Make It Yourself Monday....ummm...I mean Tuesday!

Hi! I'm back! Sorry that the project didn't make it up on Monday but here it is on a Tuesday instead. This project took about a week to complete but it saved me tons of money. If you're like me, you don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on furniture all the time and your house definitely needs some furniture here and there. Ana White, founder of Knock-Off Wood, has created tons of plans for her readers so that they can build their own furniture at a fraction of what it would cost in the store. For this week's "Make It Yourself Monday", I'm sharing the very first piece of furniture that I've built from Ana's site. You can find the plan for this bench here. 

 I started out with just 1x12s and 1x2s from the lumber yard, a circular saw, a drill, screws, nails, a hammer, a square, pencil, measuring tape and some sawhorses. I built the entire thing in two evenings so I'd say a total of 4 hours. The staining and polyurethane takes a lot longer because of the wait time in between coats. I used a dark oak water based stain and a satin polyurethane. Make sure you use a pre-stain because I forgot that step and probably would have been happier with the outcome if I had used it. I'm also planing on putting baskets in the top cubes for gloves, hats, scarves and one for all of my flip flops. Ana, has all the details of the build in her plans and there are a lot more plans in her catalog. Right now, she is having a Homemaker of the Week contest on her blog and I would love it if you would vote for my project. Just click on the image below, find my project and click the heart. I'm so proud of my first handmade furniture and there are so many more projects on my to-do list! So, I'm sure there will be more furniture in store for Make It Yourself Mondays!

http://ana-white.com/2010/10/homemaker-of-the-week-week-2.html