Two years ago my wife and I bought a house with a small entryway closet. The previous owners had installed it and while we liked the concept, it wasn't very functional due to its internal layout.  And it took up a lot of space.

We decided to tear it out and put in a bench along with some coat hooks and shelves on the wall above.

Here's the closet before, during, and after.


I went with an angled design that followed the wall around and under the window, giving us plenty of storage space right within reach.  The construction and installation of the bench itself is complete.  We are going to stain the seat boards dark and seal them; the rest of the bench is going to be painted white to match the window and door trim.  We picked out some nice moulding to go along the floor.  My step-father has a shop and tools, so he guided me in the construction of the bench since this is my first major project.

Here are some pics so far:

After the first day.  Slow going.


Getting there!


At home, ready for the finishing touches.


This is an ongoing project that will take a while to finish.  We still need to install some decorative panelling on the wall, the coat hooks, and the shelving.  I'll update here as much as I remember, so keep an eye out!

I'm digging it!! Can't wait to see it finished.

Great design!

Looks good. You'll definitely need some hooks for all your cool old hats and jackets.

Thanks guys!



I intend to put some extra spots on the shelving for a few hats.  But I haven't even designed that yet.

Stained the top and really liking it. Now to seal it and then paint the rest.

Looks good. My attempts at staining have usually turned out blotchy.

Looks really good!

For a lot done since last post.

The bench is painted and moved in to its permanent spot. Just need to paint and attach the trim along the floor.  No photos of it yet, maybe in a few days.

But I do have a pic of the refinished oak floor just inside the front door. Sanded, stained and sealed with a high gloss finish.

Nice bench!

I need details on the floor ... Are you living there?  How much dust did sanding create, how well did the old finish come off, how well did the new finish go on, etc?

My oak floor is 25 years old and needs to be refinished.  I have four kids, oldest is eight, have a dog and two cats as well - don't care about having a pristine finished floor, but do want to protect the wood.  Moving out for a week isn't going to happen but I could do a strip at a time.

Yeah, it's just a small section of floor. We sanded by hand so the dust didn't kick up but with a sander there would be dust everywhere. Our house is 100 years old, the finish wasn't great so it came off pretty easy.

We have two cats so there's hair everywhere. At night we put the cat's away so that's when I would clean the floor and put a layer of finish on to dry overnight. I put three coats of gloss polyurethane to get that shine.

Here is the entryway currently. Most of the major work on the bench is complete, just need to attach the trim along the bottom. Then on to the wall.



We're going to be replacing the carpet fairly soon. It's old and worn. The new carpet will extend up to the wall and bench on the left in the photo so that there's no wood exposed there.

Nice work. I hate carpet myself, but your kitty seems to like it.

Yeah, we like carpet in the living room and entry (makes it feel more like home,  we think) but have hardwood upstairs in the bedrooms.

Nothing better than a custom bench
made the way you want it.
You did a great job.

Nice

Thanks, yours is nice as well.

Finished the bench yesterday by attaching the floor moulding. Turned out nicely.



Knightley approves.



Next step is to put up the wall paneling.

That looks great!

What kind of wall paneling?