Community Brag Posts

We loved making this project, I even learned how to work with angles.

What a fast, fun, and FUNCTIONAL project!  I did lower the seat height, as I think it allows you to sink into them a bit more -- especially with the cushions I had for them (which BTW, were on sale at Lowe's for $14.99/each.. normally like $60, I think).  Thanks ANA, for making yet another project such a breeze!

I first saw this workbench and hutch on Ana's website, but didn't commit to the project until I saw them in person, as part of a model home that had been decorated by local Pottery Barn design services. I was sold. I built this for roughly $1900.00 less than PB charges. It was an easy weekend build for a guy with less than one years' experience in this arena.

This Harvest table is the heart of our home. It was one of the first furniture projects we ever completed and my favorite finish to date. The night we spontaneously decided to buy lumber and build this table we had a lot of unexected visitors. We were out in the driveway working and a bunch of friends dropped by randomly so we all took a hand in building this table. It was so much fun. Spontaneous building party.

When I finished it it was my first time using a belt sander which wound up gouging some of the wood. The table top is super smooth but very rustic and I LOVE IT. I started with pre-stain conditioner, then cherry stain which I hated, then early american mixed with dark walnut. At this point it looked pretty lovely but I wanted it to look aged and gray so I lime waxed, dark waxed and buffed the whole surface of this piece. It turned out so special and you can see some red notes from the cherry stain and those are my favorite moments on this table.
Thanks again Ana.

** updated with a few better photos on 11/21

We opted to make this a regular easel (no chalkboard) and just used a sheet of paneling as the background. It's perfect, our toddler loves it. Thanks Ana!

Just finished this maple bookcase with fluted trim for my daughter's room.  I chose all maple trim even though it's painted because I wanted a good hardwood with low grain that would look good for decades to come.  Full build details are on my website.  Router bits used were a roman ogee and a core box bit.

My most *favoritest* project ever. I modified the Braden plans like crazy to fit my family's needs for the sunroom/mudroom. I kept the bottom open so the it woould allow for baskets to slide it easily (which makes sweeping inside a snap). Also, I added some braces about midway down to hold the coat hooks for my 3 and 5 year-old. I had them show me how high they could reach and I just placed the braces there.

I literally used up whatever I could find in my garage for this project. We had a TON of scrap wood in varying thicknesses and lengths so I just used that. The only thing that I had to buy for this project was some 1x2 to finish off the trim.

Can't wait to get hardware on and style her up pretty! Will post final pics as soon as I do. :) I've been DYING to get something up on Ana's brag board and I can't wait to keep 'em coming.

Built this from Ana's plan. Made a few small floor changes and added casing, baseboard, trim and cedar shake shingles.

Bookcase followed plans exactly, finished in rustoleum white, varathane carbon gray stain for back paneling. 

Finished with satin oil based poly to add some protection.

For this project, we combined plans from the Farmhouse table and also the Tryde coffee table. We have a smaller dining room so we had to modify the plans to fit our ideal size (44"wide x 62"long). I did not want the stretcher underneath as it would take up leg room and it is very sturdy without it. We used 2x12s for the tabletop & 2x8s for the breadboards. We used 4x4 posts for the legs and 2x4 for all the other support pieces. We constructed the table in 2 pieces: the frame and then the table top so it would easier to move into place then do the final assembly. This was our first time building furniture and first time using the Kreg Jig. I think the Kreg was easy to use and worth the investment. Overall, we were surprised at how well it turned out and will look to Ana for more plans in the future!

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!