I wanted something that we could use to charge our cell phones on by the door (we're lucky enough to have an outlet in the entry way) but also started thinking it may be nice to have a bench there since the only place to sit to put shoes on is the stairs leading up to the living room. So was trying to decide between a console table or a bench.
I found this at Canadian Tire for about $60-$70. It's ok, but it is pressboard, needs assembly, etc. I figured I could put a drawer/basket in the smaller compartment for charging cell phones in.
Then I happened upon Goodwill when I went up north. I was considering another piece when this came in to the store... The thing is SIX FEET LONG thank goodness I didn't have the kids in the car! It's also solid wood (red mohagany color according to the stains at the store).
it was too tall for a bench, but was solid wood and only had a small flaw in the corner...
So I loaded it up and took it home. I took the feet off, did some fancy fixing to clean up the flaw and put some gel stain on it because it had some small stain flaws on top, plus, to take the feet off I put it directly on the garage floor and scratched it up rather than putting it on a moving blanket like I had an inkling to do :(. I got the gel stain in red mohagany and only did the sides and top-the front still looked good. A few tips. The gel stain when it says "let sit 3 minutes and wipe off" is serious. The kids distracted me and I had to step away longer on the sides and it was streaky and not the even, glossy beautiful tone on top. However, because it was still sort of wet, I was able to take a scratchy kitchen sponge, wet it and scrub off the stain and try again and it ended up alright.
I used some of the wood from the front of the leg that had an angled edge and made a patch for the part I cut out of the front where it was splintered off. Then used red mohagany wood putty (both from Minwax so they match) to fill in the gaps since I pretty much had just a jigsaw to try to piece in the wood.
This is how it turned out. We are going to look for some cushions for the top of the bench today. Hopefully a 2x6 foot or two 2x3 foot :)
How about now?
I drilled a hole in the back for a power strip for charging cell phones, etc. I may need to make the cut out in the back of the drawer a little bigger so the drawer can roll in and out easier as the cord really needs to be in the space that's behind the bench where there's a gap due to large molding... there's not much space behind the drawers to store it. Luckily the drawer slides are on the sides, so I can cut larger and not worry about the slide being affected.
Otherwise, we're enjoying the shade the tree backing to our yard offers though we're getting a lot of wildlife. The misquitos are thick, I've seen 3 snakes, a bunny, tons of colorful birds (and get to listen to them!) a blue fuzzy spider (ok, tons of spiders, but my husband was right... now that we're in the house after it being empty for 2 months, they seemed to have moved on. I cleaned out our storage area under the entry way and only saw ONE in the entire time I was down there).
This week I got the master closet and storage are organized, moved the futon from Carter's room down to our office so guests can have their own space, mowed the grass in 90+ temperatures. Tonight is the start of our small town's Summer fest with a kick off at the farmer's market. The farmer's market is only 5 blocks away and every Thursday night, we just haven't seemed to make it over yet, so I'm hoping tonight's the night to check it out. After cushion shopping I really need to do the cleaning though... floors, bathrooms, etc. I can only seem to do projects OR keeping stuff cleaned, not both, lol!
