Community Brag Posts

We bought a vacation home that has such a small kitchen. I knew we needed more storage. So I checked out Ana's plans and made this bad boy based on the Simplest Armoire plans.

The home is in the mountain/lakes area of northern New Hampshire, so I wanted to bring the outside colors in. I used Valspar Cabin Red paint and the Valspar Antiquing glaze over the top after distressing it a bit.

Spring is around the corner and I had no outdoor furniture. My boyfriend had just talked me into a new weber grill, which did not leave much budget for new outdoor furniture. That's when I came across this web site and thought 'I can do that'. So I talked me boyfriend into helping build this Simple Outdoor Conversation Set. We used plans for the Simple Outdoor Lounge Chair and Simple Outdoor Ottoman and then followed the alterations by post for 'My Modern Outdoor Patio Collection' to make the loveseat.

The whole project came together over 5 days.
Day 1: Cut all boards (5 hrs)
Day 2: Sand all boards (5 hrs)
Day 3: Stain all boards (6 hrs)
Day 4 & 5: Assemble furniture (9 - 10 hrs)

The total project took about 25 hrs and cost about $350. Here's the breakdown wood and supplies $204 from Lowe's for pretreated wood. $145 on cushions (NOT ON SALE); $60 for the seat cushions from Home Depot and $80 for the back cushions from Wal-Mart. We were originally planning on only having the seat cushions, but the seats were long when you set in them with your back against the bear wood (I was setting so far back, my feet couldn't reach the floor) so we opted for thick back cushions to make it more comfortable. The project finished up just in time for our first BBQ party! (March 2012)

A white spruce base painted with hessian chalk paint and waxed with furniture wax over the top. Topped off with a section of oak block kitchen counter waxed with dark oak wax

We built this for our daughter's 6th birthday! Love how it turned out :D  As you can see we opted to leave the plywood backing off for the time being so she can use it as a doll house and play on both sides. When she grows out of the doll house phase we will either convert it to a book shelf, donate, or sell in a yard sale ... so many options!

This was my second project (first was a work bench) and it came out great.

My very first furniture build! Took me about 5 days, but as a beginner I found it very easy to follow the plans. I did buy a Kreg jog for this project, highly recommend it! Other tools used were a miter saw, circular saw, and drill.

Hi Ana. Been a fan of yours. My name is Ed. Wood working is my hobby. And its always nice to look at your plans, and put my own spin on it. My wife wanted a planter for our deck. So I tweaked your plans and made them a little bigger. I Also built her a herb garden too. With these new planters; it should put a stop to the rabbits eating everything.

Thanks for your inspiration.

I used some leftover boards from our composite deck for the surface part of this picnic table. I used a lot of Kreg joints to screw up into the boards from underneath, so I didn't have many exposed screw heads. I did have to redesign this plan slightly for me because of my composite board width. Ended up costing $5 for the 1x3 spruce, and I finished it with primer and exterior latex paint leftover from painting our garage doors.

This is the first of 3 raised garden beds based on Ana's plan found here: raised garden beds. My and our twin 5 yr old daughters' job this weekend is to fill them. CAN'T WAIT!

MODIFICATIONS
He added a board to the top to make them a little higher. Our first set of boards came from Home Depot, and this box came to around $30. The boards are really rough, so we may sand them a bit as we have little kids and don't want TOO many splinters. Our next 2 boxes will be made from materials from another chain here in Minnesota, Menard's, and they are much smoother (and cheaper - on sale this week for $1.50 a board!)

We also had a really hard time finding outdoor 1" screws, so he used 1 1/4" ones and didn't countersink them.

I am also planning on putting in some landscape fabric inside to help keep weeds out and water/dirt in, since the seams are porous.

I had so much fun building this! I got a little creative with the corner section and decided to make it a table. I built a small hatch so that I could put in a container for ice and cold beer. When the hatch is not in use, the container can be removed and the hatch can be closed to provide more table space. I also added drink holders! 

Finished it in about two weeks, but that was during my sons daily two hour nap window and two days of staining. Had to make a few adjustments so the pillow from West Elm would fit, because the plan calls for 11 slats on the deck when it should be 12. I added some wheels to the back and will add pull out drink tables soon. It was a fun project and my wife is thrilled.

Our guest room finally has a headboard! I put together this queen size headboard using what I had learned building my daughter's headboard (and consulting the plans for the Reclaimed Wood Headboard) using the remainder of the plywood sheet from her headboard project, 2x3s for the legs, a 2x4 to join the legs (and connect to the metal bed frame), furring strips, and a 1x3 to top it off.

Our plywood had been cut to fit our car, so the first vertical furring strip was placed to hide the seam where I joined the two pieces back together. Then we evenly placed them from center as just looked right to us.

We had a great time seeing this come together as we didn't follow a specific plan, but were able to be a bit more creative inspired by various plans.