Storage Diner Bench

Last week I posted about our locker bench.  I mentioned banquet seating that we created in our kitchen.  Sorry we don't have any plans to share.  We built based on our available space.  I've been wanting a bar where the kids can work on one side of the counter, while I work in the kitchen space on the other side.  We could have pulled it off, but one day my friend mentioned staying at a place where a bench was on one side of the counter and how easy it was for her kids to be on one side, while she was on the other.  I also needed storage space for various food storage buckets that seemed to be cluttering up the kitchen all the time.

Here's what we came up with:

The "wall" that you see on the left is actually our locker bench.  We didn't take a lot of pictures of the building process, but here are a few of us finishing it.

I wanted a durable finish so we opted to stain the bench, followed by 2-3 coats of polyurethane.

We had lots of doors to stain.

 

Next time I will be sure to get wood conditioner, so the stain will apply more evenly.  There was some splotchiness that I wasn't thrilled about on the top of the bench.  I corrected it, by staining it darker, but then the doors ended up being lighter.  I think the two tones look fine, but it wasn't planned.  See our food storage buckets kickin' around the kitchen?

 Now they have a home.  Yes!  Mission accomplished.

Check out my awesome new kitchen table next week!

Good luck on your projects!

~Lena