Trundle Drawers for Mudroom Bench

Grandma-who-likes-to-sew got home from her trip at 1:00 AM ... and just six hours later, she was spoiling the kids with hugs, kisses and gifts .... and gushing about her new mudroom!

(For those of you who missed a post this past week, Grandma's been traveling, so we decided surprise her with a mudroom makeover in her side of the Momplex.)

Just to refresh, here's what the space looked like before we started working on the mudroom projects ...

And here's what it looks like now -

Yes, Grandma loves her new mudroom!

And even though it looks like a million bucks, we only spent about $200 on it!

The bench is just a 2x4 "floor" framed into the studs in the walls,

Covered in plywood and boards that we pre-painted. The bench is almost seven feet long and super sturdy. We spent $43 on it.

The organizer is just a giant shelf that we built (it is HUGE!!!) and somehow hoisted it up there and screwed it to studs in the walls.

The organizer costs about $113 - so now we are up a little over $150.

But it looks a little empty under the bench, so I thought building some drawers underneath would be the perfect way to add hidden storage for shoes and other stuff.

I decided to build trundle drawers underneath to keep the costs down, the building simple (we are proud parents of a new baby, so time is pretty tight right now), and the storage ample.

Here's how I built these trundle drawers -

Since the trundle drawers are custom made for under the bench, I carefully measured the width of the space, depth and height. Note that when you are working with walls, make sure you measure the width at the front and back - walls are not always square.

Once I had my space measured, I then decided to build two drawers under the bench. Unless you have a very wide space, I recommend one or two trundle drawers. Once you start getting middle drawers that can't "ride" alongside a wall, the drawers won't slide in and out as easily. I made the drawers 1/2" less than the opening to allow some room for the drawers to slide and move.

Once I knew the size of my drawers, I cut the sides and front and back.

I used 3/4" plywood ripped into strips 8" tall (had 12" overall clearance). You want to leave enough room underneath for the caster wheels.

The sides are the depth of your drawers.

The front and back are the width of your drawers minus the thickness of your wood times 2 (for example if you are using 3/4" plywood, and the width of the drawer is 24", you would cut the fronts and backs at 22-1/2").

I built my drawers with pocket holes, set at the 3/4" setting. I just drilled two pocket holes on each end of the FRONT and BACK boards.

Then I attached the front and back boards to the side boards, with the pocket holes on the outsides. Your drawer faces will cover the front pocket holes and the back pocket holes will be on the back of the drawers, hidden.

Once I had my boxes built, I nailed and glued 1/4" plywood to the bottom of te boxes.

With the boxes done, I can now work on my drawer faces -

I used this tutorial to build the drawer faces - it's basically a piece of 1/2" plywood framed with 1x3s, all pocket holed together on the back. I built my drawers bigger than the boxes (height-wise) to cover the caster wheels and fill the gap under the bench, but the same width (because my drawers are snug fitting under the bench).

Then I attached my hardware to the drawer faces on the ground - it's easier to do this now than when there is a giant drawer attached to the back of the drawer face.

Now back to the drawer boxes -

I screwed the caster wheels to the base of the boxes. I purchased the caster wheels here from Amazon for $4.24 a set - they are actually nice wheels that roll really well! I was surprised at that price!

Two of the wheels are fixed, and two swivel. I put the two swiveling wheels to the back (like car tires where the front tires turn and the back tires don't).

Then I positioned the drawers under the bench, in their final location -

And attached the drawer faces with a finish nailer from the outside. I just put two nails in each drawer to get the face in position. I made sure the gap between the bench and the drawer face was even all the way across.

Once the drawer faces are on with a couple of nails, I pulled the drawers out and added screws from the inside to make sure that drawer face wouldn't get pulled off.

And now for the most time consuming part ...... I stepped back and admired my work! Man, does it ever feel good to finish a project and love the results!

Here's a few more pictures, because I can't help myself!

It's actually a pretty big bench, those standard sized pillows look tiny!

The drawers slide really well,

Offering tons of storage inside.

This has been one of my favorite projects ever! It was fun, simple and inexpensive. Here's a breakdown of the cost of the drawers -

Lumber for drawers - $20

Plywood for bottoms - $10 (I used half a sheet)

Handles - $17 (ouch, those were pricey!)

Caster wheels - $9

Total - $56

Adding in the cost of the bench and organizer, for a grand total of $212!!!

That's about the cost of just one Alaska-worthy down coat! Speaking of down coats .... I'm dreading the pile of coats that will soon cover this mudroom up - but function trumps form, right?

Thanks for reading and following along! We hope this post was useful to you and might help you with your own DIY projects.

XO Ana + Family