Community Brag Posts

My wife wanted a new chest to store blankets in. I saw the plans for the Becca and thought it would be perfect for what we were after.

I used some regular plywood I had laying around and some select pine for the trim. I liked the look of the top in the plan but wanted some more texture to it, so I used a solid piece of plywood for the top and layer pine for the trim features. I tested my new chisels to recess the hinges to minimize gapping under the lid.

We painted it solid black to match the rest of the basement furniture. A few coats of poly finished it off for durability.

This took about 2 months for me to get around to finishing. That's probably about...12 hours of actual work, plus finishing.

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/

We wanted to replace the vented / painted bi-fold closet doors in our Master Suite with something that was warmer and more consistent with the decorating motif of the house.  We priced out various wood bi-fold doors and were shocked at the $350 - $600 price range of what was available.   We decided that building them ourselves was a much better choice.

The frames are made from 1” Knotty Pine and the panels are from ¼” Knotty Pine.   Frames were made to fit and assembled w/ Kreg screws & Glue.  Rabbet channels were cut w/ the router and the panels were brad nailed & glued.

It was finished w/ the same stain used on our Knotty Pine ceilings / walls and finished w/ a satin varnish for a perfect match to our house.

This was a very straightforward, quick & inexpensive alternative to purchasing expensive bi-fold doors.   

The doors took about 15 hours to build / sand and 10 hours to finish.   Total cost was around $100. 

Basically followed the plan, but added 4x4 legs and used 2x8s for the long ends to make it a little wider.  I used the basic plans for the Farmhouse Bench (http://www.domesticated-engineer.com/2012/05/29/bench-for-farmhouse-tab…) for the bench, but tweaked it to make it match the design of the table.

This is my first build and I had so much fun!  I am now officially addicted to DIY and woodworking!  

I started off with a couple of problems right out of the gate but, I really wanted to make this for my Grandaughter for Christmas.  The first problem was the ceiling in her room is 7 feet 6 inches  high.  So, if I lowered the height then the loft platform became too low to install over a twin bed.   It didn’t allow for enough headroom over the mattress.  Plus, I didn’t want her to sleep on a mattress that was on the floor. So, I raised the platform to 48 inches and modified the roof so that I would be able to fit the Alaska Cabin Twin storage bed underneath.  

I also modified the size by increasing the platform dimensions to 40”x48”.   Doing that allowed me to comfortably fit the bed underneath. 

 I was lucky to find laminate flooring on clearance at Lowe’s. I paid five dollars for an open box. I used it to cover the plywood floor. I also used it for the roof by just nailing it to the 2x4s. 

 I wanted my granddaughter to be  able to paint, use her markers, and be as messy as she wanted without restrictions.  One wall is made from dry erase board with 1x4s as shelving to frame it out.  (I used Ana’s flip down desk plans as a guide for the shelving.) The back wall is slat wall from Menards.  I just spray painted it hot pink.  The third wall is a 12 inch shelf framed out by 2x4s. The last wall is leftover 1x3 and 1x4 boards that I stained and painted. 

 My daughter didn’t like the first ladder so I moved it to one side. I stained the ladder with Minwax classic gray. I also used the classic gray stain for the cabin bed frame.  The pink on the cabin bed is  Sherwin Williams “hibiscus.”

 My granddaughter and I finished the bed this evening. She loves helping me “work “in the garage. We ended our build by adding a monster free zone. Monsters will be zapped if they try to enter the clubhouse or the bed! Thank you Ana! 

Mary

I wanted a bunk bed for our daughters, it needed to be easily moveable like the "classic bunk beds." I also wanted stairs like the "Sweet Pea Garden" bunk bed because we have toddlers in the house. I modified the classic bunk bed to put the ladder on the end, then built the Sweet Pea stairs to fit to the opening (I think the only difference in dimensions was a 20" top stair. I didn't want the unfinished ends of plywood so I got 4'x16"x3/4" pine boards from lowes which happens to be the width of the stairs in the plan. Instead of using the 1x2's as trim on the ends of the shelves I put two of them together, one all of the way down the front of each stair and one resting on the top of the stair (screwed together) so I wouldn't lose lateral stability. I then spaced 2x2's in between to keep it "simple" looking instead of the heart shaped decorations from the sweet pea bed. I used some 1/4" paintable composite board to provide a backing to the stairs. I bolted the stairs on to the bed with some flat bar stock cut to size and 3/8' in hex bolts cut to length. I used pocket hole joints wherever possible and countersunk all other screws and used 3/8" dots from lowes to fill the holes. I painted it with a coat of primer and a coat of Glidden Trim and Door paint in antique white from the Easy Vintage Step Stool project.

Made this built in breakfast bench. Came out really well.

This grill table took a weekend to build. The base is made of cedar and top is concrete. More information on how to build this table is available on my blog.

I saw this plan a couple of months ago, and knew right away that this is what we need for our kids - their old table was always filled with papers, crayons and they never had enough space to store whatever they did.

I made the table longer so that it would be enough for both of them, and added foldable legs to support the table top.
Since I didn't find the right hinges for the legs, I used a piece of 1x1 with wood dowels which are attached to the inner side of the legs when unfolded.