A burning passion to create things using my bare hands started decades ago. Not sure of the exact date, but I can tell you that my father, an engineer, was always building something when I was growing up. My mother, Tanzanian-born and raised, was taught by her village to NEVER throw anything away – that everything can be reused.
After all, when life hands you Mt. Kilamanjaro to stare at from your front yard everyday, you make babies who want move mountains!
Daddy’s projects were plentiful; however, one of my all-time FAVORITES was the custom-built van he made in the summer of 1989. I was 14.
He bought the empty shell and mcgyver-ed a lawn chair to make the driver’s seat. Me and my sisters slid and giggled in the back of this van all the way home. After 3 1/2 months of fearless building, we had a fully-carpeted conversion van complete with EVERYTHING from separate radio systems to mood lighting to an automatic fold out bed.
*the fam was taking to long to send me the actual pictures so I grabbed these from the internet. They are VERY close to the real deal.
Twenty-two (22) years after the summer of Van-ities, I find myself following closely in my father’s footsteps. However, it’s not a van I want to build. I want to build a home and all of the furniture in it!
Thanks to Ana White, I feel like a giggling 14 year-old again and I want to move mountains!
Ana, you built the closet but I’m coming out of it to say that your website is FLIPPIN’ AWESOME!
For those of you who don’t know her, Ana is the bomb dot com!
She is a mother and wife living in Alaska and is the proud owner of one of the most popular furniture-building blogs on the interwebs today!
What makes her site so special? I’ve been doing this forever, you say.
She, like most of us DIY bloggers, started out with a dream, not knowing what to expect. And now, within two years of her first blog, has accumulated over 41,000 followers (at the time of this writing) on her Knock-Off Wood Facebook page and has surpassed the 1,000,000 mark on her website.
That’s just the icing, folks!
Ana shares everything she does – for FREE (as of the writing of this post) – and then has the nerve to create a Brag section specifically set up for you to post your finished projects (using her plans, of course).
This is how it works.
1. Have the desire or need (and not necessarily the skills) to build a piece of furniture, a loft bed for example.
2. Scratch your head (and rub your belly at the same time) about how to build the bed. Ask yourself, ” Self, where do I start?
3. Go to Ana’s website!
Just click the picture, will ya!
4. Look for loft beds through her simple search button or by category.
5. Drool over the detailed sketchings, shopping list, cut list, and general instructions.
Don’t worry. If you can figure out the difference between a nail and a hammer, then you can follow her plans to build whatever your ticker desires – except a van. That will require a PRO – kinda like my daddy.
6. Convince significant other (also known as your “creative” self) that you can do it!
7. Post your finished project to the Brag section of her site like these builders did.
Hold on to your hammers and glue guns!
SHE BUILDS HOMES, TOO!
She and her husband just broke ground for their MomPlex – a duplex they are building for his mother and her mother to live in – together!
Are you starting to understand why I dedicated this entire post (or 4.5 hours – whatever, who’s counting) to telling you why I HEART Ana-White.com?
Don’t get it twisted! Flippin’ Factory is in a monogamous relationship with Upcycle. My goal is to use Ana’s plans to make just about everything using recycled materials. For my next project, my daughter’s loft bed, I was thinking of using an old chest of drawers, slats from another bed, old rope, used wine corks, and fabric scraps. When it’s all done, you will be the first to know. Until then, enjoy the intense gratification you’ll get from making something with your own hands.
FLIPPIN’ FACTORY + ANA WHITE = BFF
…building frames forever
