Dining bench for Lyn

Prompt

My friend Lyn wanted a bench for the dining corner in her kitchen, so we set out to build one together.

Design

I wanted the design to be simple and modular, just in case Lyn moves to a new place and needs a different configuration. We also wanted the bench to double as storage. After much deliberation, we settled on a series of plywood boxes, fronted with hardwood slats. The inner areas would hinge open for storage and the outer ends would offer open storage areas.

Slatted front with a curved corner section, for style (and ergonomic!) points

Cushions above

Plywood shell

Open storage at the end

A view from above

Boxes

Building the plywood boxes was pretty easy. A jigsaw got the corner curve done without a sweat.

Slats

The slats were a little harder. We chose red elm and got to work ripping the boards down to uniform width, then cutting them to length.

We decided to build smaller slat assembles, to be attached to the plywood boxes.

And maybe went overboard with dowels to fill in the counter-bored screws.

Curves

The hardest part of this project was the curved corner. We needed one curved piece to act as the top piece for the curved slat assembly. This we made with by cutting a piece of plywood to shape, and then veneering it with a small strip of elm.

The next step was to make the curved piece that would front the plywood bench top. This we made by cutting two curved pieces of 4/4 elm and laminating them together to form the thicker skirt we needed.

Gluing the skirt to the bench top

Notches for the clamps (glad we cut the bench top larger than needed!)

Can you find the seam?

Finishing

Lyn took on the finishing almost single-handed, sanding and oiling everything. I scrambled last minute to install the hinges and we raced to the finish line.

Install

We tackled the install just hours before I left town for two months. Hurrah! Some shimming, a few jigsaw cuts to make way for outlets and window trim, and we were done (for now).

We still need to make the cushions and take some glamor shots. Turns out you really don't see much of a bench when a large table sits in front of it, though, making our extra effort and attention to detail feel a little silly. But hey, it was fun and we both learned so much.

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