It is almost back to school time (20 days) and I am home alone with my 4 kids while my husband is away on business for 2.5 weeks. What is a woman to do? Find a project.
There has always been this weird little nitch in the front "formal living room" that I use as my photo studio. It is only 55 1/4 " wide and 7" deep so nothing I could find would fit there- I usually have a coat rack there- and last year I had my boys' backpacks for school hung there. But... This year my twins are going off to school- which means 4 backpacks. Enter project! I modified the Small Locker Project (http://ana-white.com/2010/08/still-not-locker.html) and built the lockers to 1.) fit the space 2.)to fit their existing shoe baskets that used to be in an Ikea Expedit shelf.
I am soooo pleased with how they turned out.
I built this in pieces- first the bench, then the dividers and backing, and then the cubbies above. I built it using 1/2 in birch veneer plywood (that happens to be Purebond) from home depot. I had Home Depot cut the wood (which I normally do for the easiness factor- but this time it was a mistake. My favorite cutting guy was on vacation and I wanted to start now so I let Moose cut it. So not a good idea. One piece was 15" wide at one end and 15 1/4 " at the other... I gave him a cutting guide, hello?
Good thing I have my own table saw so I could fix it. (from when I built my girls beds: http://ana-white.com/2010/05/plans/corner-unit-twin-storage-bed)
I sanded and stained the wood with custom stain from Sherwin Williams. I then gave it 3 coats of waterbased Poly .(sanding between each one)
Then I glued and nailed it together (for the record, 1/2 plywood is harder to shoot nails into- just sayin')
Then I had the wood cut for the dividers and back (sand, stain, poly, glue and nail, install)
Finally the cubbies at the top: (sand stain, poly glue and nail, install)
After that I put on the trim so now I have a built in lockers for my kids- their backpacks and shoe baskets fit exactly, and there is room for when they grow for the backpack hooks to move up. I plan to use chalkboard vinyl to put their names above the hooks. Thanks Ana again for inspiring me!!!!!!
Comments
sojaco
Thu, 05/22/2014 - 13:37
Beautiful!
Your chairs are gorgeous - I feel compelled to go copy your handiwork immediately. :)
Would you mind sharing a link to the Target cushions you used? They look great on your chairs.
klray
Sat, 05/24/2014 - 10:56
Thanks! Threshold Outdoor
Thanks!
Threshold Outdoor Deep Seating Cushion:
http://www.target.com/p/threshold-outdoor-deep-seating-cushion/-/A-1508…
Threshold Outdoor Deep Seating Back Cushion:
http://www.target.com/p/threshold-outdoor-deep-seating-back-cushion/-/A…
Just a note on the cushions, they are beautiful and highly economical, but that also means they likely aren't as supportive as cushions 2 or 3 times their price and the covers do not have a zipper, so you can't wash them. That being said, I am happy with cushions.
CreativeChaos
Fri, 05/23/2014 - 07:44
Love the ottomans!
I built these chairs and love seat last summer and have sat on them wishing I had ottomans! You inspired me to build the ottomans. I have the same Theshold cushions from Target and they are great! Good job!
klray
Sat, 05/24/2014 - 11:09
Ottoman notes
Thanks!
The only tricksy part about the ottomans for me was attaching the "armrests". There isn't enough room to use the pocket hole screws after attaching the side aprons. I tried screwing the "armrests" to the legs before the aprons, but that just caused problems. In the end I screwed the side aprons and legs together and then screwed the "armrests" down from the top. I used wood filler to fill in the holes above the screw heads. So it isn't quite as clean looking, but worked for me.
amorg11
Mon, 06/08/2020 - 10:36
Love!!
These chairs came out amazing!!! The only struggle was to find inexpensive cushions but worth every penny. Have had so many complements. Love them! Your instructions are so detailed!
jkess44
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 13:33
Ottoman
These look great! we just put together a section and would like to move on to the chairs. I was hoping to find ottoman plans, do you have the plans you used? If so can you please share?
tdevincenzi
Wed, 06/24/2020 - 08:46
Were are the ottoman plans?
Were are the ottoman plans?