Boot Bench

[Nick Keenan]

I made this bench as a built-in in an alcove in the mudroom in the back of our house. It's a place to sit and put your boots on:


It has three compartments -- hats, gloves and scarves.

[Nick Keenan]

Here's a before picture, the alcove is about 11" deep and 54" wide:


I made the whole thing using scraps I had left over from other projects. I had bought some live edge cherry for a mantlepiece and had about 56" left over, about 8" wide and 1-1/2" thick. I needed about 11-1/2 for the lids, so i had to glue a piece of 3-1/2" wide stock to the back of each piece of lid. I had a piece of cherry that was 24" long, 12" wide and 2" thick, I planed it to the thickness of the live edge and then cut it into three 3-1/2" strips. I cut the piece of live edge to the exact size off the alcove, then cut 5/8" off each end for the trim pieces and cut the remainder into thirds. The goal was to have the gaps between the five pieces that make up the top be the width of a saw blade. Then I glued a 3-1/2" strip to the back of each of the live edge pieces to make the three lids:


The live edge needed some blocking to take the clamps! The reason I did three compartments was that was the only configuration I had enough wood for. After the glue had dried I ran each lid through the planer a couple of times to take out any irregularity in the gluing process and get them all exactly the same thickness.

[Nick Keenan]

For the front, I had one piece of the same 1x6 trim that the baseboard is made from. I also had a piece of stair nosing that we had bought but never used on the stairs, it was 10' long and about 6" wide, with a lip on the front of about 1-1/2". I ran it through the planer to take the lip off and ended up with a piece about 5/8" thick, after taking the roundover off the front it was about 5" wide. I cut it in half, planed the 1x6 to the same thickness, and glued all three together with biscuits to make a piece about 15" wide and 60" long:

The right side goes into the wall so I just notched it to fit over the baseboard and scribed it to the wall. The left side protrudes from the wall the thickness of the baseboard, so I attached a piece of leftover 1x2 trim to conceal that edge. I also ran a piece of 1x2 across the top to give a bit of a lip. Those pieces were just attached with glue and a finish nailer.

To attach the front, I cut pieces of scrap plywood to size and put them on top of the existing baseboard. (They were shelves that I had taken out of a kitchen cabinet after deciding I didn't need that many shelves). Where the cabinet front meets the baseboard I put pocket holes in the front, where it meets the plywood on the sides I put pocket holes in the sides:



The top edge of the plywood is rough, but it's going to be covered by a piece of 1x2 and then the piece of live edge trim that I cut off.

The dividers were made out of the same plywood. Across the back I put a strip of 3" wide 3/4" plywood which I screwed to the studs, this is what the hinges attach to. In the back the dividers go into that strip and the baseboard with pocket screws, and in the front they go into the front with pocket screws. Along the top of the plywood in the back is a piece of 1x trim to hide the top edge of the plywood which is even with the tops of the lids.

[Nick Keenan]

For the hinges I used inset cabinet hinges. This was tricky because they expect the doors to be no more than 3/4" thick, and the doors were 1-1/2" thick. So I had to route out where the hinges attach to get the hinge within 3/4" of the surface:



I just made a simple guide out of few pieces of scrap plywood. After some thought I drilled the cup holes before routing, because I wouldn't have been able to attach the jig after routing. Surprisingly I was able to set the depth deep enough, about 1-1/4".

The trim all the way around is flush with the bottom of the lids, and the lids rest on the trim. When I fitted the lids it became apparent that since the hinges were recessed, the bottom back corner of the lids was going to catch on the trim and keep them from opening. So I had to cut a notch on each corner:

I just clamped a piece of plywood on for a guide and used an oscillating tool to make the cut. After I was done I realized that I could have just cut a bevel across the entire back with the table saw, that would have been neater and I think might have been a more interesting look. The bevel would have been flush with the routed area.

[Nick Keenan]

Final step was to sand everything and finish with General Finishes water based poly, my new favorite.


I finished with the hinges on, that way I could set the doors to dry resting on the hinges and a pencil under the outside edge.

Note that this piece has a bit of funky grain on the corner closest to the camera. During finishing that piece broke off, I glued it back on and held it with masking tape while the glue dried and it looks the same.

[twistsol]

Looks nice and very functional. Well Done!

[dbhost]

Nice work, good use of a live edge too!

[Slik Geek]

Live edge was a really nice touch! Built a bench for similar reasons at the garage entry door at my house. I use that bench a lot!