Jun 9, 2011

{Mudroom Bench}

We have a "mudroom" in our new house...which is really just a hallway where you walk into the house from the garage. It has a half bath on one end of the space, and a closet on the other end.

We had plans to copy the lockers that the builder had offered as an upgrade.  After some time, planning, and consideration, we opted to do something a little differently than we originally thought.  We decided to build a bench, with drawers, and then top it with lockers.  This way we have a place to dump our stuff that filters into the house that you would normally find everywhere, like shoes, bags, and junk from the "outside" world. 
 
This is what our builder offered as an upgrade...and just so you all know...I LOVED them!  But we just couldn't afford them, and Justin said he could do it himself...
 

So here is what we have done so far (and there is more in the works)...

First, we made our bench out of two Hemnes TV consoles.  We just built them and then put them together, side by side up against the wall in our mudroom.  We removed the baseboards on our walls, so we could fit the cabinets against the wall and then bolted them to the wall to make them permanent.  They looked like this (and we had two)...

Please ignore the wood top...I will explain that later. 

Next we used lattice because our baseboards were not high enough to cover the open space below the drawers.  We nailed the lattice to the bottom of the cabinet and to the middle (to hide the two cabinets).



The tops of the cabinets were 18 1/4 in. wide.  So, we used two 1x6 boards and one 1x8 board to create a planked, rustic look to the bench.  We screwed those directly into the Hemnes cabinets.  (Before we attached the boards, we stained them with 4 parts of English Chestnut stain and 1 part Special Walnut to create a close match of our hardwood floors.)

Around the front and side of the bench top, we added 1x2 (pre-stained) to create a "lip" that would hand down and give the bench a finished look.  We used the miter saw to create a mitered corner and just nailed it in place.
We puttied the screw holes, sanded once they had dried, and then added one more light coat of stain to the wood top. 

We then added the baseboards around the bench and painted the whole cabinet with white paint (with added Floetrol) to match the trim.

Here's our progress so far...



We still need to build our lockers, but we are happy with our progress so far. 

31 comments:

  1. Lovely job! I like it better than your builder's option!
    Christyn

    http://greystables.blogspot.com/

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  2. This is fantastic! I love IKEA, and they always seem to have just the right piece for what you need. I wish we had a mud room so I could attempt this myself! :)

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  3. Thank you so much for your nice compliments! I am ready to start the next phase...adding the lockers!

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    1. Beautiful! You may have to hire your husband out to those of us who aren't as talented!

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  4. I agree, I like it better than the builder's option. Great inspiration for us new homeowners! Thanks.

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  5. This looks great ! I was wondering if you sanded the benches before you painted them white?

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  6. this is terrific. I love yours as well as the builders. I've been collecting pictures of benches/lockers to use to turn my hallway into a mini mudroom. Thanks for sharing yours and can't wait to see it when it's finished.

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  7. this is beautiful. are you going to do an ikea hack for the lockers too with a billy bookcase?

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  8. Thank you for the comments! For those of you who are kind of new...check out this link to see how our mudroom lockers turned out!

    http://www.acharmingnest.com/2011/07/mudroom-storage-reveal.html

    Wish I could reply to all of you individually...but my reply buttons aren't up and working yet!

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  9. wow!! i love this... totally want to do something in the same vain, turned out so beautifully, i LOVE the wood seat.

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  10. I have been drooling over this for about 6 mnths. Love it!!!! One quick question what did you use for the bottom to give it a finished look ...is that just crown molding? and how did you attach it...ok 2 questions :)...wait one more do you have any pictures of this process. I am a visual learner so the more pics the better!....thnks

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  12. It looks fabulous!
    Kindest regards,
    Jennifer

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  13. That was amazing! We're going to share this with our clients in Philly --- always looking for new & easy to understand suggestions for home improvements!

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  14. You have inspired me to make this project! THANK YOU! It looks beautiful! Question: Will boots slide under the cabinet nicely for storage? Thx!

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  15. Just curious...can you post the link to the stands that you used? I cant seem to find them!

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  16. WOW! That is AWESOME! We are moving shortly and I want a good option for some type of entryway organization. This is a beautiful option! SO SMART!

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  17. This is fantastic! How is the white paint holding up? We're looking into doing our mudroom/lockers and I'm concerned about the white paint not holding up to the abuse.

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  18. This looks amazing!!! Great job!! Please come to my house and do this for me too... :)

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  19. This is so awesome! I'm just stunned at what you were able to create with some Ikea cabinets and a few supplies from Home Depot!

    I was wondering what you mean by you put a 1x8 on its side to attach the crown molding to. I'm trying to envision it. Do you mean the thin side or the wide side? If the thin side is facing out, that doesn't seem like it's enough room to attach it though maybe I'm wrong. If the wide side is facing out, how was it attached securely so that you could put the pressure of a nailer on it? As I read what I type, it seems most logical to put the thin side facing out with the 1x8 nailed to the top first. I don't know why I can't straighten this out in my head.

    And when you attached the 1x8 to the top, did you attach it flush with the edge of the existing top or push it back a little bit?

    Thank you so much for sharing this project. I'm so inspired! Right now I'm just trying to put some trim around an Ikea Pax wardrobe to make it look less like an Army locker in my twins' bedroom. :-)I'm struggling with getting the 1x8's in the right place. I've already nailed and removed them a couple of times.

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  20. Please can you give me the name of color on walls...I love it! Please answer!

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  21. Did you lacquer the top of the pine or how is that holding up? Isn't pine a softer wood? We are looking for a distressed piece to add to ours (soon to be built) but your idea may do the trick! It's so beautiful! I'm a big fan of all your projects!

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  22. Erin, I thank you for this posting. My wife and I have been trying to reconfigure our den area, and finally said the old entertainment center needed replacement.
    I saw this idea and thought, why not use this for a true TV area, and so we just bought 2 of these units (OK, one is a 3 bay and the other is as pictured) and have our guy redoing our den's baseboard and a top for the new unit. I put together the smaller unit this afternoon and have the larger one 2/3 done but the energy we had just stopped and we put it off until tomorrow.
    The wallpaper removal, paint for the walls and trim, new rug installed at the end of January along with a new kitchen floor. I can hardly wait to see the finished area.
    Thanks again for your documenting this project. BTW Ikea is only 60 miles away, so it was a short drive there and back and all turnpike.

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  23. I just thought I would let you know that so many people love what you've done it is becoming very popular on pinterest!! It's beautiful!

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  24. I love this! It looks amazing. Do you have complete dimensions of the finished project?

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  25. Lovely, could you please tell me the color hardwood floors you have??? Are they gunstock or are they darker? I really like them!! Thanks so much!! :-)

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    1. Our floors are Bruce hardwood, prefinished in Saddle. Dundee strip, cb217.

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  26. wondering if you cut down the legs of the bench a little, if so how much? we have installed the larger unit from ikea and it seems a little high for my 3 kids to be able to sit on, did you lower yours to make the moldings cover the opening?
    thanks karen

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