Community Brag Posts

I have always loved benches at the dining table. They are so practical for cleaning, kids, and for cramming extra people at a table! We are (mostly) happy with our current table, but I was so sick of 6 clunky chairs floating around my kitchen, and these benches were the perfect solution. They were very simple to make and are exactly what I wanted!

I mixed my own color of stain for the top board from two Cabot colors (Golden Oak and Walnut) to create a color that break up all the oak in the room, while still fitting in. I painted the bases of the benches a creamy ivory for the same reason, to break up all the oak, and distressed the edges lightly.

I omitted the "x" feature in the plans because I was happy with the look of just the board along the bottom.

I decided to build the art table and use it as a lego table instead. I had a piece of 3/4" maple plywood left over from a previous project, so the only thing that I had to buy were the 1x4's and lego plates.

When I saw Ana's post within Young House Love's blog, I thought this would be great for pictures. We have a large wall that spans two stories in our entry way. This shelf helped make a dramatic impact when we have visitors over.

One of my first projects and I really felt like I had good cuts, however it was still a real challenge for me. I ended up doing the bottom in white to hide some of the errors. In the end I am happy with the resultes. 

I built it from pine 2x4s. I bought outdoor chair cushions and they work great.

My son loves his tower! We didn't attempt the curved sides, but made it work by adding a door with a toy steering wheel instead :)

Solid wood is an amazing material because it can be cut, re-shaped, extended, filled, sanded, stained, painted, and essentially re-used almost endlessly.

Last week, I took old cabinet doors (from when we gutted the mouse-hole kitchen cabinets that used to be in our apartment before we moved in) and turn them into a free cubby for my daughter's closet. :)

I used Poplar for the top and Pine for everyting else.  Only took about two hours from start to finish.  This is my first project using a Kreg Jig and now I don't know why I didn't get one of these years ago! 

Had some scraps hanging around and thought I would try using Ana's plan to organize the mess. Wow. What a difference. So nice to build something to fit your space rather than working around a preformed, plastic or metal utensil holder. Thank you Ana!

Utilizing the Hannah Canopy Bed plans, I made 2 changes that I am really glad I made. First, I added bead board to the headboard to give it a little style instead of the flat plywood. Second, I used 2x4's on all 4 corners because I could not find any 2x3's that were anywhere close to being straight. Overall I love the final project! It was nice, simple, and quick to get it all put together!

The only difficult part of this plan was making sure all the cuts were precise and fit together as they should.

This is my first wood project, and first time using a Kregg jig.  A HUGE THANK YOU TO ANA!  Next is the matching end table and then outside chairs and a pagoda.  

Jeff F.

I built this storage bench and my wife stained and painted it. It is for use at the kitchen table as well as have storage for baskets underneath. This is my 1st project I have used my Kreg Jig on. Absolutely love it!!!

Okay, I hope you like this... it was the second and third thing I ever built!!! The table is made from 2 doors hinged together with accent hinges screwed on top. In the middle there are locks (hook and latch) for design. The frame is oak. measures 81X 56 and fits a good 10 people around.

The bench is an old cherry tree slab that someone I know did not want. its about 72 inches long and it is slighly curved. I ushed a shilac and kept the same color....  I just sanded it down.

After replacing that trashed out IKEA dresser with the fire fighter style locker in the boys room I started taking apart said dresser to put out on heavy trash day. It was then I realized that while it wasnt the BEST materials, the top and sides were actually not all that bad. As it was the piece was too wide for the space I was looking to fill, so I did a little trim of the top, replaced the supports and framing and rebuilt this into a shelving unit.

I bought a couple 1x2s to frame shelf supports and actually used the base of the drawers as a shelf.

My neighbor across the street is a DJ and has about 100 million plastic crates in his garage that he is getting rid of (they used to hold his vinyl). So I took a few and have been finding uses for them. I spray painted 2 of them red and used them as the basis for where to attach the shelves.
I also had a couple of other baskets for toys that were just the right size for the small top shelf. I just need to go back and paint those red too.

Love this bench, you can fit lots of kids on it and it is very sturdy.

Two big dogs, so two big houses . Long project but so cute. Don't worry, they are inside /outside dogs...