Community Brag Posts

I was looking for a desk with sort of a "campaign furniture" style feel to it, and came across Ana's plan for the X Desk with Drawer.

I made a lot of changes from that starting point, some of which worked well, some of which didn't. In the end, my desk varies pretty drastically from the original, but I definitely have to give credit for lots of helpful tips and inspiration from Ana's plan!

It's a little rough, but it's one of my first real builds, so I'm pretty happy.

Note: picture does not show spreader on back legs, added afterwards. Drawers are out while guides dry, they normally sit flush with front face.

Made from pine, with poplar edging on front. Mostly pocket hole joinery. Finish is a light version of the Minwax Dark Walnut (looks lighter in picture than real life.) Lacquer coating. Pulls are from Home Depot.

To give it an antique, campaign look, the edges are roughed up a little, the finish is left a little streaky/worn, and the holes for the drawers were cut out of the board by hand, and then hand-fit to the drawers.

I made this desk for my sister ( it is 3 metres long - sorry I am an Aussie dont know what that is in inches).

I glued 3 metre radiata pine together, planed, sanded, stained and varnished with polyurethane.

I made 4 sawhorses and then joined two of them together to make shelves.

Very happy with the result

Wood tilt out trash can cabinet made from this plan, with some changes. I did a fancier cabinet door, along with a top that overhangs on the sides as well as the front. 

Inspired by many projects here on Ana's page, my "Mega Mom" board is not just a pretty face, it's also great at multitasking. It helps calm the chaos and juggle the daily influx of papers with the same ease that it manages a quick message or coats.

The "Mega Mom" board has a chalkboard, shelf, and hooks for coats. It also has letter bins for important papers, a magnetic board to hold the family calendar, additional hooks for keys and a bucket to hold chalk or loose change. Our ceilings are 9' and I'm 5'10", so I made it big and hung it high to make the best use of the space. The finished board measures 37 1/2" wide by 30 1/4" tall. If you like what you see, you can find a materials list and more detailed drawings on my blog http://theelusivebobbin.blogspot.com/2013/03/plans-for-mega-mom-board.h…

     These were built to demo the Sunday Trinket Box plan using 3 different wood types – 1/2" thick craft board, 1x scrap wood, and cedar 1x.  On the 2 that I made with 1x boards, I used some ¼” hardwood plywood scrap for the inner lids, which kept the top nice and light and worked very well.  I think I prefer this for the inner lid when working with the 1x material and would recommend that for the build.  My craft room work table looked like a mad scientist’s laboratory with all the cans and tubes of finishes I’ve been trying out, and projects at different levels of completion.  

     The craft board box is finished with 1 coat of Rustoleum Stain + Poly in Walnut (the kind in the tube, I had picked this up at Michaels to try it out), and 3 coats of gloss polycrylic.  The radiata pine craft board took this stain really well, even without wood conditioner.   The inner lid for this one is the same ½” craft board used for the box.   The pull for this one is a rectangle of cedar, with a light coat of Varathane stain + poly in Walnut, and a coat of gloss poly.   Cost:  Wood:  $8.47 for craft boards, Finish:  $0 (used finishes already on hand).

     The scrap wood box is finished with 3 coats of Clark & Kensington semi-gloss in Crushed Peanut, a stencil design added on the front in gold craft paint, and a DIY pull made from a ¾” wide “slice” of the ½” thick craft board, topped with a scrap of ¼“ x 1 ½” poplar craft board, super-glued and pin-nailed together, and finished with 2 coats of gold craft paint and 2 coats of gloss polycrylic.   The pull is attached with crystal clear super-glue.  Cost:  $0 for wood (scrap), $0 for finishes (left over), $4.99 for the stencil (which I am re-using) and $4.99 for a pkg of 4 stencil sponge brushes (also re-using these).

     The cedar 1x box is finished with 3 coats of gloss poly. The knob is another DIY – a ‘slice’ of the 1x cedar, topped with some ¼” aromatic cedar, glued and pin nailed together.  This received 1 coat of Rustoleum Walnut Stain + Poly on the top part and 2 coats on the bottom part, topcoated with 2 coats of gloss poly, and was super glued to the top.  The inner lid for this one is a piece of ¼” plywood, glued and clamped in place.  The front design re-uses the stencil, in the same Rustoleum Walnut as the pull.   Cost:  Wood: about $5 worth of a cedar 1x8 (cut down to size on the table saw).  Finish: $0 since the finishes were already on hand. 

    These were a super easy and quick build – I built and sanded all three in an afternoon.  I’m sure the finishing could all be done in a day too, but I spread mine out a few minutes here and there as I had time to work on them, while changing my mind several times on the pulls and embellishments.  These were all given as gifts.

This was just the right table design for our history home built in 1880! Love the plans and easy to build!

We needed a new coffee table in the family room, one that went with the ever changing decor. One of my neighbors threw out a rather nice, but older wooden framed window that they had been holding onto for who knows how long. My wife actually grabbed it out of the garbage with both the kids sitting in the car while she loaded it into her SUV in dress clothes.

Anyway, I broke down the window into two sections and used one of the sections to build this table. The area around the window is made out of 2x4 and the table skirt is 1x4. I bought the turned legs from www.osbornewood.com (colonial coffee table leg). This project was made a lot easier by using my kreg jig to attach the skirt to the table legs as well as the top to the skirt. Knowing that I would have two young kids playing around and setting things on the table I placed the glass panes with plexi that I bought from Lowes. This will be safer as well as more durable in the future.

I changed the plans a little bit to add on the extra shelf on top as well as making the shelves an inch narrower than the plans. The project was actually pretty easy and really only took me about a days worth of work.

cross between a kitchen island and the x frame console table. LOL

Cross breeding furniture, gotta love it! :0)

We needed a guest bed for our guest bedroom. So I built the storage areas under the bed out of plywood and boxed them up. The bed would probably look better with a headboard, but we decided to just do that curtain style headboard.

I had seen different beds similar to this, and I just had those in mind when I started. I didn't follow any specific plan except for what I had in my head.

It was painted with an oil-base white paint.

I love this plan. I made this for my toddler and he loves it! My daughter is too small to climb on but she's always trying. She loves it too.

I made a bench from head/foot boards left from a bed I made many years ago that was taking space in our shed. When I searched for trestle table diy, I knew this was just what I was looking for. Thank you for sharing your ideas!

Really liked Ana's 20 second tidy up table, and wanted to try to have something like this for my son. Then saw the activity table at RH and tried to replicate it down to the exact same finish. Made small changes here and there such as adding 4 individual drawers, different wood dimensions, etc. He loves it and uses it lots for his Thomas the Train Set. Thank you again Ana.

My son and I made this table this weekend in just a couple of hours with no problems. The directions were clear and easy to follow. Thank you for sharing them with us.

My husband and I built beds for our daughters' american girl dolls for Christmas. It was the first time we'd ever built anything and we learned a lot. So fun!

I used reclaimed fence wood instead of plywood.  Just put together three planks to make the side/top/bottom pieces.  I adjusted the size a bit since I had limited space for it to fit into.  This was my first ever furniture project and my first use of my new kreg jig.