Community Brag Posts

This was something I had always wanted to build for my nieces and nephew! it was a blast to build and see it come together. Two people working on this job is best. I loved the look of being able to open the doors top and bottom! I added the awnings above all the windows and doors to prevent as much water going into the playhouse as possible. The roofing was a little overwhelming at first but as we got going it turned out just fine! I wanted to lantern in the front to actually light up but I didn't want to run electricity so I got the lantern and put a motion sensor battery light on the inside and it works great! I also put one on the inside for more lighting there too, along with 3 battery "candle" lanterns. For the inside decoration I went with a wood land theme, put a growth chart on the inside wall to measure their height each year, and even made face masks! This is always and ongoing project for me seeing as how i'm always adding something new. The little ones love coming over and getting mail in the mailbox. Thanks Anna for the playhouse plans! I'm excited to see my nieces and nephews imaginations grow with all the possibilities the playhouse brings!

Enjoyed this project. Already have a request to build a whole set. 

Love the easy to follow plans!!! Make sure you have room when building....this a Big bench.

Rob V.  

My wife wanted me to build her a coffee table that looked like an industrial cart for about the last year. I saw this plan on the Ana White web site, and it was just what she wanted. The hardest part of this was finding the wheels for the cart.

Well, as my first project off of ana-white.com, I decided to make my two little guys the Little Helper Tower. I had seen store versions that cost $200 or more, so was excited to be able to have something that we wouldn't normally be able to buy.

It was supposed to be a Christmas present. It was finally painted and ready to go by mid-March. Which is to say, I couldn't find time to work on it too much, though it also took me much longer to do than what Ana said, which is not unusual for me.

The main problems I faced were 1x2s that I bought wet and that warped by the time I got around to using them; not having an honestly flat surface to work on, not having lots of experience with my jigsaw, so my top arches and bottom curves are not that attractive, and using some leftover red paint that took about 3 layers, plus the primer, to cover well.

In the end, I have a working helping tower with a movable floor that both my kids, now 2 and 4, can use in the kitchen (mainly - we didn't make the folding kind because the hinges were way too expensive!, so it doesn't move around too much) and it has helped my little guys help me on endless baking projects. My 2-year-old still can't get out of it himself, but my 4-year-old swings on it like a monkey. Thanks, Ana, for all your inspiration! I have a list a mile long of projects I want to tackle. Hopefully I'll get to one soon!

I recently started collecting vinyl records and wanted to show some of them off but also have them readily available to play.  I saw some options online but decided to make some shelves myself.  No judging my music!  :)

More details and instructions on my blog:

http://www.woodworkingfourdummies.com/blog/diy-record-display-shelf

Made this corner cupboard in an afternoon. It was easier than expected especially with the sliding compound miter saw, and the kreg jig haha!

I had a friend doing a class for a church activity on refinishing furniture. I think she mentioned to our leaders that I build furniture so two weeks ago she emailed me to see if I would be willing to participate and take a little time to talk. I said of course, and then in my true fashion of loving a good get-together and having a tendency to overdo things, I said, "we could even do a little project too".

I went onto this site printed off 5 projects under $30 and let anyone that wanted sign up. I figured the easiest way to let people build a project in an hour and a half was to pre-cut and pre-drill everything (Thank you to my new Kreg jig that let me rock that part out no problem)

I ended up cutting and drilling for 26 orders!!! EEK! I was a little like a mad hatter running around helping people that had never even held a drill before (so please excuse the LACK of pictures, including none of me doing anything at all :( ) But I think it turned out awesome and everyone was so excited.

I just wanted to post this as a little tribute to Ana for all the amazingness that you are. Thank you for helping those scared to even start.

King Storage Bed with a built in bookcase as a headboard. Tons of storage space and turned out great especially at night.

my second Projects))))

My husband and I enjoyed building this for our boys. Our wood supply store didn't have enough 1x4's so we purchased 1x6's and ripped them down to an even 4" instead of 3.5 as with a 1x4. We also increased the height by 5.5 inches. That gives us a little extra room to do nightly reading at the bottom bunk. The slats (2 sets) in the bottom are just from IKEA and at the time we just threw them down there and I forgot to set them up in place for a true final photo. Oh well. They've enjoyed the bed for over a month already 

my first build

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Thank you, Joanne, for designing this fun to build trunk. It enabled me to use pieces of odd scrap wood and a weathered old belt and make something fun and functional of them!

We found the plans for the Classic Bunk Bed look and we loved it.  Since our boys share a room this bunk bed design was the perfect match for us.  We used Red Mahogany stain with a polyurethane clear coat to give it a good shine.  I made a little revision to the slats but adding a 1X6 crossbea, across the bottom and top bunk to give added support for the boys as they get older but other than that the beds are directly from the plans.  Now onto the same design for our girls!

I have to shorten the design up a bit to fit my dinning room. I also did Epoxy Resin on top to give it the glass like appearance.

So ebony stain on white pedistole with an Epoxy Resin finish.

This is my second woodworking project. I picked up this hobby with some spare time and with my tools that were collecting dust after I completed most of my home renovations. Cost: $80 wood ($35 just on plywood) $35 hardware (2 recessed handles and 2 drawer pulls) $20 finishing products $40 lego baseplates On the lego baseplate side, I stained but only poly'd just enough so that the border around the plates would be covered. Baseplates had to be cut in order to get the custom size I wanted. The "play area" on one side of the table is 20 inches x 13.75 inches. Each side of the table is made with three 10x10 inch plates. Two 10x10s are side by side. The other 10x10 was cut with a razor to make it into two 10 x 3.75 inch pieces. I cut the plates so that I always had a "smooth edge" on three sides. I affixed the baseplates with epoxy. Simply butting up the baseplates does not work as the gap between plates is too small. To get the proper size, hold the baseplates together with lego pieces. Wipe any excess epoxy with mineral spirits. (Note: I tried liquid nails first on a test piece. The glue heats up after application and slightly warped the lego baseplate. Not recommended). The "mom side" of the coffee table has two recessed handles. The handles on the "lego side" are made with lego bricks. I drilled a tiny hole in the lego bricks. I threaded 50 lb fishing line through the lego brick to the hidden recessed area of the "mom's side handle" and tied off the line in there. Project took me over a month of time (probably 20-25 hours of labor). It could have and should have taken less, but I'm a newbie and am very cautious with my work.

Chevron kids table