One of the most valuable tools I have isn’t a woodworking tool at all. It’s software & it’s indispensable when I’m building a woodworking project! I’m of course talking about SketchUp, the 3D modeling program that’s available for free.
Category: Woodworking
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Farmhouse Table Plan – 5 Years Later
I recently got a question from one of my readers about how the Farmhouse Table has held up over time. It’s been 5 years since I built mine and so I thought I’d share the good, the bad & and ugly!
Now that I’ve gotten her windows replaced and room painted (lots of funky, girly colors), my daughter has been asking for a desk to do her school work. “This will be easy,” I thought, “a couple file cabinets and an old door on its side will be perfect!” Not exactly what she had in mind… ah, the difference between boys and girls…
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Build a Mega Spice Rack
I’ve been searching all over the place for a spice rack that can actually hold a bunch of spices. I’m convinced that the spice rack manufacturers don’t actually cook anything, because if they did, they’d realize that the racks they make and sell at the big box retailers only hold about 25% of the spices any cook really has! And that’s not counting all the duplicates I bought because I couldn’t see in the cabinet where they’ve all fallen over and rolled behind all the other stuff that was crammed in there!
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Awesome DIY Cork Art Project
I’ve been saving wine corks for as long as I can remember. I can’t bring myself to throw them away – the natural ones – because I just think they’re cool. I even find myself picking bottles of wine based on which ones have real corks vs. synthetic. There’s something tactile and visceral about them that totally intrigues me, from the smell of the wine-soaked end to the elastic resistance I feel when I roll them about with my fingers, to the almost limitless variation of patterns and colors. And I’m amazed by the fact that cork comes from trees and start out living and organic.
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DIY Farmhouse Bed – King Version
I’ve had a number of questions about converting my Farmhouse Bed post plan to a king sized version (the original plan is a queen). While the construction techniques are the same, the king version changes quite a few of the measurements to stretch the headboard and footer. This post is a detailed plan for the king version. To give full credit, the original version of this plan is from Ana White’s website (the queen version) which you an see here and I’m also working on a full version. I think Ana has done a king version as well, but this plan is a little bit different.
I’ve been wanting to build a dresser for some time now and finally decided to take the plunge. After searching for a long time to find one I like, I settled on a modified version of Ana White’s Kendal Extra Wide Dresser. This has an overall clean design and I like the way the drawers are inset into the frame & Ana did a great job with the design.
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Build Your Own Float Frame
I think that the Float Frame (or floater or floating frame as I’ve heard them called) is a particularly stylish way to display canvas art from paintings to canvas photo prints (also check out my video on how to stretch your own canvas). The thing I particularly like about float frames is that they’re easy to build, look great and they’re pretty versatile as far as framing different styles of art. In addition, if you want to frame non-standard sized paintings or prints, you can save a ton of money doing it yourself! In this post, I’ll cover building one from start to finish. And, if you stick with me until the end, I’ll show you another cool float frame project!
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Rustic Farmhouse Nightstand
I am working on my next project, a rustic farmhouse nightstand to match my rustic farmhouse bed. Since I finished the bed, we’ve been on the lookout for a nightstand to match, but haven’t found anything that we particularly like or will fit next to the bed. The few options that we sort of liked are pretty expensive, so here’s a shot at a design that I created to make use of some wood I’m reclaiming from some old shelves that I’ve removed from my garage.
While working on my recent Farmhouse Bed Project, I realized that I really needed a solid workbench. I’ve been using an old door on a couple of saw horses, and that’s ok, but what would really be great is a large workbench that I could actually move around my “shop” as I’m building. So at the risk of all the problems that arise when I’m trying to multi-task, I took on the project of building a workbench in the middle of my bed project.