Community Brag Posts

I built five of these bookshelves for my living room. I wanted them to fill the one wall, so I just divided the length of the wall by five to determine how wide to make each shelf. Also, because I was building several to be pushed together, I didn't want the bulk of 2 by SPF, so I used laminated pine shelving. Two eight foot boards were needed for each shelf, and that left very little waste. I love how they turned out. I blogged more about them (including dimensions) here http://skonkers.blogspot.ca/2014/07/home-is-where-shelves-are.html

I really loved what brookifer86 did with the Rustic Bench plans here: http://ana-white.com/2011/03/rustic-bench-wedding-guestbook. When my daughter got engaged last fall, I knew that this would be a great wedding gift for the new couple.

It was helpful to read several times through her posts and followups. It took longer to come up with the name design than it did to build the bench, so give yourself plenty of lead time on this part. I was able to create the graphic in PowerPoint and enlarge it on my computer screen so that I could tape paper on the monitor and lightly trace the design for transfer to the bench. My husband suggested the addition of a princess crown over our daughter's name just for fun.

Thanks for the tip to use paint pens instead of markers. I made a sign at the reception with spare paper to alert people to shake the pens and give them a spot to test before writing on the bench.

I am doing a test with a spare painted board and the pens to make sure the application of the poly finish does not smear the signatures before sealing the signed bench.

Many thanks for the idea, Brooke, and thanks to Ana for the great bench plan!

My wife loves to garden or as she puts it: "Play in the dirt." But, age is creeping up on us and it's getting more and more difficult to get up from the ground. I built this planter for her so she still gets her hands dirty but not have to get down & up from the ground. Now all we've got to do is place it, fill it with dirt, and let her get her hands dirty putting in selected flowers. - Bob Boesl

Bunk bed and Loft design and manf.
i build triple bunks,special needs beds,toddler,king bunk beds and lofts, you name it i build it with my heavy duty 2x6 design and affordable prices.
check out the site http://www.dreamworksbunkbeds.com

This cute step stool is my first build from Ana's book.

It is made of macrocarpa, and finished with "teak" water-based stain by Resene, danish oil, and clear furniture wax.

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!

For this project, we followed the plans for the Firetruck Bed and also modified them a bit to fit our needs in the room. From start to finish, this project took two weeks to complete and cost us roughly $200 to build and $100 to paint. We were lucky though in that nearly everything we needed to purchase was on special or sale.

I needed a heavy duty dog bed for my puppy after he destroyed two regular dog beds. I used 4x4s, 2x4s and fire hose. He has not been able to destroy this one and he loves it.

I have to say, there is something about listening to music on vinyl that just gives me the warm fuzzies! A little bit of crackle, fuzz and hum.. physically having to flip over the record to get to the next side, & listening to an album start to finish just has a nostalgic feel to me and I love it.

We’ve started quite the collection of LP’s and quickly found we needed some good storage for them. Since vinyl isn’t exactly the most popular form for listening to music, I just had to make my own.

I knew it had to have 3 things.. size to fit, wheels and easy of searching through records.

I had some scrap poplar plywood lying around, and just had to purchase some casters and furring strips to frame out the box. I even had an extra cabinet handle laying around to use.

I made it 12 inches wide by 16 inches deep, framed it out shaker style with furring strips and then stained it.. added casters and a handle ;)

Thank you thank Ana for this awesome plan. It took me a week to transform the ruff cedar into beautiful 2x4. We use the kreg jig everywhere we could so the holes would be hidden, and black deck screws, and I couldn't wait for the cushions to share :) we added the extra pieces at the back and armrests. We used 12 boards 2x4x8 and no waste as we changed the measurements of 24" instead of 25.5 and height at 11" for the seat. One regret I used Thompson water sealer... we live in Florida and I am planning on leaving it outdoor.

I used the corner bookcase plan.  It was easy to follow.  I think it turned out well for my 2nd wood project. My sister had the idea of painting the panels blue to match the buildin bookcases in my libray room.  I have the backs of them painted navy blue.

Thanks so much to Ana and Shanty2Chic for the plans!  I modified the design to exclude the arches - my hands are too weak to make the cuts, but I replaced them with black strapping that matches other features in the house.  I also extended the table to 12 feet long in order to perfectly fit the windows overlooking the lake.  I absolutely love it and will definitely be making more things for our new home.  Thanks again!!!

I designed this desk and created a building plan using Google Sketchup. It has 2 file drawers, 2 smaller drawers, 2 large adjustable shelves and a pullout shelf in the bottom, 4 small adjustable shelves on the top and a large space for a computer monitor. The large door drops open for a large work space. When you're done, put the door up and you have a beautiful piece of furniture!

I consider myself an advanced-beginner when it comes to building. I have just enough knowledge to get me by. If you have time, patience and the right tools you can build this too! It took me 10 days to build, working as much as my kids would allow.

It took me countless hours to perfect the building plan - probably just as much work to design it as it was to build it :)

I really scrounged around to build this desk. I used a large beam my friend cut up into 2x2's for the main posts/legs, pine furring strips for the side boards and around the top for moulding (lots of scraps I already had), 3/4" plywood for the inside dividers/panels & desktop, 1/2" plywood for the drawer boxes, drop-down door & top, 1/4" plywood for drawer bottoms & backing-board. I used 3/4" pine boards for the drawer faces and small doors on the bottom. I used drawer slides from an old dresser I found by our dumpster and vintage knobs I bought online. The other black hardware (hinges, pull handle, and clasps for door) I bought from a big box store and is categorized as gate hardware.

I redid a very old church pew fro one of my friends. It's origins is from one of the original churches in our home town. (There was SO much lacquer on it) This church pew was in bad shape, I had to take it totally apart and re-glue and pocket hole jig every wooden piece together because it was falling apart.

Expecting our second child, my wife and I decided to do away with our guest bedroom and combine it with our office. The only problem was our queen bed took up way too much space and it didn't get enough use to justify the sacrifice. We looked at the wall bed options available for purchase and decided they were way too blah and very expensive. I then found the "A MURPHY BED YOU CAN BUILD, AND AFFORD TO BUILD" post on Ana's website (thanks for the inspiration)! 

 Using cheap pine boards, plywood, door hinges, vinyl upholstery and stain I constructed the wall bed you see here. It really wasn't that difficult but facing it took the most time. To give the boards a more rustic look I used a utility knife to shave off the edges/corners and stained them with the Minwax American Walnut water based stain and the Minwax White Wash Pickling. When this started we thought we were going to have to settle for something unattractive and less than desirable. Seeing it in our office now, we love our new bed and actually think it makes the room look much better!  I didn't keep track of costs, but it couldn't have been more than $150.