous part of the job for me). I also like the sturdiness of the Kreg joints.
This was my first project using the Kreg Jig in an application that didn't have the location for the pocket holes specified, so for the first bench I followed right along with the plans and just detached the drill guide and clamped it to my project to drill the pocket holes as I went along. For the second bench I was familiar with where all the holes should be drilled, so I was able to quickly mark off the location and pre-drill all the pieces assembly line fashion. The second one practically flew together.
If you want to use this method, you will be drilling your pocket holes in the boards labeled "seat support" and "tabletop support" (there are 2 of each of these pieces for each bench/half table). You can mark the position of the tabletop boards on the tabletop supports and drill your pair of pocket holes to correspond roughly to the center of where each board will be (so 6 holes in each of the 2 pieces labeled tabletop support for each bench). Nearly the same process for the seat supports, but remember that the holes to attach the outermost seat board won't be centered because of the location of the front leg. I chose to add a couple of pocket holes through the front leg board as well for extra sturdiness in case it gets picked up by that outermost seat board when the bench/table is getting moved. I have included a picture of the pre-drilled pocket holes to help clarify the above directions.
The build itself can definitely be classified as a beginner project and easily manageable by one lady (although it would be really nice to have a buddy to help move the finished bench...I had to take the tabletop back off mine to move it from my "workshop" (carport) around to my patio). In terms of time, the build for both benches could easily be completed in an afternoon; I ranked it as a weekend project because of the finish. The tabletop and seat boards each have 4 coats of an exterior semigloss paint and I custom blended the colors so that each board gets progressively darker as you go down the bench. I was inspired by the ocean, with the water getting darker as you go deeper and deeper. As you can see from my photos, I rushed headlong into the first bench and put it together unfinished (I was more concerned about figuring out the placement of the pocket holes than the finish.) For the second one I pre-drilled my pocket holes, then put on 2 coats of base coat and 1 coat of color (on seat and tabletop boards) before assembly, saving only the finish coat on the colored boards and touchups on the white boards for after assembly. I definitely recommend the second method.
I worked on the project over a couple of weekends and evenings because of weather and time constraints, but under the right conditions it could be completed in a weekend or even maybe a long day (especially with a second painter and in good paint drying weather). I'm really happy with the final product and I've already been enjoying the comfy bench seat for reading.

As part of a redecorating project using reclaimed barn wood for our guest bedroom, we constructed this window frame to display some photos from one of our siblings of barns found in Iowa.

The dimensions are 44” X 33” with each photographic image being 11” x 16.5”.
Since the wood had so many bore holes, we used ¾” redwood under the visible fascia for added strength.

Cost - $75 / 4.5 hours to build.

http://ana-white.com/2009/12/plans-barnwood-frames-1-and-10-minutes.html

My daughter-in-law requested a pub table for my son’s birthday. Having never done this before I searched the web and found Ana White’s site (great by the way).  Table was built using the image of old_man’s table on Ana White’s site as inspiration (size 42” x 44” x 42” high).  I used 2x8s for the top, jointed and trimmed down to 6” wide and then glued together.  Since I could only clamp up to 25” wide, I made the top into two sections gluing one board at a time to minimize wet boards.  I then had two halves that I glued together using a wedge setup so as to avoid purchasing additional expensive clamps.  Once the top was complete, I sized out my base and opted to place the apron boards between the 4x4 leg instead of placing them outside the legs.  They were attached by drilling pocket holes in the apron and then attached with glue and screws.  The top was then attached to the legs and apron from using 1 1/2” right angle brackets.  As old_man stated and I concur, this table is HEAVY....  Thanks to both Ana White and old_man for the inspiration.

This is one of my favorite pieces on Ana's site. I knew the minute I laid eyes on it I had to build it. I hope you guys enjoy it half as much as I do.You can read the full details of the build at my blog here:

http://copycatcarpenter.blogspot.com

This week's project was an outfeed/assembly table. A project that iv'e been needing for a while now. It's mostly constructed with 2x4's and plywood and mdf for the tops. I added caster the the legs to keep it mobile in my shop in case of having to move it around. I'm extremely happy with it and I love the extra space it provides underneath.

Blog article: http://www.lanebroswoodshop.com/2015/05/assemblyoutfeed-table.html

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hap5Dv60qHw

Both my princesses absolutely LOVE their dollhouse. It was my first diy project and it's wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. 

I was inspired to try this after reading all the comments and being discouraged by the high price and poor quality of commercial sandboxes. We followed the instructions and it was super easy! I'm a complete novice, so if I can do it, anybody can.

After cutting the wood and sanding it, it only took about three hours to assemble the sand box. I then primed and painted it the next day taking about 3-4 hours. We also attached a landscaping barrier to the bottom with a staple gun to prevent weeds from growing through the sand. We used 10 bags (50 lbs) of play sand, but you could get by with less.

So far, it's been a big hit with my three-year-old son.

Instead of having the plywood top sit on top of the frame, I sunk it into the frame instead with 2x4 supports underneath.

I've been wanting to build a pedestal dining table for a while, and loved these plans!