I absolutely love entering and exiting my home through the garage because of the connivence however, it is not a functional space. When entering or exiting I sit my things in the kitchen or on the floor especially when I am in a hurry to use the powder room at the entrance. This space never flowed to my liking so I decided to do a DIY Mudroom bench.  This would be ideal to store my muddy/wet shoes and to sit and gather myself before leaving the house.  If you are not familiar with this super functional room then lets get into it.

(Click product for direct link)

This space does not have to be tidy and are typically located at the secondary entry. This space can range from small to enormous and the price to purchase a hall tree with bench typically ranges from $300 and up.  Above I have included the options I considered from Pottery Barn that are really nice but cost more than I was willing to pay as well as some more affordable ones. My most affordable option was this amazingly simple DIY that completely elevated my space and provided more functionality to my home. I decided to take this route due to my space being small and wanting to customize it. To see how I got this look you can keep reading or check out Part 1 of my video HERE: (YOUTUBE VIDEO). 

Part 2: HERE:  (YOUTUBE VIDEO).

DURATION: 24-48 HOURS

SUPPLIES: (Click image for direct product link)

• Primer – zinsser
• Crowbar
• handsaw
• Plastic wood
• Caulk
• Hooks
• Mount brackets
• Utility knife
• tape
• Shelf
• liquid nails
• Paint supplies

• BENCH: STORAGE BENCH IKEA
•  
• WOOD:
  • I used a combination of pre-primed pine 1×2’s, 1×3’s, and a 1×4.
• PAINT:
  • RUGGED TAN BY BEHR
• TOOLS:
  • BRAD NAILER
  • MITER SAW
  • HAND SAW

I quickly sketched the idea to build a bench but I had never built one before so my next best option was to purchase a bench. While walking through IKEA, I stumbled upon this cute little kid’s bench that you could purchase the bench & drawer or just the bench alone. I decided on the bench  with drawer combination to give it a faux built in look. With my space being narrow I thought this bench was perfect in dimension and drawer has wheels to easily slide bench around. Give the bench the appearance of a built in but not actual being a built in made this project genius. So when moving in larger items through garage I could move bench for more space.

Assemble Bench:

I began by assembling the bench using the included instructions.

Building Mudroom:

Using the measurements of the bench, I tapped off the portion on the wall where the bench will go.

I also left room to place a 1×2 as the trim. Once you have your measurements, cut out the baseboard to allow the bench to sit flush to the wall. I used a utility knife to score the caulk and paint build up on the baseboard and used a hand saw to cut it off the wall. Once the board was loose I used a crowbar to pry it off the wall and pliers to remove nails. The drawer to the bench has wheels making it easy to roll in and out for access.

When adding wood, you want to have one 1×2 on each side and instead of laying it flat, turn it on its side. You will then take a 1×2 cut to the length of the bench as the base piece (I recommend measuring 2-3 inches higher than the bench for easy access and to account for thickness once painted). The base piece should be attached to the two outside trim with brad nailer.

I added a 1×4 to the top of the ceiling and 1x3s on both sides of frame. I created this look using scrap wood from other projects so if you are like me then you will just cut wood to extend your short pieces to the ceiling. I used a 1×2 as a spacer until I couldn’t anymore so the last few are not evenly spaced however, this project is very forgiving.

Now that i had all pieces cut to size I used brad nailer and a few drops of liquid nail to adhere wood to the wall.

I followed up with caulking all gaps and seams using plastic wood to fill in all nail holes and jagged lines where wood was extended. The next morning I sand everything down and primed the bench using Zinsser Bullseye Primer. Priming is a must due to this bench not being made of real wood. In order for paint to adhere I recommend two full coats. While bench was drying I began painting the wall Rugged Tan by BEHR. I used a 2 inch brush for the tight spaces and a microfiber roller for the bulk of the bench.

Final Touches:

While the paint dried, I purchased a shelf from Home Depot and cut it to the length of the two outside trim pieces. I primed and painted the shelf which was made out of laminate. Once the paint was dry, I installed mounting brackets and hooks to complete the final look.

This project exceeded my expectations and was extremely easy to complete. You can really be as creative as you want with this project by experimenting with paint colors, hardware, and styling decor. If you have been following me for a while then you know that many of the things on the bench were thrifted (basket, picture, cream vase, DIY clear vase, & books). I purchased the pillow from Target and the blanket was a blanket I had around the house.

If you are inspired by this DIY and give this look a try please subscribe and let me know in the comments or tag me on IG @Courts_Corner1 I also do realtime DIY’s on my IG.