This was the easiest and fastest project ever! We built it out of 2x12's instead of 1x12's but i wish we had done it with 2x16's because baskets are a little hard to find in these dimensions and I would like it a little deeper. But I still love it!
When we bought the wood, we had Home Depot just make all the cuts for us. so when we got home, we just had to assemble it. It went together in about an hour {we did have to make a few adjustments because we used 2x's instead of 1x's but nothing too hard}. We decided to add some screws to the 1x4 back and side rails instead of just nails so that they would be more sturdy. We have 3 kiddos and know that they will be pulled on, walked on, ran into a lot.
The finishing took me about a day to do with lots of breaks in-between.
We stained the seat with Minwax Dark Walnut and then taped it off so that I could pain the rest white. After 3 coats of white paint, I sanded the edges and rubbed the same stain all over it. It made the edges dark and make the paint an off white. Then we put two coats of clear coat on top.
We used some scrap beadboard that we had instead of plywood. I love the finished look!!!
It cost us about $50 or less for the wood. I don't know exactly because we had a few other supplies to get there too. But it was cheap!