Building A Custom Mudroom Bench

• Kreg Adaptive Cutting System Plunge-Cut Track Saw
• Router
• Router Table
• Router Bits
• Table Saw
• Brad Nailer
• Orbital Sander
• Mouse Sander
• Pocket hole jig
• Sandpaper
• Drill
• Paint Sprayer
• Paint Brushes
• Caulk Gun
• Paint booth
• Tarps

Materials:

• ¾” Birch Plywood (number of sheets will depend on your measurements)
• ¼” Birch Plywood
• 1” poplar
• Pocket Hole Screws
• Pocket Hole Plugs
• 1 1/4” stainless steel wood screws
• Wood Filler
• Edge Banding
• Nails for Brad Nailer
• Caulk
• Paint
• Drawer slides
• Drawer handles
• Drawer boxes or materials to build them
• Benchtop or materials to build it

Gather Materials and Determine the Size:

Length: 80”

We wanted this bench to not only look good but also be truly functional, where our kids would be able to store all of their backpacks, jackets, shoes, and random belongings. That meant making sure it was wide enough for all of their butts to fit on at the same time. We decided on 20” sections, meaning the total would be 80”. We did have a constraint with a door on the wall but 80 inches gave us plenty of space between the cabinet and the door.

Height: 18”

The bench height is 18” which is generally standard. With that measurement in mind, you will need to subtract whatever top you choose as well as the base you will add to the bottom of the carcass for a toe-kick.

For the top of the bench, we ordered a butcherblock from a company online. This is something you may want to consider as it was professionally cut, edges rounded, stained, and shipped, for likely the same price it would’ve cost me to buy the top, stain it, and then sand it down and stain it again because I didn’t do it perfect the first time. The top we ordered measured in at 1 ¾”. Calling it 2” for purposes of this build (17 ¾” is just fine for me).

The other thing to do here is subtract out the base for the toe-kick which will be 3 ½”.

Depth: 28”

Because we were putting a cabinet on top of the bench, we needed to make sure to subtract out the depth of the cabinet itself to give us the remaining seating area. We wanted the seating area to be between 14” and 18” based on standard seating so adding the cabinet depth of 12”, which is generally standard, put us between 26” and 30”.  The bench top we ordered came in a standard 30” width. We need to account for the drawer faces and handles so a 28” depth made the most sense.

This leaves us with a carcass measurement of 12 ½” high, 80” long, and 28” deep.

Step 1: Break Down Plywood for Bench

After measuring twice you will want to break down your ¾” sheets of plywood to match the measurements you choose. The two outside ends are easy to measure. For my cuts it was 28” by 12 ½”. The bottom will measure 28” by 78 ½”.

NOTE: the nominal thickness of plywood is not the actual thickness of plywood unless you are looking at thicknesses over 1”. This means a ¾” sheet of plywood will measure around 23/32”, implying I need my 78 ½” to be 78 18/32”. To be exact, you will want to factor in these differences, but given your overall dimensions may not be the same as mine, we will use the round numbers for ease of explanation going forward.

• A ³/₄” sheet is actually ²³/₃₂” thick
• A ¹/₂” sheet is actually ¹⁵/₃₂” thick
• A ¹/₄” sheet is actually ⁷/₃₂” thick

Because we are putting a top on the bench, you can use two smaller boards for the top. I made my front top board about 12” x 78 ½” and the back about 3” by 78 ½”.

The three dividers will measure 28” deep as they will be flush front and back, but will be wedged between the top and bottom pieces so we need to subtract the ¾” from each side giving us a measurement of 28” x 11”.

Step 2: Assemble the carcass

Use pocket holes to insert 1 ¼” pocket screws into each joint making sure the dividers are spaced evenly. If you are new to pocket holes or need a refresher, here is a quick tutorial using the Kreg Pocket hole Jig:

Step 3: Attach the base

Now that the carcass is done, flip it over and add the base. Earlier we said the base would measure 3 ½” high. Because this is for a toe-kick, the dividers will be shorter. A couple of other measurements to note before continuing. The “feet” in the bottom corners are 3 ½” squares using glued up plywood. These are flush with the drawer faces that will be added later. The drawer faces are also built out of 1” poplar (actual measurement about ¾”). So the 3 ½” squares will stick out ¾” leaving 2 ½” under the carcass. Therefore:

• Outsides – 3 ½” x 28 ¾”
• Dividers – 3 ½” x 25 ½”
• Back – 3 ½” x 80”
• Front – 3 ½” x 78 ½”
• Feet – 3 ½” x 3 ½” (3 per side)

You will want to glue up the 3 boards for the feet on each side and attach to the outsides before continuing. After those dry, you will once again use pocket holes to insert 1 ¼” pocket screws into each joint making sure the dividers are spaced evenly.

After all pocket holes are complete on the carcass and base, go back to each, fill with plastic wood (wood filler) or pocket hole plugs, and sand as appropriate. If you use the pocket hole plugs, a great tool to get rid of the excess is a flush saw.

Step 4: Drawer Boxes

When they arrived, they fit like a glove, making this a great decision. If you want to do them yourself, you can choose the wood you want, and then you will need a dovetail jig to get the right joints to assemble them.

Step 5: Drawer Faces

These are actually a lot of fun to build. We chose a shaker style for the drawer faces. You will need 1” poplar and ¼” plywood for this part.

The measurements here can be a little tricky. The faces should all be 12 ¼” high but their widths are not going to be the same. The entire bench measures 80” and between each drawer, you want to leave a slight gap, approximately 1/8” so that they don’t rub. On each of the three dividers, the drawer face should overlap by about 5/16”. But the left and right outside drawers need to cover the full ¾” plywood on the edges. Therefore, you should plan on two drawer faces being 20” and two being 19 13/16” wide.

The Shaker style is a cope-and-stick construction that has recessed panel doors. This means the horizontal rails fit between the vertical stiles to form the frame with 90-degree angles. The “stiles” are the vertical boards and the “rails” are the horizontal boards. The “stiles” are the vertical boards and the “rails” are the horizontal boards. The “stiles” are the vertical boards and the “rails” are the horizontal boards.

To make this work best, my recommendation is to use a router and router table for this part. Get a good set of rail and stile router bits and make sure you use scrap wood to get the placement right.

Because we are using ¼” plywood as the main part of the face, we need to put that size groove in the 1” poplar. The standard practice is to put the wood in the middle of the frame, but you should choose how you want to do it. For standard measurements, we will assume 3/4” actual board gives us ¼” on either side of the ¼” groove.

Note: from our earlier point, nominal vs. actual measurements on wood is different. We noted above that ¼” plywood is actually 7/32” thick.

When you mount the drawer face to the actual drawer, you will have a slight gap between the plywood in the middle of the drawer face and the drawer since you are putting the plywood in the center of the poplar frame. To account for this gap, you can glue another ¼” sheet of plywood to the existing plywood after assembly to remove the gap. But given that nominal vs. actual measurements are different, this now puts us 2/32” or 1/16” off of our flush placement with the drawer. To fix this, slide the ¼” groove backward by 1/16” leaving the measurement of the groove on the 1” poplar as follows: 3/16” rear, 4/16” groove, 5/16” front. Clear as mud?

After adding the grooves, cut your ¼” plywood to slide in, and then use wood glue to hold each piece together. Once dry, use plastic wood to fill in the gaps and joints and then sand as appropriate.

Step 6: Prep with Wood Filler and Edge Banding

Now that all of the pieces are together, it’s time to start the finishing steps. In order to make the plywood not look like plywood, you can either use wood filler or edge banding on all the sides of the plywood. I prefer iron-on edge banding as it has a more consistent look, but adding wood filler and sanding it down will also do the trick.

Fill in any gaps or imperfections with Plastic Wood-X wood filler. This filler has the advantage of changing color from pink to natural wood as it dries, so you’ll know exactly when it’s ready to sand. It’s perfect for smoothing over joints and any blemishes in the plywood.

Tip: If you buy the giant tub of wood filler (buy it – you’ll need it), take out only a small amount at a time and put the lid back on. The air dries the wood filler out and if you leave the lid off for an extended period, the filler still inside the tub will start to harden and become unusable.

Step 7: Paint

When painting furniture, I always recommend using a paint sprayer for a more even look. I like to use a cheaper air compressor-powered paint sprayer as it has always done a great job for me. If you don’t own an air compressor, you can invest in an electric-powered paint sprayer. You will get what you pay for here, so once you realize you will be spending a few hundred dollars or more, you may want to instead buy yourself an air compressor and a cheaper sprayer. That air compressor will have a lot more utility…

We painted our mud room walls a darker shade of blue and the floor is a lighter blue tile so we knew this bench would be white.

Behr sells a paint called Urethane Alkyd Satin Enamel that acts like an oil-based paint and goes on nice and smooth but is water-based removing the mess of oil-based paint. I grabbed a few gallons knowing we would use this same paint for the locker cabinet later.

I recommend painting in a well-ventilated area! I bought a painting tent and used it in my driveway after putting down a drop cloth.

Step 8: Install Drawers

In order to install the drawers properly, you need the right hardware. I would not skimp out here. Order the Blum slides, especially if you think your drawers will get a lot of wear. These are designed extremely well and built to last.

The drawer slides should install easily on the carcass you have built and the locking devices and brackets should fit perfectly on the drawer boxes you made (or ordered!!!).

As mentioned earlier, the top was ordered from a butcherblock company online. I highly recommend doing this so that it turns out perfectly, but you can also come up with your own top and it will be great.

Make sure there is nothing on any wall you are going to cover that you will ever need to access! On the wall behind where I was installing our bench was an AFCI outlet that had already tripped a few times since our new laundry room was completed. This was relocated to a different wall and the outlet was removed completely so that we would not ever need access behind the bench.

You might also need to remove some baseboards if you want it to have the full built-in look. I had to add a ¾” plywood filler board against the wall to keep the bench out far enough to let the drawer against the wall open and close. Even with that I also had to sand down the door frame to the adjacent exterior door ever so slightly so the drawer wouldn’t rub against it. After painting the frame, the change I made is unnoticeable.

Because this is such a heavy assembly and will be even heavier once the locker cabinet is on top, I was not overly worried about it being secure to the walls. I only put a few screws in on the side wall to ensure my placement was correct as I started building the locker cabinet.

Finally, the top arrived and I slid it on with an almost perfect fit. After I had already placed the order, Lindsey decided that I should add a decorative edge to the exposed side of the bench and locker cabinet. This was a great idea and I agree that it gave the bench additional character, but it was a near-fatal mistake in ordering the $600 custom-cut bench top!

To fake a shaker look on the outside of the bench and use up as little material as possible, I shaved down a poplar board to nearly ¼” and framed it to look like the drawer face. I also added enough material to cover the 3 ½” foot on the same side.

After adding this additional wood, I ended up with a slightly less than ¼” gap between the wall and the bench top, which is almost unnoticeable. Thankfully, this post-order design change turned out okay!

Similar to the bench itself, the top is so heavy that I see little reason to secure it to anything specific and it sits on top without issue.

Step 10: Install Drawer Faces & Hardware

Now that the bench is in, the drawer faces can be installed. If you haven’t added the additional ¼” plywood, now is the time to glue the additional layer of plywood to the back of the face before screwing it onto the drawer box.

We are installing two different size faces so be sure the larger ones are on the outside and the smaller ones are on the inside. Install the two outer ones first to be sure they are flush and then install the two inside drawer faces. I used 1 1/4” stainless steel wood screws to attach these.

Don’t forget to install your handles. You’ll want to put those on after the faces are installed so that the screws go through the drawer box itself – giving added support when the drawers are pulled out.

Step 11: Caulk as Needed

I added caulk around the sides of the bench where it meets the wall. I bought both white and brown so that I could caulk the bench top without it looking out of place. Buying the right color makes a world of difference and the caulk goes unnoticed because of it.

That’s it! The bench is complete. If you are ready to do the lockers, you can find those instructions HERE.