Community Brag Posts

This is a modified plan for Ana White's Farm House Table.

I shortened the table to about 72 inches with breadboards on the ends and added removable breadboard extensions for a total of about 100 inches of table for a 12x11 room. I also built the Farm House bench but shortened it to 48 inches.

The wood is white pine and Douglas Fir 4x4 legs. The total cost was $198 for the wood/screws and about $30 for the stain and sand paper. I bought an additional set of countersink bits for holes.

I used the following tools:

• Hand Saw
• Table Saw
• Compound Miter Saw
• Hand Drill with various bits and countersinks
• Square, pencil and straight edges
• Tape measure
• Clamps
• Wood Chisel Set
• Sharpening Stone
• Level

• It took about 35 hours of work.

  The stain is English Chestnut and we pretreated the wood to accept the stain by using wood conditioner. This made a dramatic difference in leveling out the stain between the white pine and Douglas Fir. I used 3 coats of clear polyurethane and 2 coats of satin on the top with gentle sanding in between coats.

This is another piece for my living room to go along with the console table I've already finished. My hope is to replace all of the furniture in the living room with matching pieces to finally have a house that doesn't look like it was decorated through the Salvation Army.

This one has the specific purpose of a toy box for our two year old. Now she has a place to store her toys that she keeps in the living room instead of just piling them up in that corner. It's based on the 6 cube bookshelf design and finished with three coats of Varathane's Kona poly blend over regular pine.

Modified plans to include game storage drawers, a flip open mantle for DVD player and hidden charging port, and hidden cupboards on both sides for DVD storage. I scoured the Internet for months before drawing this up to fit my space and tackling all on my own! I love it and all of my other Ana White inspired projects!

Casey O.

Inspired by Ana's Flip down wall art desk. It has different dimentions since wall space was limited. I used a magnet as a lock, added upholstered back, dowel for storage and extended the bottom part to add some strength. It is very handy!

My hubby is 6'5'' tall. Since most matresses are 80 inches long, he mostly ends up with his feet hanging out of the bed (since you don't lay your head down at the very beginning of the mattress, right?). So I tried to solve this problem by making the bed 4'' longer than the plans suggested. I added 2'' of foam on each end of the bed, so now its 84'' long and my hubby fits perfectly!

Thanks for the great plans, I had a blast building my own bed!

My kitchen needed a rustic pot rack to hang all my pots and pans. Instead of paying way too much money, I decided to get exactly what I wanted by making it myself. $20 worth of 2x6's and spray painted hardware purchased at The Home Depot in an oil bronzed was all that was needed to create this rack. I attached the hardware with metal screws to give it an even more rustic feel.

I always wanted a cabin-type cat tree where my cats could crawl in and feel safe, but still have a great view of the birds out of a window. I tried to draw my vision on paper, but that had a hideous result. Learning Google SketchUp (at least the basics) was an absolute necessity. I could never have built this without drawing it in 3D first, and seeing how the boards would connect, etc.

For the scratch pad, I built a frame out of 2x4s on top of plywood, covered it with carpet, and dropped the standard size scratch pad in place. This is the cat's favorite feature. I put barn doors on the window with tiny hinges so that I can close for added privacy. The tree sits against a window so that the back side is totally open. I made cozy zippered cushions for the platforms (that can be taken off and washed). I covered the carpeted areas with spare carpeting.

My son is a little short for his age and we have been searching for a stool that he could use to wash his hands by himself. I came across these simple and quick plans for an amazingly, functional stool. I spent about 4 total hours on it, made it from scraps that I already had, it looks great and it hold me too... all 230 lbs.

I decided since I was doing a lot of wood working projects I needed to have a work table. I came across the patio table on Ana site and fell in love. I now have a great table in my garage for all my woodworking projects.

Ana,

Thanks so much for your octagon picnic tables plans. I teach a Life Skills Class at Russell Christian Academy for middle school. This class of 18 students completed the build of 4 of these tables (with a little assistance from me) and are now being used as an outside dining area for all grades K-12. It was a great experience for the kids and I have received many positive comments about these tables.

Thanks again…

Used the sturdy work bench plans for the base. The base is 60" x 20". The top is 6'x2'. I wanted 2" overhang all around to accomodate clamping. I used 3/4" oak plywood for the benchtop. It's stacked as follows, oak plywood, 3/4" mdf x 2, oak plywood for a massive 3" thick top. I used pocket holes to join the legs and on a few of the other joints including to attach the top. The benchtop layers are screwed together with 2.5" wood screws with countersinks for the heads. I would have put a full shelf in but that's the piece of wood I had so I used it. I bought the 7" undermount woodworkers vise online for around $70. It's mounted with 2.5" lag screws and washers. I did not use exact 2x4's for the base, I used the standard 2x4's (which are actually 1.5" by 3.5"). The bench is pretty sturdy as is but with the massive top/vise and not using standard 2x4's it is not as solid as I would like. It's fine for now but eventually I going to install some threaded rods through the legs length and width to pull it together rock solid. I put some tung oil on the top and later i'll put some wax paste over that. I'm going to seal the edges with shellac or maybe just leave as is. Eventually put some bench dog holes in the top for my vise. I did this all with a cordless drill/bits, kreg jig, circular saw with homemade fence, rulers, squares, random orbit sander etc. Took about two weeks time, working mostly on weekends. The bench alone is around $130, all bought from a "big box" store. Be ready to spend more $$ on tools if you don't have them. This is my 2nd project.