I finally got a Saturday to finish up the bench I’ve been working on over the last few months. Really, I got it about half way done and left it because I didn’t want to buy the wood. Oak can be pretty costly. Still It’s nice to have a solid wood bench that goes with the closet and hides our shoes so nicely. The wood is stained just like the closet with a white thin coat and then five coast of clear water-based poly. The supports are biscuit joined and glued to make it extra strong. I wanted to screw the top boards from the bottom so the screws wouldn’t be seen, but even when I pre-drilled the holes my screws were breaking half way in. Maybe I got an extra hard batch of wood or something, or maybe cheap screws. Eventually I gave in and just bolted the suckers down. In the end I think the bolts add a bit of personality to it anyway.

The bench is not just for taking your shoes off, it is also a reading nook. I still have to add it but I’ll be installing a small recessed light in the bottom of the uppler left cabinet. We also just put down the carpet squares last night and I’m pretty happy with the over all effect. If you want to see the closet in progress as well as other projects we’ve worked on check out the house work category. We also just finished the baby’s room. A lot of you may have seen it on Facebook already but I think Meg may post about it here on the Farm too.