Community Brag Posts

Decided to add a secret compartmet on the bottom of this stand for small personal items.  Used piano hinge and cabinet push latch.  Wanted to hide the hinge but kept it easy and simple so I painted it black and you can barely see it.  This site is amazing and I cant wait to make more projects.

My sisters family was coming for a visit, all the way from england. I wanted to make it special for my niece so I built this bed from your plans. I made a few minor modifications, like adding an extra step (as she's quite small) and rather than making a wood slide, I found a plastic slide at my local hardware store and used that instead. I think that simplified the project, at least for myself. Thanks for the great idea and plans.

With another baby boy arriving in August, my one and three year olds are moving to a "big boy" room. My oldest decided he wanted a bunk bed and as they both are obsessed with tractors, when I saw the "John Deere Tractor Bunk Bed" plan, I was sold.

We would be needing a twin sized bunk bed though not a toddler. I used the classic bunk bed plans and simply modified them to suit our needs. I moved the ladder to the front, added a rail on the bottom bunk and added a small ladder to the side for my one year old to climb into the bottom bunk.

Once the the frame of the bed was complete, I added the tractor accessories. A couple of storage cubby shelves with fabric baskets for toy tractors which act as stairs up to the ladder and make the tractor bucket at the front. Also, the wheels which are made from joined 1x6s as I find plywood hard to sand and paint to the quality of finish I like. A cab & roof from 1x4s framed together. A side mirror that I decoupaged a picture of another tractor on. I used push lights for the headlights as well as a reading light above each bed (they're on timers so they'll turn themselves off). A steering wheel (play equipment access from toys r us). Also, I built and mounted by the head of both beds a "flat wall book holder" so they would have somewhere to store a few books.

My boys and I are fairly new to building so I spent a lot of time planning and measuring to ensure it would all come together in the end. It paid off because it all went smoothly (even with "help" from my boys). It's not perfect but they're very happy with the result. We also built a John Deere themed "Just my size closet" and even finished with over a month to spare before the new baby arrives! :)

Just want to say a quick thank you to Ana both for the amazing plans and also the inspiration to take on these projects. The time spent with my boys building as well as the resulting treasures are priceless and I would have never realized what we were capable of had I not stumbled upon your website and been so inspired by you and everything you've accomplished. Thank you!

New to raising chickens, but eager to jump right in to it.
We bought a pre-made coop for the main home for our new chicks and it's very nice, not something I could do myself since I'm not yet at that level, but I saw this chicken tractor and thought it would come in handy for what I have in mind so I made up my mind to build it.
The lumber, chicken wire, staples, and wheels are all store bought new and came to about $75. The materials we had on hand were the screws, hinges, plastic coated metal shelving (used in the nesting area, I thought that would make it easy to clean), paint, and the corner piece of vinyl siding for the roof cap (hubby's brilliant idea, and I painted it green with spray paint for vinyl).
I did not try to build it quickly, I don't really know how much time it took me, but if I had to guess I'd guess total time would amount to about 3 afternoons, by myself.
I wanted to leave the top on the one side open with the option to slap on the other boards if/when the need arises. I have the other t1-11 panels that can sit right in those areas because I stapled the chicken wire in a way that would allow it.
I also added a flip up panel as seen in the pictures for access. I didn't want a small door that I would have a hard time getting to things in there. I'm so glad I added this feature, it sure gives plenty of room for me to maintain the food and water dispensers as well as get in there and catch the little chickies :)
I wanted it green to blend into the wooded background in our backyard. I didn't want to take any beauty away from the cedar greenhouse and fencing we added last year, and this tractor would be moved from time to time and I felt this green that we had on hand was perfect to help it blend in rather than stand out.
This thing is heavy! I have a hard time moving it around and usually need my husband to move it so I won't hurt myself. I am considering some options... I don't like the rope I have on it to pull it, any suggestions would be appreciated.
As with the other items I've made with Ana's plans, this was fun and pretty easy to make. I love this site! Soon I will take on my next project, I've bought and gathered the materials, I'm anxious to get started :)
Thank you for looking :)

I wanted to use our laundry basket dresser as a collector for dirty laundry in our bathroom, and wanted it to have doors so it would blend in better. I also made the shelf above for our towels. It is painted white with a faux-zinc finish on the top. I made the top slightly larger so it would overhang and added cute little bun feet. My talented friend Carli helped me build the doors (and by helped I mean I handed her things while she impressed me with all her tools and skills!) and frame.

I adapted the plan to make a stand for our printer and shredder.  Except for one board, I was able to use scraps so my total out of pocket was $9!  I did plane the 2x material to 1 1/4”, and also used 2x material for the base to add a little strength to hold the shredder.  Thank you Ana White, for generously sharing your plans!

Farmhouse table made from distressed (worm hole) maple.

My neighbor was able to get me the 5/4 distressed maple for about $2/bd ft - I ended up buying 100 board feet and had plenty leftover. The finished board feet for this project was about 60 if I remember correctly. So the $200 was the bulk of the expense. The only other costs were sand paper, I bought a Kreg Jig, screws, Minwax Marker, paint, stain and urethane (much of which I already had).

It came out better than I anticipated. The antique white finish was not difficult at all.

Tip - When following the instructions for the finish here, I applied the first coat of urethane with a brush almost immediately after applying the Minwax marker to all of the sanded edges. I did this in haste, but ended up with some unexpected results that really added a nice touch. The stain from the marker incorporated a bit into the urethane as I brushed it giving it an antique, yellow hue. At first I thought I made a big mistake, but it turned out to add a really nice look.

I used 1x3 box pine instead of 2x4's for the bits that things sit on, and everything fits perfectly.

Originally I was planning on a 3.6m long x 0.6m deep X 1.8m high shelf.  At the lumberyard I found out that 2x4's came in 6m lengths as standard, so I adjusted this to 1.5m high instead, which worked out fine as I think 1.8m would have been a bit tall to get heavy things on top of.  Luckily for me my power points and light switches were just under this, which I didn't think about at the time!

Originally I was going to try and cut grooves for the 'rungs' of the ladder frames to slot into, hence the insets at the bottoms of the legs.  I think that the glue-and-screw construction will be plenty strong enough, though.

This took me about 4 hours to put together, and cost about NZD$170 all up, which is about USD$120.

I've got the bug.  Making things is awesome.