We’ve Been Benched! Chapter 4….

….this is the project that doesn’t end. Yes, it goes on and on, my friend! Some people started doing it, not knowing what it was and they’ll continue doing it forever just because….this is the project that doesn’t ends….(thanks, Shari Lewis!)…

Who knew that a simple Saturday afternoon project would still be loggin’ face time on our blog some 2 weeks later?!? Oh, I admit, dismantling our window seat bench in our master bedroom was a *lot* of fun (destruction always is!), but to be honest, the painting/dry time was really crampin’ our style! We were just wrapping up the project when we decided to take a weekend away from the DIY Dementia (I’m coining that term – it really *is* an addiction) and visit some friends in San Francisco. When we returned, the persistent coats of white paint (Valspar’s Du Jour in case you’re curious) plus polyurethane, plus dry times have taken us forever to wrap up. But I can safely say….*drumroll please*….it is DONE!!!!!! The final staining, polyurethaning, painting, touch-up painting, and organizing has been completed and we now have a usable space for storage from everything from linens to lingerie (ooh la la!), shoes to shams and everything in between! And the best part is that we still have space to spare! Hot diggity dog!

But since I know everybody loves a Before and After, let’s do the final before and after reveal!

Before:

…and now for the final reveal…

Isn’t it dee-lish? After all of that work it seems like such a shame to cover up the beautiful paint job, but yours truly may be tempted to take up some sewing classes just to put a window seat on top of that beauty! Throw in a couple more plush pillows and a blanket and, voila – reading nook for a rainy day! That is how it’s done, folks!

I bet you’re wondering what the wallet damage was on this project, eh? Believe it or not, but this project came in just around $125 total for all of the supplies, paint we already had on hand (free!), two tubs of stain/polyurethane, 1 sheet of MDF, 2 sheets of plywood, and one extra paint brush because I love painting with new paint brushes. And now that I have all of this extra storage…maybe I can fill it with more purses and shoes….hmmm…. 😉

PS If you’re looking for more information on why we dismantled this built-in beauty and how, check out Chapter 1. If you’d like to know how we tackled an awkward space underneath all of that finish molding, check out Chapter 2. And if you’re thinking about how we finished it off and created storage in this space, check out Chapter 3!

We’ve Been Benched! Chapter 3

So it goes without saying that tackling any project like our recent Master Bedroom window seat demolition and window storage building risks everything from your sanity, your cleanliness, even your marriage.  Luckily Dr. J and I work exceptionally well together on house projects, otherwise our marriage really *would* be in trouble, but the mess these past few days has certainly kept us feeling a little….dusty.  Can you imagine if we had to do a full-scale remodel?  I’m two rooms away in our office and the iMac has dust all over it…le sigh.

But for now if you’re just joining us, then Dr. J and L-Blogger are in the midst of dismantling a pretty useless window seat in our master bedroom.  The whole inspiration for this demo and rebuild is really to inject some functionality into a pretty architectural feature in our bedroom.  I mean, seriously, who has heard of a window seat that *didn’t* have some sort of storage?!?  And, I also have a love affair with this pic below from a Pottery Barn mag (admit it, they’ve moved up from brochures):

Look familiar?!  Ours has similar beadboard (though no baseboards at bottom – future idea) and while we don’t have the curtains or the fun woodwork on the top, these are all great ideas for future projects!  I really am turning into my grandmother – I’ve always got something up my sleeve for my hubby to work on.  He’s never bored being married to me!

But back to the goods of it.  We just finished installing two boxes into the remains of our window seat bench and I got to test them on for size.  L-blogger storage worthy?  Check!

However, the edges were looking a little “unfinished”, so we cut a few pieces of plywood to size and placed them over the “seams” of the built-in.  Actually, this was also a functional addition, as we had to get the depth of the window seat correct all the way across so that when our eventual door is finished, everything will be on the same plane.  We wouldn’t want to pinch our rumps on an uneven window seat.  Yowza!  This is what it looks like:

After that it was as simple (or as time-consuming) as putting a little Wood Putty into all of the seams, waiting for it to dry, and then sanding it down to the same level plane as the rest of the plywood.  So we waited….and waited…..and waited….and waited some more…..and then we realized that this project was taking far longer than anticipated due to drying times.  I think it’s that whole moisture-in-the air problem we have in the Pacific Northwest this time of year.

So here is an ugly photo before of the pre-sanded Wood putty:

Then it was time to sand…

….then paint….

And then it was on to creating the door.  Basically, and I think you know where this is going, we reduced the width of the two original MDF boards,  and we put them back, we had a large open space In the middle.  So we cut *two* MDF pieces.  One long and skinny to fit in between the two old pieces of MDF right by the window glass (which I am painting in the pic above) and then another to….piece de resistance….create a door, kind of like an old fashioned toy box that opens UP.  We carefully cut the door so that it had 1/8″ wiggle-room gap around the three sides where it butts up against the rest of the top.  But the real kicker here is just finding the right kind of hardware, which we found at Lowe’s in the form of an old fashioned piano hinge:

We are on the hunt for a “child-safety” toy box hinge, so if anybody knows of a good place, let us know.  We figure it might come in handy for any future kiddos, any future buyers, and it’ll be Dr. J, L-Blogger, and Maggie safe – we’re a little accident prone, so the more safety we have the better!

But here we are, a few days later, and we can finally close the lid on our window seat reconstruction…..

or…keep the lid open…a la the toilet seat….d’oh!  Did I just say that?!?!  But this window seat is not for crap, it’s for stuff!

Now the only thing left to do is a to finishing painting and caulk around the windows….but how lovely is this transformation?!  I mean, seriously….You Tell’Us!