Community Brag Posts

This is the cooler stand presented by Jenny from Birdsandsaoap. Very easy to build and always ends up with someone asking to buy it or have you make them one.

We have 12 foot studs in our house so I wanted to make use of the height of our ceiling to provide more space on the floor for the boys to play! With two boys sharing a room, the beds were going to take up a lot of valuable floor space. I found the bunk bed plans in Ana's book and decided to modify them to make loft beds. We had to do two so decided on an L shape so we could fit them into the room! Once we made the first bed we decided we should put only one set of stairs in to save space. The safest way we could think to do this was to place the stairs against the wall so the boys were less likely to fall. The stairs double as book shelves. The coloured rope was an added safety feature we thought up and gives me peace of mind! This was a fun, relatively easy build for two non-builders making their first big project. I bought a Kreg pocket hole jig for this project and it was a life saver. I can't imagine doing this build with out it!!! We completed it in about two to three days while my brother was down on holiday. It was fun and good brother sister bonding time! I am about to embark on phase two of the boys room, this time by myself , adding a storage dresser under one bed. I will modify Ana's laundry dresser plans to fit some plastic storage boxes. Then a day bed/sofa under the other bed using Ana's Alaska cabins day beds plan and finally (if I'm still standing) a shorter version of the craft table for the middle of the room! That's my year planned! Hope you enjoy the pictures, the beds are so big and high it's very hard to get a good photo. 

Corner unit for kids bedroom. Added fabric boxes from ikea. The fit perfectly 

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.

This was exactly what I wanted for an accent wall in my family room. It was an easy build!
The mantel in cedar that my son in law had laying n his yard. I hollowed out the back the size of a 2x4x 30” long. I mounted it to the fireplace with liquid nails and wood 5” wood screws. Then I predrilled 3 holes in the top that went through the cedar and 2x4 and into the 2x4 backing under the shiplap. The mantel cavity was covered with liquid nails and then placed over the mounted 2x4. I use the 5” screws to help secure the mantel. It’s perfect. I love it!

For my first woodworking project, I foolishly decided to build a rabbit hutch without plans for my daughters new Easter Bunny. So I literally scratched some ideas on my wood working bench and started going to work. I did some construction over a decade ago, but never attempted to build any furniture before, so I'm pretty happy with how this came out.

I spent a few days researching various rabbit cages and for our place we needed something that was ascetically pleasing and functional as it was going in our living room. I got some ideas from the web and decided the best thing for us would be to have an entry ramp, 2 sets of barn doors for each level (for easy cleaning) and an open roof. We went with linoleum floors since she's already litter trained. The floors could easily be modified to add 1/2" wire mesh if we decide to change things down the line. Also, we chose an espresso finish with silver hardware to accent the wire mesh

I pretty much crashed and burned on the staining as I've never done that before, but it ended up looking ok after all. I did a light sanding, but will probably invest in a planer and jointer to get my wood in better shape before assembling in the future. Also, I'll probably lightly dab some stain on ends of wood before final assembly as it made it difficulty trying to hide the white pine with the dark stain.

Other cages I saw ran around $200-$350.00 so i don't feel so bad about the cost. It's really the time that it took learning and making mistakes. I'm sure if I had plans I could of cut my time in 1/2.

Total Cost came out to around $150.00 but probably would of been cheaper if I had some plans to go by. I probably wasted a few 2x2s and accidentally mis-cut a scrap piece of 1/4"plywood which added another $16.00 to the bottom line.

Here's a breakdown of my total cost.

Hardware - $30.00
Includes 5 latches, 4 sets of hinges (8 total) and a 3' piano hinge

Stain - $8.00

Linoleum Tile @ ¢.69 sq ft - $16

Brushes, Stain Rags - $5.00

Screws - $6.00

Wire Mesh Roll $30.00
Needed 2 rolls at $15.00 each. I used 1" Wire Mesh measuring 2'x15'

Total Wood $50.00-$60
I used 2x3's for the legs - 2 @ 8' - $2.00 each ($4.00)
probably 15-20 2x2's - $1.52 each - can't remember how many I used to be honest ($30.00)
and a few 1x6's for the Doors - $2.00 each ($6.00)
Sheet of 1/4 plywood - $12.00

Ana, I borrowed the structure of your hexagon picnic table and created a coffee table to compliment my collection of Adirondack chairs on our patio. The rib structure using 30 degree angles is surperb, and with pocket screws on the joints plus Gorilla Glue, it is far stronger than I anticipated.

The table is first shown unpainted, then again on the patio in poor light (sorry for that.) I primed and then painted it brick red and am in the process of updating the paint on all of the chairs to match.

The 30 degree angles are probably the trickiest part. If your saw is off by even a tiny bit, the tolerance buildup will come back to bite you. For example, if each cut is off by 1/2 a degree, you have six cuts, which equals 3 degrees of error. My mistake was not calibrating the cuts made on my table saw or mitre saw. A professional woodworker buddy of mine suggested buying a cross-cut sled for my table saw. That's my next purchase.

Overall I am very happy with the final outcome despite the slight imperfections in the spacing between the slats. A little wood filler covers a multitude of sins!