Corner Storage Bench: In Place

That’s right, folks.  It’s in.  Done?  Not so much; but there is so little left to do that I might as well call it so.  I’ve got to make the top piece for the upright portion, and I have some different ideas still on how to do that.   I also want to add some sort of shoe-management into the shelving.

 

 

This.  Took.  For. Ever.

 

I designed this in February, and started construction a few weeks later.  I’ve probably got about 40 hours into it.  It really shouldn’t have taken that many, but hey, it’s my first piece of furniture.

 

I learned a lot.  I also learned that I need to learn a lot.  There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns to take away from this project.  Here, this pretty much sums it up.

 

 

I learned the critical importance of both following your plans too much and not following them enough.  I’ll explain.  In the beginning, I followed them without thinking each thing through, and I ended up building the shorter bench the same length as the longer bench.  Why?  Because I had copy/pasted the longer bench in SketchUp and then neglected to correct the length of the copy.  And so I ended up with a bench too long.  There was something a bit surreal about that, by the way…  having a copy/paste mistake on my computer end up as 3ft of extra bench on the floor of my shop.

 

 

I also didn’t follow my plans enough towards the end of construction, because I figured it was like putting together a puzzle and at this point, the last pieces would just fall into place.  This is how I ended up having trim pieces that were too long or too short because I forgot about the lid height or the the overlap… you get the idea.  If I had gone back to my plan instead of re-measuring from the build itself, I would’ve seen the issues right away.  But overall, the plan worked.. it’s pretty dang close.

 

 

 

I think I would like to spray next time instead of roll. I bought some ProClassic from Sherwin Williams and used some microfiber rollers, and the results are really very good. I did the finishing prior to assembly, which helped with preventing globs in corners. However, if I could prime, then assemble, then spray, that would be better, because I could fill in little gaps and cover seams in the trim.

 

 

 

As for the “known unknowns”.. well, I need to learn how to cut things perfectly square and straight.  There’s likely a good tool for that.  Using the guide on my table saw did a pretty good job, but where the lids meet, I had to plane some to get them to sit nice. 

 

Oh, the cushions.  Dani might write about that; we’ll see.  She picked the fabric and made them, I just cut the supporting wood and helped staple. 

 

 

 

Oh, I submitted the design to Google’s 3D Warehouse, so if you like it, you can download it and play around with the design till your heart’s content.

 

So, I can’t officially cross it off the list, but it’s in and useable, and I’m quite happy with that.