When space is at a premium in your house,
then building some bench seating with storage
can solve a couple of problems at once.
A bench seat can give you a new seating
area, as well as giving you quite a bit of handy storage
space.
And the best thing, you can make it yourself, easy as.
I'll show you how to build a corner bench seat with storage,
and the box cushions too.
Now, the easiest way to start this project
is by making yourself a template.
Now, the standard height for a bench seat
is between 400 and 450 millimeters high.
So I'm going to make mine 400 millimeters high, because I've
got a relatively thick squab that I'm going to put on later.
And my bench seat is going to be 1,880 long.
The width of my seat will be 480 millimeters.
You can make this whatever works for you.
And I'm going to put a 15 degree angle on the front,
so when you're sitting on it, your heels don't hit or scuff
the front of the board.
It's also a little bit more comfortable.
That angle leaves our bottom measurement at 380 millimeters.
Now, so I'm going to start marking this out
on a sheet of ply.
I'm going to mark this out on the bottom 380
millimeters, and the height, I've got 400 millimeters.
Now, the top of my seat, I'm going
to make 480 millimeters wide, so effectively, that
gives me a 15 degree angle.
So that there is going to be the shape of our seat.
Now, before I cut this out, what I'm going to do
is take off the thickness of my front panel,
so I'm going to use so 18ml ply for our front panel
and also for the top.
So what I'm going to do is just use a scrap piece of timber,
mark the thickness of that, and take that
off that top measurement as well.
OK.
So this template is going to set me up for the rest of the job.
Now, the easiest way to cut this is by using a circular saw,
because most people have one of these at home.
So what I'm going to use is a piece of timber
that I'm going to clamp to my work surface,
and use that as a guide on the edge of my circular saw.
Now, to get that measurement, what I'm going to do
is measure from the inside of my blade
to the outside of the table.
Now, I know that's 130 millimeters,
so what I'm going to day is mark 130 millimeters
from our line top and bottom.
And I'm just going to clamp a piece of timber on there.
So now I'm pretty much ready to use
the edge of this piece of timber as a guide.
The saw's going to sit on that, and I'm just
going to run through and that'll hit our line nicely.
Now, when you're making any cuts with your circular saw,
you just want to go slightly deeper than your work surface.
So I've set that to just over 20 millimeters,
so I know it's only just going to go through.
And then that way you've got the most amount of control.
[CIRCULAR SAW SOUND]
And then do the same for the other edge.
And we're going to need six of these panels in total.
I'm going to start off first in the corner here.
And I'm going to screw that straight
to the wall with a screw in each corner.
Now, the overall length of my bench seat on this side
is 1,880 off that wall.
Just going to mark 1,880.
That's the overall width.
And I'm just going to square off our back wall,
and then I'll plumb that line up.
I'll take my template, and I'll put it on my 1,880 mark.
I can mark the height on there, and I'll just
mark on the inside.
So I now know a length on the inside of my other template
to the inside of this one, so I can cut a 60
by 20 batten that's gonna fix to the wall.
So here's a piece of 60 by 20 I've already cut to length,
and I'm just going to screw that to the wall.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now you just want to make sure that is
nice and straight before screwing it off on your studs.
OK, the next thing we need to do is
cut a floor plate out of exactly the same timber our 60 by 20.
But on this one, we're going to have
to cut a 15 degree angle the same as the front of our box
seat.
So if I was to put that there on my plumb line
and on my square line.
So all we have to do is cut our floor plate.
So once again, I'm just going to use my circular saw to rip
an angle on my floor plate.
Now, to do that, I'm just going to set this to 15 degrees.
OK.
So I'm just going to lock that off nice and tight.
And then I'm going to use my guide that
comes with your circular saw when you buy them.
And we're just going to fix that through,
and I'm going to cut this back edge.
Now, I've just screwed this to a piece of timber
so it's nice and secure, and I've
set my saw so just a little bit thicker than the thickness
of the timber.
[CIRCULAR SAW SOUND]
A wee little tip, when you are using a circular saw,
you never ever want to put a foot or a hand behind you
saw, because that's the way the motor wants to go, backwards.
You could lose a foot or a hand.
Always keep your hand in front, if you do want to hold it down.
[CIRCULAR SAW SOUND]
Cool.
So I've just cut my floor plate.
So what I'm going to do, I'm just
going to fix that hard onto the floor,
flush with the front of my template.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
And take my other end plate, and I'm just
going to fix that to the wall.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now, all I'm going to do is line these two points up,
and fix our floor plate down.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Sweet.
Now we're ready to cut our front board that goes on the seat.
Now, using our template once again,
I can actually measure the angle on that front there,
and that'll give us the length for our front board.
What I'm going to use is a track saw here.
These are great if you've got a lot of plywood cutting up,
or any sort of sheet material.
You don't have to use a big cumbersome table saw.
These are super handy.
It pretty much just looks like a circular saw,
and the grooves, here, just slot straight into the track.
So what I'm going to do is set that to 15 degrees
just like I did on my circular saw,
but I'm using our track to give me a nice straight line.
And I've just got a clamp here.
That goes underneath our track.
Clamp that down.
Now I've got a really nice straight edge
to give me a perfectly straight line.
[TRACK SAW SOUND]
OK.
So I've already cut my board.
I put some glue on there.
I'm just gonna finish off the gluing here.
And we're just going to attach that to our front panels.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
So the next thing we need to do is put our center panel in.
Now, these panels are exactly the same as our ends.
The only difference is we're going
to have to chop out for our wall and our floor plate.
So I've just taken an off-cut of my 60 by 20,
and I've marked that on the top corner there.
And using a hand saw, I've chopped that out.
And I've done exactly the same for the bottom.
I've just taken an off cut of my angled piece.
I've put that on there, and chopped that out.
So that's just gonna slip straight
into the middle of our seat.
The reason why we're doing this is so it strengthens that seat,
and it doesn't bow out at all.
OK.
So I've measured the center of my box.
Put a line on the back board there.
Now I'm just gonna square that across to the front.
And then I'll just square that down.
Now just apply a little bit of PVA to the edges.
[BANGING SOUND]
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
OK, I'm not going to put any fixings
at this stage at the back, because when
I put my top board on, that will secure it in place then.
OK, the next thing we're going to do
is start building the top of our seat.
Now, to do that, I'm just using our 60 by 20 again.
I've already pre-drilled a hole, which
is really important with pine, especially on the ends,
because it's really easy to split putting a screw in.
So I've pre-drilled the holes, I've placed some screws in,
and I've already put some PVA on the back.
So what I'm going to do, sit that on, screw that down,
and I'll do exactly the same for the front.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now I've just cut some pieces that go in between our front
and backboard, and pre-drilled a hole using my 3ml drill bit.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now all we have to do is the same for the other two pieces.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now, because my seats are also going to double as storage,
I'm going to cut a couple of sheets of ply
that have got to sit in the top here, so I can lift up--
I can either hinge those, or have them sitting in loose.
So I'm just going to take another piece of 60 by 20,
and I'm going to fix it to the underside of our boards.
So all I've done is measured from the inside
of our front board to our back plate.
So I've just cut that a couple of mil less
so I can just get it in.
That will slide underneath, and I'm just
going to screw and glue that from the underside.
And I'm going to do that for all four pieces.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
OK, I've just cut my lids.
Now, how I got to that dimension--
I measured the distance in between our sides,
and then I just took off four millimeters.
And I did the same for the end.
That way, it just sits in there.
I've got about a two millimeter gap around it,
and allows me to get it out nice and easy.
Now, I will say, drilled a hole through the end.
Now I've come in 100 millimeters by 50 at the front.
So I'm going to show you how to do that.
So I'm using a 35 millimeter Forstner drill bit.
You could use a spade, but these just give superior cutting.
So I've already marked on my board 15mm up by 100mm in.
And I've just got a 1.5mm drill bit,
and I'm just going to put a nice fine little pilot hole all
the way through to save me measuring and marking the back.
Now,
Now the reason I've drilled a pilot hole
is purely because I'm going to use my Forstner drill
bit to go halfway through the board,
flip the board over, and then come from the other side.
If I drill all the way through, now it's
just gonna blow out the back and be pretty ugly.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now, this is a trim router, and I've
got a 3mm radius bit in it.
So what this is going to do it's just
going to dress up all the sides.
You could use a bit of sandpaper and a block plane,
but this is really inexpensive and it does a great job.
[ELECTRIC ROUTER SOUND]
Use your trim router and orbital sander
to tidy the edges on the seat, as well.
[ELECTRIC SANDER SOUND]
Repeat the process for the second side,
but don't forget to cut a 15 degree
angle where the two seats meet.
For this inner end panel, make sure it's plumb,
then fix it in place.
[HAMMERING SOUND]
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
Now, I've already cut the front panel.
Now, the way I've got that it's pretty simple.
So I'm just taking my template piece--
it's exactly the same as our ends--
I've just turned that upside down.
That there fits in there absolutely beautiful,
because it's exactly the same angle, but upside down.
So all I've done is taken my sheet of ply,
I've cut the angles on it, and I've just
left it about 100mm longer at this stage.
And all I've done is mark that angle on the end,
and cut it off.
So that just sits in there nicely.
The next thing I have to do is come down this end here.
Just got to make sure that my end panel is nice and plumb.
OK.
Now I'll just mark the back of that,
chop it, and fix it in place.
Use a bit of PVA.
Then glue and screw the front panel.
[ELECTRIC DRILL SOUND]
710.
Measure, mark, and fit the center panel, the support
plates, and the lids.
And the job's done.
Now I'm gonna teach you how to make a box
cushion like I've done here.
So I'm going to make one for over there.
Time to measure up.
So I've measured my distance from my box seat that's
sitting there already to the end of my bench seat,
which is 1,410 long.
So I'm going to take 10mm off that,
because I've got the batting rolling around either side.
Now, my width is 480 wide, so I'm
going to take 10 off that, as well.
And also, I've got some foam.
And a really good tip here, because the foam
is so expensive, is to buy foam mattress from a rubber or foam
supplier.
They might even cut it to size for you.
So the first thing I need to do is attach that onto here.
So I'm just using a spray adhesive,
and I'm just going to put a liberal amount on our ply.
And I'm also going to put some on our foam.
So all we do is put those two sections together,
and it's almost like an instant bond.
So we'll just start from one end--
make sure it's nice and square--
and just roll it down, following the edge of my ply.
Because once that goes down you haven't really
got a lot of time to work with it.
OK, the next thing we need to do is attach
our material and our batting.
I've laid my material face down and then my batting.
I've pre-cut these to allow for about 60 millimeters rollover.
So the first thing I'm gonna do is roll one side onto our ply.
And I'm using 12 millimeter staples.
[STAPLING SOUND]
Now, if you like, you can give yourself a nice line to go to.
[STAPLING SOUND]
And don't be afraid, as you can see,
to give it plenty of staples, because we
want to stretch that other side around nice and tight.
[STAPLING SOUND]
So for this side, be sure to pull the fabric tight.
[STAPLING SOUND]
Now, just before I fold this end up, what I'm going to do
is just cut this little section of batting off.
Otherwise, we're going to get a double up of it,
and it's going to make it too thick.
[SCISSORS CUTTING]
So I'm going to fold one corner up at a time.
Now, what we're trying to aim is for a corner where there's nice
and 90 degrees out there with no cleats in it,
so that's looking pretty tidy.
[STAPLING SOUND]
Now just do the same for the other end.
Now, I've already attached this one back rest,
and I've allowed a gap of about 120, 130 millimeters.
You can put it at whatever suits you.
So what I've done is attach Velcro
to the back of my box cushion and that's tacky on one side,
and I've put a couple of level marks on my wall already.
Now, the good thing about using Velcro,
a couple of different reasons.
If the kids were to drop anything down there,
really easy to remove.
Or if you wanted to paint that wall,
it's really easy to take off.
So all I have to do, line that up with my level marks.
And tickety-boo.
And that's the job done.
Now you've got yourself some useful storage space,
and a place to sit back and admire your handy work.