Community Brag Posts

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.

I have hunted for the perfect dining room bench for my large family but they were either to poorly crafted to withstand my crew, to small, or to pricey. Then I found this site showed the farm house bench to my husband and he said, "Hey I can build that!" and build it he did. He changed a few things here and there but the overall finished bench is AMAZING, and I LOVE IT!!! Thanks Ana!

Followed the plans pretty close on this one. 

I absolutely love my rendition of the Fancy X Farmhouse Table (and bench).  I took Ana's plans and combined them with some of the details from charmingimperfections.com to create the vision in my mind of exactly what i wanted.  The build was not bad at all but the Kreg Jig is a MUST have tool!  This was my frst experience with the KREG jig and i am now looking forward to many more DIY Builds! :)

I was so excited when I saw the plan for this! I love making crates out of wood. It was quick and easy and I already had a cedar fence post! It was less than 30 minutes start to finish! For more pictures check out my blog post. Thanks Ana!