Mudroom Coat rack Bench

Hi all! I know, it’s been a LONG time since I put together a blog post, and I apologize….life is just nutty sometimes and I needed a break…..I’m sure you know what I mean.  :0)

I thought you all might like to see a project I did a few months ago that I absolutely LOVE! It’s a mudroom coat rack/bench. You remember the old 1916 house that was torn down?  The one I took the old bank of drawers from to make my window seat? Well, I salvaged quite a few old doors from there as well. I decided this would be a fun way to use those doors! Here’s what I made!….

It looks a lot more complicated than it was, I promise!  :0)

My doors were 48” wide when butted up against each other, but you can see in the pic they have little strips of wood on each side that ended up making them 49”. I wanted to keep the hinges, but didn’t really want to see anything but the pretty part, so I used that trim to cover them up.  (more on that later)

To make the base I purchased a 4 x 8 sheet of MDF (medium density fiberboard) and three 8’ long 2 x 4’s.  (the 4 x 8 sheets are actually 49” wide)
I cut two of the 2 x 4’s to 49” long and then cut three pieces 15” long….two for the ends and one for a center brace. My finished piece is 18” deep, the standard depth for a bench. I used some wood glue and my nail gun to nail it all together.  I then cut a top for my base piece..again, 49” wide x 18” deep.

See how my side pieces are on the INSIDE of my two longer outer pieces. You want to build it like this for strength.

I made sure to check the fit of the MDF piece by laying it on top of the base and checking on all sides, this will become your bottom piece to your actual bench. (where the little baskets slide in)  Don’t attach this to the base yet.

To build the actual bench part of the unit, I cut one more 49” x 18” piece of MDF  for the top piece of the bench, and two pieces for the sides that were 18” deep x 14” high.  I also cut two pieces that will be used for the center braces, and they were 18” deep x 13” high.

You assemble your bench like below using wood glue and a nail gun.

I cut a scrap piece of trim to 15 1/4” and used it to make sure my brace pieces where exactly the same distance apart from each other, like this….

and this……

then I used wood glue and my nail gun to assemble it together.

I drew a line across the top where I was going to be nailing into the braces underneath, so I knew where to nail. I didn’t want to split out the piece of MDF bracing….

Then it was easy to just follow along that line and nail without worrying about splitting out my braces…

After it was all glued and assembled, I attached it to the 2 x 4 base I had built earlier with glue and my nail gun.

Then I trimmed it out with some baseboard molding I had laying around the garage….

Next I moved onto the doors. I basically laid them out flat on two saw horses and gave them a good sanding.

After they were thoroughly sanded, I used mending plates to attach them together on the back where it would never be seen.  I forgot to take a picture of this part, but basically this is a mending plate, and you just lay it across the two doors and screw it in to make the two doors as one.

Next I moved onto the shelving unit at the top of the piece. I had some extra lumber from other projects, and I used it to make the shelving part.  I cut a piece of pine lumber 49” long x 5” wide. It’s the piece that will lay flat against the doors. (it’s the piece laying flat on the carpet in the pic) The top piece is MDF, and I cut it 49” long x 9” deep. It sits on top of the other piece and is glued and screwed from the top. I used screws on this piece cause you’re never going to see the top and I wanted it to be extra sturdy. I didn’t attach the corbels to the shelf at this point because I attached the shelf to the doors with screws under where the corbels are sitting so you won’t see the screws.

Before I attached the shelf to the doors, I installed some pieces of wood to the sides of my doors to hide where the hinges will go.    It was 1/2” thick x the depth of my door, which happened to be 1 3/4” thick.  I used wood glue and my nail gun to attach those pieces.  I took the hinges apart, and only used the pretty part with the rounded brass tops, and pounded them down into the openings. I only did it on the two top openings, because the bottom holes will be covered by the bench.

Sorry, I got a little lazy about taking pictures and forgot to show you under the corbels where I screwed them to the doors. I’m sure you can envision the shelf screwed on under the corbels.  I then used the existing holes that came in my corbels to screw those to the doors and upper shelf. I filled them with wood filler and sanded it off.  (you can see the wood filler on the fronts of the corbels if you look closely) You can also see in this picture, that I trimmed the shelf out with some trim I also had on hand.  What I don’t show in this pic, but you can see in the final pics, is that I added some crown molding between each corbel.

At this point, I trimmed out the bench around the top, and also down the front of the brace pieces with some trim. I was also a little antsy and couldn’t wait to see how my baskets were going to look. I got those adorable baskets at Walmart! They are from the Better Homes and Gardens collection and were only $9.97 each! I’m showing you in this picture how I’ll be pushing the bench up against the doors…….I couldn’t attach mine until I got it in the house because it would’ve been too big to go in my front door.  (it looks like it’s not the same width in this picture, but it really is..it’s just where I still had it pulled out in the floor a little bit)

Here it is inside the house and all screwed together. I basically pushed the bench up against the doors, and pre-drilled from the back into the 2 x 4’s I built the bases out of and used REALLY long screws to screw it into place. I also used some L brackets and attached it on the inside top of the bench where you can’t see it, and screwed them into the doors and inside the back of the bench.

Then I pretty much just added a couple of hooks for coats etc, and primed and painted! (oh and you can see the pieces of crown molding between the corbels that I was talking about earlier…I just glued and nailed that into place)

I did add a tufted bench top later on. I used another 49” x 18” piece of MDF and just screwed it to the existing bench top after I tufted it.  I have tutorial on how to diamond tuft in my post on how to diamond tuft a chair. You can just use some screws and washers instead of a needle and thread….see…

Then you just use a covered button kit (I used 7/8”) to cover up the screws…

See….just lovely!

And there ya have it…a Coat rack/ bench/ mudroom all rolled up into one!

 

 

You can see I left the old glass door knobs and hardware on the doors…I just thought it added to the authenticity of the doors. (as long as you don’t sit in the middle of the bench, they don’t get in the way of you leaning back either) :0)  hee hee hee

So there ya have it…how to make a cute mudroom/bench out of old doors!

Hope you enjoyed my project!

Blessings

Missy

Operation Organization!

Hi all!  I am FINALLY all better from my epic illness! I have never been that sick in my whole life, and I never want to repeat it either!
After I got my energy back, I decided to have a Operation Organization for the month of January! I filled the entire front page (double columns) of things to organize in our home in the month of January, and I’m pleased to say I only have one room left to go! Except for the one room that’s left, every drawer, cabinet, piece of furniture, closet, under bed……….well, lets just say every nook and cranny of our house has been gone through, purged and organized! I’m feeling quite accomplished! :0)

Today I thought I’d show you one area of our house that has bugged me since we moved in…………under the kitchen sink! I was too embarrassed to show you the before pic of what it looked like, so here it is all empty! :0)

You can see in the picture above, that there’s swelling from where there was a water leak before we bought our house, and stains from various things that had been stored down there.   I decided it was time to cover it up! I had some leftover peel and stick tiles from my laundry room makeover that I though would be perfect for this job. 
First I scrubbed the floor of the cabinet with hot soapy water, rinsed and let it dry thoroughly.  Then I started laying out whole tiles from the front to the back.  I measured where I needed to make the cuts…………….

and transferred the measurements to the back of the tiles like this…..(see the marks?)

Then all I did was make three or four passes with my utility knife against the edge of my level that was on the marks, then just snapped the piece of tile off.  It really is that simple.

Then I just peeled and stuck it all down in place…….doesn’t that look better?!!!  It only took 6 tiles and you can buy them individually at Lowes, so the whole thing would be about 6 bucks! That’s a lot of improvement for 6 dollars! :0)

I’m still going to get a caddy to put my cleaners in when I get to Walmart, but it’s still better than it was.  I don’t use a lot or harsh cleaners anyway, mostly vinegar, baking soda and peroxide. I use ammonia occasionally. but I’d rather go as non-toxic as possible whenever possible.

Am I the only one that goes completely organizing crazy in January? We really want to tackle our garage, but our temps have been CRAZY cold around here…I’m talking –27 degree wind chill…brrrr, so the garage will have to wait until Spring!

What have you been organizing?

Oh…and thank you to everyone for your sweet comments and get wells, I really appreciate it. I love you guys!

Blessing

Missy

New Garden Shed, With a Twist!

Hi you guys!  I wanted to show you what I’ve been doing over the summer.  How many of you have always wanted a little garden shed of your very own, just for your gardening stuff? (and not for your hubbies golf clubs, car parts, or whatever it is your hubby is into!) I have ALWAYS wanted one, and this summer was my summer to get it! Yay!!  (we’re trying to make room in our two car garage for at least one car, so getting all my gardening stuff out was a good incentive for talking my hubby into getting the shed!) HA!
We went to Lowes and looked at all the buildings they had on their lot…we looked at the metal ones, the plastic ones, and the wooden ones that someone comes to your house to build.  I decided, since it was JUST for my gardening stuff, that I wanted a wooden one, but just the 8 x 8 size.  We bought it, and had it scheduled to be built…..a THREE week wait!~ I counted down the days! Finally, the day came, and here’s a picture progression of how it went…..

The poor guy that came to build our shed probably wasn’t happy with me as we only have a 36” gate and he had to carry everything to the back yard by hand!

Here he is starting….

Did I mention our yard is NOT level? He had to use blocks to level it up.  I kept staring at this because it looks SO crooked because of the fence going downhill…but it was level.

Poor guy probably thought I was a nutcase because I stayed outside all day long and watched him and took pictures. LOL
Here’s my new floor!  (I may or may not have gotten up there and done a little jig while he was around front getting more supplies!) :0)

This was a kit and everything came pre-cut so the process went pretty quickly! Yay for walls!

It went quickly until this stage right here….see that dark cloud right at the top of the picture?  Yeah, we had a 15-20 minute downpour, complete with thunder and lightening. I tried to get the guy to come in the house, but he insisted on sitting in his truck. Under a tree.  Not smart. :-0

I quit taking pictures of the build after the storm….it was wet and wasn’t as fun taking pictures in my flip flops.  hee hee hee

Here’s the building all finished up! You can see the weather turned, and the day ended up being beautiful!

Next post I’ll show you the twist in my shed….not something you’d expect to see, but really cute!

Stay tuned!!

Blessings,
Missy

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How to Organize (even when you’re sick!)

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days, but I’m fighting a nasty sinus infection and am just not feeling so hot!  I think it must be the weather here in KY….one day it’s almost 60 and the next day it’s 16….holy degree difference Batman! :0)

Since I’ve been sick I’ve been watching TV at night because my head has been hurting too much to sleep.  I watched a mini marathon of Hoarders and I’ve decided that show disturbs me,  BUT it makes me want to clean house and organize…a lot!  (how do you not know there are dead cats in your house??  Oh my!)

After watching several episodes I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to start cleaning…sick or not!  I swear all I have to do is watch a couple of those shows and it kick starts my cleaning gene every. single. time. !  (that and I took a 12 hr Sudafed that made me hyper as can be! I’ll NEVER do that again!…well, at least until it’s time to organize again in the middle of the night! lol)

Since everyone sleeps upstairs I decided to start organizing my kitchen.  (I apologize in advance for no before pictures….remember it was in the middle of the night and I was in a crazed cleaning frenzy from watching that show!)  I started in my corner cabinet where all our coffee, tea and mugs are stored.  I have kind of developed a plan when I organize.

1.  I first remove everything from the area that I’m organizing
2.  then I throw away and condense as much as possible
3. then I put it all in like groups. 

For instance, I had multiple boxes of the same tea, so I condensed them into one big jar and threw away the bulky boxes. I also try to put things in areas that make the most sense.   The reason all our coffees and teas are in that cabinet, is that it’s closest to the tap water and the coffee maker, so I don’t have to run all over the kitchen to make a cup of tea or coffee, it’s all right there.  I also try to re-use things….see the three big glass jars? 

We buy cherries at Sam’s Club every year to make chocolate covered cherries  for Christmas, we save the jars and re-use them.  (and yes, those jars will eventually get little tags that say coffee, tea and creamers….cause I LOVE tags!) Oh, please ignore my scratched up cabinets…it’s time to paint them again after a couple of years of abuse….glad the scratches are only on the insides! :0)

I left specialty teas in their own boxes because there weren’t very many of them and they’ll be gone in no time flat! (did I mention I like hot tea?) :0)

I put our mugs on the 2nd shelf because it was so shallow and there was no wasted space.  The plates etc on the top shelf are just extra we use when we’re desperate cause I haven’t had time to run the dishwasher. (can you say, “not enough time in the day”?!)

The next cabinet I tackled was the dreaded baking supply cabinet!

I condensed as much as possible by putting like spices together…i.e., I had 4 bottles of cinnamon which I was able to condense down into 2. (don’t ask me why I had 4 bottles….who knows around here!)
I also put in a little hanging basket shelf…those things are wonderful! They make an extra “shelf” so you can use all the space in a cabinet or closet..I have them in several areas of our home.  I put all my sprinkles and baking spices in the little shelf area and stored my Wilton cake decorating books underneath. 
(Have I ever told you I used to do wedding cakes….lots of wedding cakes! Don’t really have time anymore, but it sure was fun when I was doing it!)  See the Tupperware container on the shelf?   I put all my MANY cupcake papers in there….it takes up much less space than all those little cupcake paper containers and it closes up and you can stack them..I love containers!

Next I did this….

Not much you can do with an appliance cabinet…I just wiped it out and rearranged.  I think I should purge some appliances, but I really do use them all.  Such dilemmas!

Under my sink (and hopefully everyone else’s) is always a mess.  To me, it’s the hardest place in the house to organize.  I have grand plans to build some kind of storage device down there, but for now it was purge, straighten and close the door. :0) So eventually this will be my before picture instead of my after!  (oh, and see the Finish dishwasher detergent box (the blue and red one)…that is the best dishwasher detergent I have ever used! Just sayin’)

The next area I tackled was the cabinet beside my stove.  I keep all my pots and pans in that cabinet because…well, it’s beside the stove..duh.  :0)  I have my crockpot down there that I got as a result of a review because of my blog….I love blogging!

Here’s the other side…more pots and pans and some Pampered Chef stoneware.  After looking at these photos, I’m thinking I need some new cookware…mine is looking a little shabby. :-/  I rearranged everything and made a little more space. I keep my cutting boards vertically down there for more storage space. (hey look, you can see my pink house shoes in the reflection! lol)

The next cabinet is the one that we re-did when we did our cottage kitchen makeover….we put glass in the doors.  When you put glass in your kitchen cabinet doors, you really better be sure you’re gonna have pretty stuff to put in it, or at least make sure it’s super organized.  I chose to keep all our regular dishes white and glassware plain and clear..it makes for a much neater looking cabinet.

I know this post is going on and on, but I was up all night organizing, so somebody needs to appreciate all my work, so stick with me! lol

I did our cutlery drawer next.  I have found that stacking our forks, spoons etc, makes it much easier when unloading the dishwasher…..not to mention it just looks nicer.  I did a little purging in the drawer areas of our kitchen and just straightened them all up a bit…..

Can you see my affinity for pink even creeps into my utensil drawers! I would LOVE to have all the Kitchenaid utensils in pink, but I just can’t afford them, but hey I got two!

Cookbooks and baking pans oh my! To say I have a lot of cookbooks would be an understatement, but I have managed to get them all in one cabinet on one shelf.  Here’s half of them….

and here’s the other half…… :0)  Again, all my pans to bake with are in the cabinet on the other side of my stove for easy accessibility.

The last place I organized was the bottom of my hoosier cabinet.  This is where I keep things I don’t use very often, or items that I keep extras of like pasta’s, cake mixes and sugars.

I put labels on the front edge, inside the cabinet, to show where everything goes……. (looks like I need to add some shelving paper too. Nothing like pictures to make you see your stuff in a “real light”)

Oh…I did want to show you that my pantry that I re-did at the beginning of last year, is still nice and neat.  That was one MAJOR re-organization and prettification project, but I still LOVE the outcome! You can see that project HERE.

Well, that’s it.  That’s what happens when you take too much Sudafed and watch too many episodes of Hoarders when you have a sinus infection.  Most people sleep….I organize.  Pretty much sums me up in a nutshell! (I’m a nut) :0)

Hugs to you all!
Missy :0)

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