Community Brag Posts

My wife saw something like this on Pinterest and desperately wanted one. The one she saw was hexagonal in shape. We didn't need as many swings so we went with just a plain square shape. We used 6x6s for the legs and posts across the top and used 4x4s for the angled support pieces. We built the swings using the plan from this website. All the materials can be picked up at the blue and orange stores. However when it came to the springs for the swings, the blue store was 1/3 of the price of HD. The legs are 12' long and buried 4' under the ground and cemented in for strength. Luckily I am retired military and was able to rent an auger for 1/2 the price of HD or the blue store. You could do it by hand but it saved us hours and lots of back pain. We found our dimensions for the size we wanted and spray painted dots on the ground where the posts were going to go. We dug the holes and stuffed the 6x6s in them. Using a post level we made sure they were plum. We braced them and added the quickrete and left them to setup over night. The next day we had to make sure all the tops were level with each other. This is where having some knowledge of physics paid off. I took clear tubing and screwed it above the height that I wanted on one post and then screwed the other end to another post. Fill it with water until the water level on the first post is where I wanted it (8 feet high) and it will automatically fill it level on the other end. There is a picture of this above. Water will always level itself out. I had to do this because my yard is at a slight down hill grade. We marked it and cut the tops off to make it level. After attaching the 6x6s on the top with 8" lag bolts it was time to paint. After painting was done we built 3 swings from Ana's plans. We shortened them by 6" to give room to walk between the legs and the swings. All in all it was a great project that only took two dedicated weekends. My wife still has to paint the swings though.

I've been wanting to build this plan for quite some time! Took me about 2 hours to build and 1 hour to finish. Giving these as gifts for Mother's Day! Total cost was about $15 per planter. I scaled down the design after I found the plants I wanted to put in them. Ana has the best and easiest plans!

I used deck boards instead of 2x6 for the top and seats; this lightened the table overall while negating the need to sand and finish the boards.

I also used a cedar-tone treated board so staining wasn't necessary.

Kelly S.

My family needed a seating area for our tiny kitchen and a built-in banquette solved our spatial design problem perfectly! I basically built it like a short and wide freestanding wall with a board & batten design and plywood top for seating. More details on my website post...

We went off the Farmhouse table and bench design but had to customize the length of the table and bench so that it fit in our kitchen space. The table was our first ever project and we made a few mistakes but learned from them and built the bench and are hoping to move up to the Farmhouse bed and then the fullstorage bed. 

This was my first project from Ana's website and I'm hooked! I'm a beginner, but thank goodness for my Dad's help because I have a lot of learning to do!

I wanted the drawer to be 1 drawer instead of 3. I feel like it looks cleaner (without having to adjust 3 drawers constantly to make it look good when you push them in). I was thinking the bed could actually be used as a trundle bed in the future too! I use this to store toys right now and it is Awesome!

I increased the bed size to fit a twin mattress and increased the height of the bed slightly so that the drawer would be a little bit deeper. We also added a back to the bed and carried around the trim to make all sides look the same. We added a bumper to the back and sides of the inside of the bed so the drawer is easy to push in and fits in snug. Finally we reinforced the bottom of the drawer with more 1x4 boards so that if a child does sleep in it, it would be more sturdy. I now have kids come over and jump into the drawer (literally) and I'm glad we reinforced it.

The changes we made did add to the cost and our time (as well as being newbies), but I think it's worth it and the bed turned out beautiful!

First time building for re-sell. I sanded everything before assembly and used pocket hole contruction so I wouldn't need to fill holes. Each one will be finished per customer request. Each unit takes about 2 hours to build start to finish.