Community Brag Posts

I made this chair for my 3 year old son who is obsessed with Disney Cars based off of Ana's 

Super easy little Adirondack chair plans.

Basement storage shelves -
I’ve been wanting shelves down here for a long time but I couldn’t see how to do it with the spray foam walls and plastic over gravel floor. I modified Ana’s plans to make the top shelves extend back and anchor to the upper studs. Thankfully, the floor was level and I only had to put foam under the feet to protect the plastic. It’s not pretty but it gets the job done!

Changing table built for my first niece.

A good friend of mine, a pastor of a local church, asked me to build a pulpit for their recently finished church up in the countryside of Grenada. She showed me a picture of what she had in mind and based on that, I drew my own plan in SketchUp, and then built it out of Yellow Pine boards and Plywood.

Note to the dimensions:
After I drew the plan, and just when I was at the lumberyard to have the plywood and boards cut, I thought I might have had it estimated not wide enough, so I decided on the spot to make it 2" wider and the top panel 2" wider and deeper too. So if you'd like to build based on my plans, please consider if it's wide enough for your purposes.

This is what I used (corrected measurements here):

2x 2x8 26" long YP Boards (Base)
1x 18 1/2" x 6 1/2" Plywood (Base Support Panel)
1x 26" x 16" Plywood (Top)
1x 18 1/2" x 9" Plywood (Shelf Panel)
2x 45" x 9 1/2" Plywood (Side Panels ) - these are cut angled, see plans
1x 44 1/2" Wood Moulding (for the "stopper" on the top panel, and the "back" of the top shelf.

This bar ensemble for our family room was made mostly from reclaimed materials. Inspired by Ana’s plans, and modified to fit spaces and materials available. The 36” tall bar and 30” tall fridge cabinet are made from frames of 2x4, with the tops/shelves/outsides covered in ¼” plywood, and outside edges covered with corner moulding. The bar and fridge cabinet tops are edged in lattice. The frames for the counter height bench and stool are from 2x4. The padded seat for the bench is the back from another bench, re-purposed. The foam for the bar stool is scraps pieced together. Reclaimed materials used (mostly from a room we disassembled): 2x4 – formerly studs ¼” Plywood – painted plywood was formerly used as wall paneling Lattice –was used as trim to cover the wall paneling “seams” Bar stool seat – ¾” plywood from the closet, foam scraps pieced together Bar bench seat – foam and vinyl covered plywood (re-purposed back from another bench)

I wanted to build a small shower bench. I used the Providence Bench Plans and just made it a bit smaller with a few adjustments. This bench is 35" long and 18" tall. I did not use the cross supports on the bottom because it was so short. Also, you will see that I turned the bottom stretcher and side supports flat/horizontal. I put the screws for the seat boards through the top down just because this was the easiest way for me to do it. The plans did not show in detail how to attach the seat boards from the underside. It just said "finally, the seat boards." I guess they probably used a pocket jig. I bought a pocket jig and used it in the couple of places, but this was my first time using it. I used brown, coated decking screws in the places I did not use the pocket screws. This was my first attempt at building anything and my first time to use a pocket jig. I used a natural wood stain and Behr Weather-Proofing since it will be in a wet area.

This was a fun project to get my feet wet again in woodworking. We adjusted the plans slightly. Our table is 80" x 40". It is supported and bordered with a 2x4 frame that ties it all together. As my friend said, you can stand on that thing. Lots of fun, and can't wait for my wife to enjoy it.

I turned some old oak shelves that I got from an estate sale into a 3' wide Scandinavian slat bench.

With much needed seating in the mudroom, an unused space (nook) was used to build a mudroom bench and shelf. No plans were used. I basically looked on-line and mentally drew up an idea of how I wanted the final product to look.  

There were some setbacks such as not like the knock down textured walls (after partially painting the bench). I ended up covering the textured walls with hardboard and repainted.

A bench cushion was made for added comfort and style.

Complete tutorial for the bench is here and the bench cushion tutorial is here.

Thank you.

Julie

After dreaming about a new bed for ages, I finally built up the nerve to make our own.  This was actually pretty easy, but it helped to have hubby there for some parts, just because of the size and weight of this thing.

My 1x8s were 7.25", so to compensate, I just added a single 1x2 in the middle.  Perfect fit!

We like to move (!) so we modified the bed to be easily moveable.  I purchased some heavy duty bed hardware from Amazon ($25) and deck/joist hangers from Lowes. 

I put the deck hangers on the bottom of the 2x10s, and the 2x4s sit vertically and free in the hangers.  So, next time we move, we'll just pick up the 2x4s, and unlock the 2x10s from the head & footboards and take off!  :) 

We lowered the 2x10s so that the total height of the mattress + box spring + vertical 2x4s wouldn't be too high for me to climb on to every night.  I have knocked my toe nail on the side rail a couple of times already, so maybe in hindsight I should have raised it a teensy bit.  

I did forget to decrease the length of the side rail, since we didn't hang it on the inside like Ana did.  That's an easy fix, though.

For the finish I used Weathered Gray stain first....and freaked out because it looked SO gray!  But I convinced myself it would turn out, so I kept going.  Next I did some heavy sanding, followed up by Special Walnut stain.  Finished up with a coat of furniture wax over the layers.   

We LOVE our new bed!  Thanks, Ana, for the plans and your website!  Next up: replacing those 1999-era side tables and dresser!  :) 

I designed this desk from another desk I built. With this one, I wanted the overall foot-print smaller but still something that was able to organize all our office stuff and be able to close everything to keep it clutter-free. We have a small apartment, and although this desk is about the size of an up-right piano, it works perfectly into our living space!

I made it out of raw hardwood (Ash) and because I knew just the wood alone would make this desk heavy/bulky to move I made the top hutch removable. It's held in place by wood pegs (dominos). All the shelves are adjustable and the drawers are full-extension (something I've never had - wahoo)! The drop-down door is help up by 2 pull-out boards on each side (my first desk had chains). I spend a lot of money on this desk because I knew it was a chance in a lifetime to make and wanted it to be perfect and something that would last generations.

I built the main carcass off of plans/measurements I designed, but then all the insides, drawers, shelves, doors, etc where made as I built (because just a millimeter difference in building changes everything)!

If you want more pictures/descriptions of the building process I wrote about it in a 4-part series on my blog.

Loved this first project! Can't wait to start the TV stand. Thank you Ana White 

So my sister in-law kept sending me tables on craigslist that were for sale. I didn't like anything I was seeing and to buy what I wanted I was looking at roughly $1000 so I found these plans and was like... YES! When I told the family I was doing this they were all pretty much like... "yeah sure, good luck"
I knew that I could do I just needed the plans which were here.

I pretty much stuck to the plans with a few exceptions. I made the table longer to accommodate the entire family on Friday Family Night...! It's a little over 10' long. Instead of 3 – 1x12x8 I went with 3 - 2x12x10. One because as I said earlier I wanted the table longer and two because I just felt that the 1x12 was too flimsy and I wanted something real solid. Because of that I ended up putting pocket holes on each side of all the 2x12 boards and I also put a 2x6 in the middle for additional support.

Everything was pretty much right on except for the base posts, for some reason they were about 2" too short which forced me to cut the upper parts of the X on the base a bit shorter as well. I ended up putting an additional 2 2x6 on top of the base to raise the table to the height I felt was necessary. If I did it over I would have just made my base post 2" higher and only used one additional 2x6 for the additional height.

I ended up staining it with a semi-transparent beige stain to give it a grayish look.

I gotta say everyone was like "holy crap...!" and thought it was beautiful. I gotta say it feels really good to build it yourself and especially when it comes out the way you want it.

thanks so much for the plans!!!

This is inspired by mud room bench with drawer. Apparently I had to make quite some modifications as this is for a bay window bench with trapezoid shape instead of a rectangular. In the middle are 2 drawers, at both ends are corner cabinets. Ana's design worked beautifully as the foundation of my project.