What do you get when you don’t have plans, woodworking experience or proper tools, but you DO have an idea, wood and a long weekend? An ugly bench that serves a purpose but at the cost of my sanity.
I’ve been remodelling the entryway of our house and lack of storage is always an issue and everything is a compromise at this point. I decided I wanted to build a bench with storage for workclothes etc. I toyed around with a few designs and outside measurements and came up with a vague plan and winged it for the rest of it.
We hit the local all purpose store (?) to pick up cheap drawer slides and dowels and I was off to the races.
I first build a carcass from 25x45mm slats(?) by joining them with dowels because I obviously have stupid pride for not just using screws. Did you know it’s really fucking hard drilling straight holes and aligning them correctly to the next piece without a drill guide!? Also doing it freehand of course because I don’t have a work bench.
Because I’m insane and just trying to figure out a way to make things work, I marked the dowels with an expired YSL lipstick and then used that like a stamp to try and mark where to drill. I’m telling you not a single perfectly alinged corner exists in this bench, yet miraculously (and by brute force) the end result is not horribly wonky.
Did I mention there is not a single square ruler in the house…!? (Update: there is now, several.) I ended up using things like leftover blocks and the factory edge from pieces that I wasn’t using that I’d assume are somewhat straight.
Along with the dowel bullshit, my other big hurdle was trying to cut big pieces to have straight edges. My tools were a miter saw with the dullest harsh blade and a jigsaw. Both are fucking bullshit. Miter saw obviously cuts better but only up to 28cm wide piece and for the life of me I could not get an even cut with the jigsaw even when I made up a guide rail thingy for it. I tried evening out some of the edges by sanding but it is what it is.
I attached the sides with glue and a few finishing nails from the inside, and the top is just placed on with four blocks fitted against the inside corners of the carcass so if/when I re-do this I have more options to modify.
It took me three days in total to make this simple bench and clearly I stopped taking photos when I got to the drawer part of it. If I had proper tools this should have taken like three hours to make and it would have been way neater. My ”technique” got better by day three but the second drawer actually turned out way worse because it was incredibly damp in the house after several days of rain and the boards I was using got visibly wonky.
By the time I got to this point of the project I had placed an order for a table saw. Can’t fucking stand not having the proper tools I need for a project.
At this time the bench is at use but quite bare as I’m still waiting for my saw and I’m undecided on the front design. I might even change the position of the drawers but we’ll see. Definitely a face frame and drawer fronts are needed to hide my hideous uneven drawers, then some paint and a cushion to top it off. Or I might just hide this project somewhere in the basement and start all over with better understanding and tools.
A nice array of tools...but no work bench? Hmm, maybe that should be your next project? I really nice move with the lipstick too...and I love your work safety boots! Lol.
You're an inspiration and it's so great that you tackle these projects. You go girl!
Becca 🌷
I need a work bench to build a work bench 😂😅
Thank you for the kind words, I wish to inspire so that I’m not the only one suffering while ”getting a great idea” to build or repair something 😝
Maybe...borrow a workbench...make your own workbench and then give the borrowed one back? 😁
You do.
Becca 🌷
looks great. Looks like you know what you're doing. Fake it till you make it. I just bought some of those dowel thingys myself. I have never used them before. Lidl's middle isle is great for this sort of DIY stuff.
That damn middle isle, my man comes home from Lidl with a grin when he’s found something from the middle isle and makes me guess how much it was 😅
Don't knock the middle aisle. It is the only reason you can get your Man to go to Lidl for you.
He does prefer going alone so I won’t steer him away from the middle isle. And the bastards put some seasonal and random items right at the door too so they are the first thing anyone sees.
That's some craftsman(woman)ship
I’m fine with the original word craftmanship, it doesn’t diminish my abilities as a woman :) Luckily in Finnish we don’t have genders for most words, like policeman, it’s just poliisi so we don’t have to engage in the idiotic debades on whose feelings are hurt for the ”wrong” pronoun.
...that brings up painful memories!! When you have to start taking un-straight angles in consideration for further measures...
But! I can't see the un-straightness from here, so it still kind of worked:)
Hey at least it’s usually just 90° or 45° angles and not a completele custom curve like when making clothing!
Practise how to mix glue with sawdust (color matching wood fill). Finishing is a breeze. The only person who will know is you.
Your man might know ... but he seems to be smart enough that he'll never tell.
Haha yeah that might work for some cracks but it doesn’t work when the uneveness is on the edges 😅
You say you didn't have the right tools but then you were able to make out something this gorgeous and neat😂
I think you did a great job.☺️
Neat it is not but I’m very stubborn 😁
😂😂😂 I will love to try it, but I’m scared of getting my fingers hit with a nail ☺️ but trust me you did a great job☺️
Woodworkers actually hardly ever use nails 😉
What do they use 💁
This actually looks a lot better than you make it look 😅
I can't even drill a nail or something for the life of me.
Looks more like a shelf stand or something than a bench tho
There is a reason why I didn’t do closeup shots of the finished thing 😂😅 This is a bench with storage, I don’t know what else one would call it.
Reckon this would look a lot better after the final touch ups.
Nicely
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Damn, it looks great in the end!
Thanks, I guess it could have been worse 😅
A cool piece of furniture.
Thanks, at least it’s very useful to gather up all the clothes that somehow drop to the entryway floor every day.
There can't be too much storage.
100% agreed!