Building a Mudroom Bench - Tutorial

Hello! I want to thank everyone for all the positive feedback on the mudroom bench post! I am very flattered and grateful it has inspired some of you. Yay! :) One of the comments I received was from my son. I was looking at the mudroom bench on Pinterest and my son says, "Oh! Mom, that is in our house!" I reply, "Yes, it is." His next comment had me cracking up and loving his perception of things. With a confused and upset look on his face, "Mom, why did you put that there? I have to climb over it now to sit. I do not like that. It is in my way." So what was he referring to? The Being Home logo and faded bar that is present in the below picture. LOL! Love it!

Board and Batten Mudroom Bench

Unfortunately, last week was a little rough and I was unable to post the tutorial. Sorry, for the delay.

Okay...lets get this tutorial started!

First, I (actually, we) did not use any plans this time. With the building of the fireplace mantel, I was lucky enough to find some great plans. However for this project, I literally looked at different mudroom benches on-line and then visually came up with the look you see above. Because there are four people in the family, I knew I wanted four hooks and a shelf above for four bins. I wanted the bottom area for shoes split in half. Because it drives me crazy seeing shoes scattered everywhere, I am working on some ideas to better store some of our shoes under the bench.

Mudroom bench seat frame assembled.

We used 2x4's to create the frame of the bench. It is 22 inches wide by 56 1/2 inches long. 2 1/2 inch flat head wood screws were used to assemble the frame.

If anyone is wondering, I painted the mudroom before I decided to pursue building a bench. I originally was going to find something on Craigslist, but I could not find anything that would fit nicely or look decent in the nook space. Otherwise, I would have not painted the back wall of the nook. ;)

Mudroom bench frame attached to wall with 2x4 center support beam.

The frame was attached into the wall studs using 2 1/2 flat head wood screws. A center support beam was added using a 2x4. That was attached using two 2 1/2 flat head wood screws through the 2x4 above.

Additional support beams were added.

To ensure stability and strength, additional support beams were added (see image above).  Sorry, no pictures were taken of the beams before the seat was in place. 

Center MDF wall under bench seat.

For decorative purposes only and because it was our preference, a center support wall was added under the center support beam (see image above). Left over MDF was used from the bench seat and the center wall (which is 20 inches deep and 14 1/2 high) is held in place with one support block (9x2) on each side. Yes, the center wall is very stable.

Mudroom bench seat attached.

One inch thick MDF was used for the bench seat and was secured into place using 1 1/2 inch 16 gauge nails. A nail gun was used for this process. Nails were inserted around the perimeter of the seat and along the three center support beams.

Mudroom bench seat with MDF trim.

MDF trim (1x4) added around bench seat. Corners are 45 degree angle mitered cuts. If one does not have a miter saw, it is just fine to have the side trim pieces flushed with the back trim. Trim was nailed into place using 1 1/2 inch 16 gauge nails.

Mudroom bench upper shelf support.

Upper shelf support added using 1x4 MDF. Corners are 45 degree angle mitered cuts. Shelf support was nailed into place using 1 1/2 inch 16 gauge nails. If you look closely, you can see we drew out the look of the board and batten on the wall. These were our plans. ;)

Mudroom bench back wall.

Vertical 1x4 MDF trim (board) was added to back wall. Trim is 50 inches in height and has a spacing of  9 and 3/4. Trim nailed into place using 1 1/2 inch 16 gauge nails.

Mudroom bench assembled. Nail holes spackled and seams caulked.

Take a look at all those nail holes! Agh! I think my husband got carried away. lol Spackling all those holes and caulking all the seams took some time. As you can see in the above picture, the upper shelf was added using 1 inch MDF and nailed into place. Horizontal trim (boards) were added toward the top to give it the board and batten look. See above for measurements.

Okay, here is some back story. At this point I tried hand painting the mudroom bench and it was a disaster! The brush / roller marks (this is before we had a paint sprayer) looked awful and I did not like the overall bench look. There are many bloggers who have added trim / molding to textured walls and it turned out beautifully. However I was not liking the overall painted look of the knock down textured walls, next to all the trim for the bench. I was frustrated and bummed. The mudroom bench project sat for a couple of months. Yep! This is where I gave myself a long time out.

A couple of months later (the unfinished bench was mocking me), I finally decided to use hardboard paneling to give the wall a smooth finish.

Hardboard panels added to wall for a smooth finish.

Close up of hardboard panel and knock down textured wall.

Yay! Amazing how much a difference the hardboard panel makes! The panel was originally a 4x8 and was cut to size to fit in between the all the boards. The paneling is only 1/8 thick. The hardboard we purchased had one side already finished in white. The other side was unfinished. The white finished side is what was placed outward (it still needed to be painted though to match the rest of the bench area). The boards were glued in place using Locktite Power Grab molding adhesive. I then had to caulk around all hardboard panels.

Finishing products used.

After everything had been attached and caulked, I then had to sand down my awful paint job to the bench area I did a few months prior. That was not fun. I was prepping the area for new paint and to use our new paint sprayer. Yay!

Because I am the type to just throw drop cloths on everything, my husband insisted on creating an enclosed spray area for the mudroom bench. He wanted to contain as much of the paint dust as he could. I would rather have over spray and paint dust and do touch ups later on. This much prep work would drive me bonkers!

Husbands spray area with plastic curtain.

H worked so hard putting up all the drop cloths! By the way, I get our drop cloths at the Dollar Tree. There is no way I would have done all that. ;) He even had a plastic curtain that he taped from the ceiling.

Five, light coats of paint were added to the mudroom bench. BEHR Ultra paint (paint and primer in one) was used. Color of paint is Ultra White.

If you look closely at the above picture, decorative trim is still needed below the bench seat. There is no trim yet, because I had not found the right one. ;)

The bench sat for a couple of more weeks until I found the below two trim pieces. I used two pieces to achieve the look I was going for.

Two trim pieces were used to achieve final look of bench seat front.

I like the look of the two trim pieces together. I knew adding some caulk (along the seam) would give it a seamless finish and that no one would never know that two trim pieces were used.  :)

Both trim pieces added below seat and hardboard placed over 2x4 front center support beam.

The finishing trim pieces where then hand painted. This time I added Floetrol paint additive to help eliminate brush marks. This stuff makes a HUGE difference! Very, very minimal paint brush marks.

My new must have when it comes to painting.

Once all the paint was dry, touch ups were done, all tape was removed and four coat hooks were added, the mudroom bench was FINALLY completed. Ha! Even the bench cushion was already done. It had been sitting in the home office for weeks.

Mudroom bench completely done and decorated! Yay!

Thank you for reading the mudroom bench tutorial. ;) If I have made something unclear or if any of you have any questions, please ask. I will be more than happy to answer them. :)

Later this week I will have the bench cushion tutorial. Super easy! :)

THANK YOU again for all the kind words!

Julie

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