I followed the plan exactly except that I left out the stretcher. It turned out beautifully and fits our kitchen perfectly. I wanted to complete the building in a weekend, but even with a helpful husband the kids distracted me. It ended up taking me three weeks working during naptimes and after bedtime.
My recommendations:
-I used 2x4s for the legs, but if I had to do it over again, I'd just buy 4x4s and use those. I did my best to fill in the seams in the legs, but I still notice them from certain angles.
-Sand, sand, and sand again. I hate spending time sanding, but this is a project where it's totally worth it. I sanded everything really aggressively with 60 or 80 grit paper and after I filled in screw holes and cracks, sanded again with 120. Then I hand sanded with 220. I'm really glad I did.
-Don't cut the table top boards (2x6s) till you are ready to place them. You want to make sure you have a really tight fit here.
-Because I didn't want any cracks on the table top, I filled in the seams between the boards with Elmer's wood filler. I was really nervous about how it would stain, but I just was super careful to sand any excess wood filler off the boards before staining. The wood filler appears a bit darker than the wood, but I think it looks ok. Better than cracks.
-I notched out the table legs with the skill saw and I thought they looked pretty rough and it was a long process. When I made the bench legs, I used my table saw to notch. I'm not sure if this is recommended or not, but the notches were much cleaner looking and it was a lot easier.
Comments
mskatiesartstudio
Thu, 09/13/2012 - 13:05
Question about stairs
I saw another post where they did horizontal 2x4s instead of stairs. I see that you did one of each. Could you tell me what your thoughts are on how the kids like them....if the 2x4 steps are easy to get up and down on....
We are adopting and we're not sure what age children we will get....so, I want to make sure they are easy to navigate. Any thoughts???
Thank you!
Tjslove04
Tue, 09/03/2013 - 09:30
answer about stairs
we id the stairs for our 3 year old and the ladder for our 5 year old. She has no problem getting up and downthem but our 3 year old doesn't like to come down the ladder ones. The stairs are really nice and make the bed easily accesable even for me. =)
melncurt
Wed, 02/04/2015 - 18:48
Overall Dimensions?
What are the overall dimensions with the two landing areas and stairs? I really like this idea, but the bedroom is not super big. Thanks!