DIY Bench

Upgrade your bedroom or entryway with this easy DIY bench

What an easy and fun way to turn a boring wall into something special. For me, my motivation to build this bench was to hide an outlet and the TV wire in my bedroom, but you could totally make this for an entryway, foyer, garage, and so much more. Whatever your motivation is, just know it is so worth it. This bench is cute and functional (my fave combo), and did I mention budget-friendly?! I call that a win!

I built this bench with materials I already had, so I didn’t spend a penny, but you could totally do this for under $20 in wood. Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2x8x12

• 2x4x8

• 2" screws

• Clamp

• Tape measure

• Wood glue

• Wood filler

• Mitre Saw

• Kreg jig

• 2 1/2" pocket screws

• Drill/impact driver

• Circular coarse wire brush

• Wood stain (I used Simply White and Early American)

Start by making all of your cuts! First, you’ll want to cut the 2x8 in half, so you have two equal length boards. These will serve as the seat. Next, cut the leg pieces by cutting four 17” boards, with a 5 degree bevel on every edge. These need to be in a rhomboid shape. Next, cut the leg support pieces by cutting two 2.5” pieces and two 4” pieces, each with a 5 degree bevel on every end. These should be in a trapezoid shape. Don’t forget to double check the direction of your angle before cutting.

First phase of this build is to build the seat. Start by cutting your 2x8 in half, so you have two equal length boards (Home Depot or Lowes will cut these for you for free). To join these two boards together, I used wood glue and made pocket holes with my Kreg jig. I then clamped the two boards together, and used 2.5” pocket screws to join together. And that’s it for the seat itself!

Next up is assembling the legs. We are making two of the exact same leg, so here’s how you put together one of them. Grab two of the 17’’ boards and face them together to make an ‘A’ frame. The 2.5’’ board will go in between them at the top, and the 4” board will go towards the bottom. I played with it until it had a tight fit at all four joints. Once you know where you want your boards, you’ll want to add wood glue to all the joints, then clamp together tightly. Make sure that the top edge of the two 17” boards are at the same exact height, and likewise for the bottom, so ensure there is no wobble in the bench. Then just screw right into the sides using 2” wood screws. Try and drill the screws in deeper than the surface of the wood, so you can use a bit of wood filler to cover the screw heads before staining/distressing.

Now comes the fun part - the distressing! I used multiple techniques to turn this regular looking pine into something vintage and spectacular. In full transparency, I broke out my reciprocating saw and it was the most efficient way to distress the wood; however, if you don’t own a reciprocating saw, not to worry. There are plenty of ways to distress wood. Start with a hammer, and just randomly hit it all over. You can also use one of the screws, laid on its side and smack the hammer onto the screws to leave random indentations. Then for the edges, you can use a simple hammer and a chisel! Get ready to work out your arm muscles though! And lastly, a cheap alternative to the reciprocation saw, is to use a circular coarse wire brush drill attachment and go to town all over the wood. I went in the direction of the wood grain, but you could do this at random too. Make sure you distress the legs as well as the seat itself. I did end up sanding down the distressing to make it look even more “aged” but it was also a safety thing for me because I didn’t want anyone getting a splinter from one of my projects haha!

Once you feel like you are done with the distressing, you can go ahead and start staining! Once the stain dried, I also did a coat of poly, but that was a personal preference.

Last step is to assemble the legs onto the bench. I screwed in from the bottom, up through the top of the seat. That way, there were less visible screw holes. It is important to measure the distance from the edge of the seat, to ensure both legs are in the same exact position. I did 5 inches from the edge of the seat.

Here’s how my bench turned out! It’s super cute, and it functions well for what I need. As I mentioned earlier, you could totally make this for multiple spaces - garage, entryway, bedroom, etc. It’s cute and functional and that was the goal here. Happy projecting!!

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