The empty space called (screamed) for a mud room. Located at the crossroads of the garage, the laundry room and the powder room, this is the ideal spot for the kids to hang their coats, throw their back packs and sports bags and dump their shoes. Ahh...the shoes...always smelly and full of mud and always left laying around the house.
A few years ago, I installed some hooks and shelves for coats, hats and gloves. Last year I put down a beautiful slate floor throughout the mud room, powder room and laundry room and "re-did" the powder room, installing new fixtures and painting the walls.
A few days ago, I embarked on the newest (and hopefully last) mud room project...a storage bench for the shoes!! I designed the bench as a banquette, since I had a few feet on either side of the corner of the room to work with. I looked into a variety of plans for the project, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for. Much like I combine recipes when I am cooking, I combined plans, taking what I liked from each, developing my own individualized plan.
On the first day, I went shopping for my supplies...2 by 4's (which actually measure 2x3 1/2, by the way), plywood and trim. Everything else I had in my shop for transforming and repairing furniture.
Once I got all of my wood home, I began the detailed measuring, cutting and installation of the framework. I chose to frame out the bench to make it as sturdy and as stable as possible...it will be used by kids, after all.
A few hours of work on the outside of the bench made it look like it was coming together. At the end of day two, the banquette had walls and handsome trim work.
A few days passed before I could get day three under my belt, but the day entailed measuring and cutting the lid, installing the hinges and caulking all of the seams.