Over half-way there! We've passed the midpoint of the One Room Challenge and with every week that passes our mudroom is starting to look less like a "dog room" and more like the beautiful and functional space I'd imagined it could be. This past week we (I use the term loosely, most of the credit goes to my husband) constructed a built-in bench for taking off footwear and providing some storage.
The total cost for this custom piece of carpentry - free ninety-nine! We had all of the lumber sitting around in our overstuffed garage leftover and collecting dust from past projects. (My husband must have also been delighted with the cost because he assisted with zero grumbling about the project which is rare when it comes to my home improvement schemes).
The bench is made up of essentially three components:
The carcasses are three-quarter-inch plywood. There are two "boxes" consisting of a top and sides which were joined together using a Kreg Jig and screws. The boxes were screwed into the wall studs and two cleats also attached to the wall studs.
A face-frame constructed from a mix of hardwood species (getting painted so it didn't matter). The face frame is to cover the exposed edges of the plywood carcasses and give the bench a finished look from the front. The face frame was joined together again using a Kreg Jig and screws and nailed into place using one of my favorite tools, a pneumatic finish nailer.
The top bench surface was constructed from remnant hardwood oak flooring. We assembled the tongue and groove joints together but instead of blind nailing them into place, the boards were screwed into place and the screw heads were countersunk and plugged with wood plugs
To finish off the nook we are going to install "faux" horizontal shiplap paneling up the wall and an upper shelf for storage baskets. The hardwood on the benchtop will get finished with wood stain and poly but then comes the hard part...
...deciding on a color to paint the lower part of the bench and shiplap paneling. The contenders from top to bottom are:
Brooklyn (Behr),
Secondhand Find (Magnolia Home), and
Whale Gray (Behr)
Weigh in below in the comments section to give me your top paint color choice and we'll see you next week.
