Furniture builders get into tricky situations every now and then. Like what? Well, a customer contacts you and says they saw this beautiful farmhouse coffee table on Pinterest and want to know if you can build it for them? You tell them you'll get back to them soon to let them know. You do some research on the coffee table and find out it's an Ana White plan. You think, awesome! Totally doable! I mean Ana White has some great plans that are super easy to follow - I mean, really, anyone can do it. So, you get back to your customer and let them know it's doable and you'll just need measurements of the space. The customer gives their specs and you find out the piece will actually be a bigger build than what the plans are. Which is fine for you, you can do it! Also, the customer doesn't want the "X" on the sides and would prefer the planked top be done as one whole piece. So, does this now turn into an Ana-White-inspired piece? Or is it it still her plans?
It's a little of both. You see, whoever originated the actual first coffee table build, is probably the one we should be thanking. Ana White just made the coffee table extra gorgeous with her own style and her way is easier to build. There are so many builders who can originate an idea, put it on paper, and get 'er done. Some of us, me included, need an exact visual in order to execute the piece. So, yes, I do get requests from customers to build something they found on Pinterest and I find out its plan, belongs to someone else. I also want to say that probably 99% of the time, the customer always wants it bigger or smaller or they don't want the sides to look like that, or whatever it is - there's always a change. So, it's more of a starting place and most times the piece looks completely different from the picture or initial idea.
When posting on my social media, I always try my hardest to give credit for the inspiration/plans. I have purchased plans from other DIYers and also still give credit where credit is due. It is so important to acknowledge the people who work so hard to put those plans together, who get them on their sites for us to see, all that background stuff is ALL the hard work we don't see, but should be applauded for THEIR work. We all get ideas to build or design something; whether it be furniture, clothes, signs, even a picture we share. It has been done before, it's just somebody used their brain and actually put it on the world wide web first. So, if you already saw it somewhere else or you're holding the plans right now about to say, 'Look what I did!' Remember, you would want to get that credit too. There's nothing better than knowing you made something that everyone likes to make too.
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