Boardwalk Shoe Bench

The last project I'm sharing about our mudroom is a shoe bench I built using $5 of my budget. I returned to Re-Use Hawai'i, eager to refresh my stash of free hardwood louvers and found shorter ones this time, perfect for slats on a little bench. I saw the Boardwalk Bench from Crate&Barrel and decided I wanted something like it. I drew up a picture that replaced the drawers with another level of slatted shoe storage, shrunk the dimensions to fit our space, and scrounged around my garage for comparable sized lumber to put together my own version on the cheap.



I think I love it. The Crate&Barrel price is something close to $400 for a larger, "drawered" bench. My version is 10" deep, by 20" tall by 30" wide, which is quite a bit smaller than their 4 foot wide version. Still, $5 is my rounded-up total cost estimate for this project.

	3/8" lattice strips - 4 @ 29" (shelves) ($3 from City Mill) 5/8" random trim - 4 @ 29" (shelves)(free from Re-Use Hawai'i) 28 free hardwood louvers @ 8.5" (shelves)(free from Re-Use) 1x3 Maple trim - 4 @ 20" (leg sides) ($2 from Re-Use Hawai'i) 1x2 - 6 @ 10" (leg sides) (already owned) Old solid core door + random trim @ 10" by 28.5" (already owned)
	Wood glue (already owned) Staple gun with 9/16" staples (already owned) Hammer and wire brad nails 3/4" long (already owned) Kreg Jig kit (already owned) Screwdriver (powered and manual) (already owned) 1-1/4" Pocket hole screws and 3/4" wood screws (already owned)

I start my builds by going through what I have, and mentally planning if I need to buy anything else. This is what I had:

1x3 maple trim





Lots of scrap 1x2s.


Free hardwood louvers

After deciding on how long and wide everything should be, I cut my materials and began assembly. I assembled the shelves first:
















The underside of the shelves.


The top side of the shelves.

Then it was time to create the side legs.
To make the angles on the legs, I measured per above and cut using my miter saw. A jigsaw may be safer, though.


I lined up front and back pairs of legs and marked lines @ 3" down, 10" down, and 17" down.


Then I used my Kreg jig to attach the 1x2s to create side legs.

Next, I attached the shelves to the legs, in line with the 1x2 stretchers on each side.



I was tempted to stop here, because it looked like a cute sleigh bed, but I continued on! :)

Lastly, I cut the reclaimed solid core closet door to size, and attached trim on the front and back using wood glue and wire brad nails.







I used the Kreg jig to make pocket hole screws on the underside to attach the bench portion. Later, I cut and nailed in some trim between the tops of the leg "posts" for a completed look.


Here's the bench in it's raw state being used in the corner of our mini mudroom (next to the garage entry door). You can see some other sneak peaks of two projects that I decided to share another day. I'll be back once more this week to show the $50 "reveal" and I'll also give a heads-up about what projects you can expect to see next! :)

May 2014 mudroom projects

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Sharing @ Ana White