Category Archives: Woodworking

Front Entry Bench

WAYYYY back in the summer of 2013, before we had even begun the home buying process, I had started looking at home blogs for ideas of what sort of style I want to bring into my own home. One of my favorite blogs is thehouseofsmiths.com – go check it out. Everything that they do is so clean and sleek. It was while pursuing their site one day that I found the inspiration for our next big DIY project. A front entry bench (check out the inspiration).

So here is what we started with. While I don’t think our front entry closet was by any means useless, it just wasn’t necessary. We’re also lucky that we had a full-size closet to begin with, as the inspiration blog did not and removing wall was necessary in their case.

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Before

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“I’ll just make it smaller than all the rest.”

I questioned whether or not I wanted to post the picture on the left of the inside of the closet, but whatevs – you needed to know my plight (and we’re all family here -right? – so no judgement).

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Empty and ready for inspiration!

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Mike is having geometry flashbacks.

Using the inspiration blog as a guide, we started with creating a simple frame for the seat. You can see in the photo below we also nailed up a 2×4 as a guide for the height of the bench.

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It was at this point that the one man frame-placement turned into a two-man job for accuracy and I put down the camera.

After the frame was in place we added four more 2×4 beams to further support the weight of the sitter. Lots and lots of giant nails and screws were used in this part of the build. My biggest fear is that I’ll be showing the bench off and the admirer will bust the seat off the wall.

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All set and sturdy!

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Now with pine seat boards fitted into place. You can see we were quick to take advantage of the new storage space during the building process!

We wanted the walls of the interior to have some texture, as it really helps break up the “look” of the design so that you don’t notice that you’re just looking into a closet that’s missing its doors. The inspiration bench had a thick beadboard backing and we were able to find a similar look when out searching for our own materials.

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You can see here that our boards are a knotty pine, which we did debate just whitewashing as opposed to painting. Ultra-pure white paint ended up being the winner.

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Screwing in the supports for the shelf. Fancy, huh?

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Ready for paint!

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The color we’re using on the walls is called “Wood Smoke”

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It looked much more gray in the inspiration blog, but here it has more of a mushroom tone. Men who are reading this are going, “What?”

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We stained the bench seat in the same color as the banister, “Black Cherry” – it really is a beautiful color, and wish I could use it on all the wood surfaces of our home – but that might look a little like an Adams Family set, “Everything is blood red!”

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Painting the upper shelf in Ultra Pure White (semi-gloss) which we’ve used on all the trim in the house.

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The inside of the bench is also painted in Ultra pure white.

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Mike used a very thin quarter round in the corners, which really helped make everything look much more polished when complete.

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Adding the decorative hooks.

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We were able to find these in the oil rubbed bronze (ORB) finish, we’ve slowly been switching out the existing gold finishes in this home with ORB and its always a nice contrast on clean white paint.

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This was a very exciting project for Mike, as he got to use his new Makita circular saw. Cue the Tim Taylor grunt.

First “mistake” – which was not at all our fault nor was it in our control. The trim piece we bought for the front of the seat was warped beyond use and we had to scrap it and purchase a new piece. The process of picking out trim is beyond my skill set – I have no idea how to tell is a board is perfectly straight when put up against a million others like it.

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Warped and useless. GRRRR.

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New front trim piece is perfect. Its starting to look complete!

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Mike recessed all the nails so that we could hide them under another coat of paint.

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AFTER!

By far this is one of the projects I’m most proud in this home. The new bench is so much more useful than the closet. We’re lucky that this home had other storage closets that absorbed our other seasonal jackets/parkas/vests. We’ve realized that we only wear one or two coats on the regular, and having a plethora of others in a closet elsewhere is much easier to deal with!

Thanks so much for stopping and reading about our closet transformation!

The 25 Dollar Desk

This post is all about refurbishing a desk we picked up for $25 at the University of Minnesota ReUse Store.  Sara gets weekly emails with all the new items that the program brings in, and it was a different table that caught her eye which brought us to the store one early Saturday morning. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the warehouse, the coveted table that Sara wanted had already been claimed. Lucky for us, that never stops the adventure so we began wandering the aisles admiring the various junk. What did finally catch our eye? An enormous oak desk and its too good to be true price tag (ALL desks at the warehouse were $25)! Good thing we came with the truck that morning, because this thing was a beast.IMG_0968

We had talked about adding a formal desk to the upstairs office, but the style that we wanted was often way out of our price range and never exactly what we were looking for. When we came across this desk at the ReUse store it was Mike that had the vision for what it could be. And with that it was decided that we would refurbish the beast.

From the various items that we found in the desk, we’ve guessed that it was probably originally built in the 1940’s, and spent much of its life in a chemistry department. When we started taking the desk apart, we found all kinds of vintage stuff.

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Calendar in case you were wondering what day of the week your birthday may have fallen on in 1966.

Check out the old email directory printed on dot-matrix.

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And the shortcuts to old word processing software.

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We’ve kept all the memorabilia, although it was all removed for the refurbishing. We haven’t decided yet what to do with it, but its too cool to just throw.

Below is a photo of the desk with all of the drawers taken out with their handles removed.  After this photo was taken, we removed the top of the desk and put it on sawhorses to give us easier access to hard-to-reach areas of the desk bottom.

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After sanding (which took way longer than anticipated), we applied Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner.  This is a trick Mike learned from his dad growing up that will give the stain an even look, and prevent the color from soaking in too much in softer areas of the grain.  It’s one more step, but worth it in the end.

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Below is a photo of the desk with pre-stain applied, already looking revitalized.

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For the stain, we picked out a red mahogany color, which is very similar to the stain we’ve been using in multiple areas of the house.  We went with Cabot brand, found at our local Fleet Farm.  Next to the stain in the picture below is the can of fast-drying Polyurethane clear coat that we’ll apply after the stain is completely dry.

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At first, we applied the stain using a foam paintbrush, which was a mistake.  IMG_0246[1]

We’re so accustomed to staining small surfaces with foam brushes and by the time Mike made it all the way around the base, much of it had dried and what was left was a very deep, uneven color.

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There may have also been a slight delay due to Mike taking selfies.

Here is a photo of the desk after it was re-sanded and started staining small areas with a rag.

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Top getting first coat of stain.

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I have a personalized apron, like a BOSS.

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Fronts of the drawers getting beautified.

Below you see the desk bottom and the top (already with 2 coats of clear), this is a good visual of how the colors of the two pieces were so different for a while due to sanding and re-staining the base after the foam brush debacle.

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Patience is a virtue.

The giant desk did end up claiming the life of one victim. We gave him a proper burial in the garbage can then re-sanded the area using 220 grit paper.

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R.I.P. Fly Guy

After all of the clear coats were applied, we carried each individual piece into the house and began putting the desk back together. The desk was so heavy and bulky that carrying it in in pieces was the only option. It wasn’t too much of a hassle, just a little extra dust and dirt in the office that we promptly (within the week *wink*) took care of after everything was back together.

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Assembling

We chose silver hardware for the drawers, which have a bulky look that really go well with the masculine feel of the desk as a whole.

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Snazzy.

Before the handles were done, we had one final hurdle to overcome.  The two sets of bolts that came with the hardware were either too long or too short for the 3/4in drawers.

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Looks at us, we’re useless.

Example of what the long bolt looked like when completely screwed in:

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Nope, that’s not gonna fly.

Rather than using a bunch of washers on the long bolts, we decided to simply drill into the drawers existing holes just far enough so that the shorter bolts enough grip to reach the handles.

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Also, as an added bonus, now that the screws are recessed into the wood, the inside of the drawers are much cleaner looking.

Here she is in all her finished glory:

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Shiny.

One more angle showing where we decided to place it in the office.  The desk is so pretty, we would hate to shove it up against a wall.  We have also agreed to keep computers off of the desk and use it for paperwork (taxes, etc.) so as not to cover its beauty.

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Fancy desk says, “Buy me a rug bitches.”

So in sum, the desk itself was probably the least expensive part of the DIY. We love the way it turned out, another project that took much longer than anticipated but totally worth it in the end!

Thanks so much for stopping by our blog!