Community Brag Posts

A rustic ladder lamp to have over our dining table. Big bulbs and wire mesh lamp shades.

I skipped the X part, I had a few issues with alignment. I also used the oxidizing mix reccomended on the page. Mine turned out very grey, I'm not complaining. Could be because I only let the mixture sit for a few hours? I really dont know. It was a fun project though and I plan to try more for sure. 

Note: The 1x12s didnt oxidize much at all. Neither did the wood filler I used (must make much better cuts next time).

The table is one that I have been waiting for my husband to retire from the Marines to make me. We moved so often while in the military that I knew there was no need to buy expensive furniture just to get damaged. When I found the plans for this I was thrilled.

The edges of the table have been sanded to resemble the worn weathered look.

Please forgive the pictures. I will retake soon.

For my birthday I asked for power tools. My boyfriend followed your video of beginners tools and got me a lot of them.   

For my first project I decided to do the Lighted Chalkboard Sign.  I accidentally nailed my working table and I was drilling the holes with the wrong direction on the impact drill but I managed. Rookie mistakes :)

Everyone loved it and I´m super exited to build new things.

Thanks for the inspiration and easy to follow instructions!

Since everyone else is making them, I had to jump on the bandwagon.  Typical console, but I left off the metal trim (for now at least) and used a wire brush on the top boards and the face of the legs to eat away at the wood and raise the grain.  It gives it tremendous texture and really makes it look more like old reclaimed lumber.

I built this for my daughters for Christmas. I also built another for my friends daughter. Ours is made putting 3 pieces of wood together with pocket hole screws and our friends is just one solid piece. I definitely recommend doing it with just the solid piece. It makes it easier for coloring! It took me about a total of 5 hours to make the 2 tables and 4 chairs not including paint.

I looked at the doll bed plans forever trying to decide which one to make our daughter. I settled on the camp style bed that Jamie from "that's my letter" made from Ana's plans. There was one error in the cut list, you do not need 7-20" 1x2 pieces, unless I really messed up! You only need 5. It was fun and surprisingly easy to build. The sanding and painting took far longer than the actual building. It took me less than two hours to build, including dry time for the wood glue on the rails (hot glue would be faster) I found craft paint brush #16 (3/4 inch) worked the best and fastest for painting all the rails. Any bigger brush and you'd get runs at all the corners. I put on one coat primer, and three coats of paint, probably about 6-8 hours total time in sanding, painting and applying the finish wax. I made the bedding with some cute fabric from Joann's Fabric, also harder than the building! All said and done the extra hours were worth the finished product, it is beyond beautiful and I am so happy! I can't wait to see Elena's face on Christmas morning. (You can build it in 1-2 hours, I put weekend project b/c of the time to finish it) I worked on it for about an hour at a time over a two week period, as I couldn't let her see me working on it!

Farmhouse style computer desk with breadboard top and slat style shelves for printer, and a drawer. 

My brother-and-law has been building a TON of projects from Ana's site. After comparing prices of farmhouse tables online, my husband and I decided to try building our own. I measured our dining room, modified the plans (to make the table slightly shorter and slightly wider), then we picked up some basic tools and lumber, setup a little shop in our garage, and went to work. It took us a whole week (of after-work and after-the-kids-are-down nights) plus maybe a weekend to complete this project.

We started staining the legs of the table with a minwax stain in Dark Walnut, but it left it looking very contrasty/zebra-like. An employee at the hardware store recommended Rust-o-Leum, so we finished up the top with it. Added a clear satin varnish on top (Deft), then moved it inside. We love it!!! (We stained it after distressing it, then added 5-6 coats of varnish).

Things we'd do differently:
1. Invest early in a Pocket Hole Jig (like the Kreg Jig) to piece your wood together. We actually bought one for our second wood project (which I was able to screw together pretty much the entire thing myself...whereas, both my hub and I had to work together to get this table put together...it was a pain!), and wished we had purchased this earlier.

2. Check your wood and get it as straight (not bowed) as possible. Then don't let the sprinklers or rain get on it. :) Don't worry about knots, holes, or other things that could give your table character.

3. You can stain the wood using paper towels. (I did this on the second project...worked great, and easy clean up).

4. Make sure you square up your wood every step of the way. We THOUGHT we did this...but with trying to screw pieces together, and making them fit... now we've got an extra piece of wood underneath one of our legs. :P

I wanted a project to build with my husband, and his desk was falling apart. Mine was old and tiny so we made two of these side by side. I did all my own work with some instruction from him, and it was pretty easy! It was also really fast: I think the total time spent was under 8 hours!

Custom Dining Room Hutch in Paradise Blue with Black Glazing. 

My sons awesome fort. It took some time to complete, as I was doing it on my own. The balancing and juggling act when attaching a few pieces would of made some priceless videos. I used plans from " Clubhouse Bed" as a general guide.

I built the Rustic X Console to store my growing collection of cookbooks.  The plans were pretty easy to follow.   I really struggled with warped boards!

You can check out my blog entry for more photos and details. 

Used this plan as a "practice" platform for a larger version in the future. Very simple yet nice design. I would prefer to hide some pocket holes on the sides to avoid the extra work of plugging them next time. Also, Lauan plywood panels are cost effective way of finishing the back.

This is the final installment (#6) in the doll bed and high chair sets I've been building my great nieces. Each set was decorated with a lamb water-slip decal on the end of the bed (kind of a little theme going). This is the second crib I've built with dowels - I usually use 1" x 2"s - and I learned to use a spade drill bit rather than a regular drill bit. It doesn't split the wood around the holes. I've had a lot of fun building these for my nieces, and now I may have to start building them for my friends' children and grandchildren. :-)

The angles were very challenging. I wanted to replicate the angles of 55 degrees. But of course my saw wouldn't cut them. So I made a quick jig for my miter saw that allowed the supports to be cut on their side just 10 degrees off 45 degrees equaling 55.