One of the first furniture pieces I made for our house was a bench for our bedroom.  It helps our dogs get on the bed and is good spot for sitting (and waiting).  The current bench is made from mostly MDF and has held up pretty well except for the area that contacts the carpet.

So, I set out to design and build a replacement bench.  I wanted the new one to have storage and a more appealing design.  A scaled drawing helped to ensure I had the correct proportions and most things thought out.  The bench will have a hinged top and an internal shelf for storage.  The size of the bench was designed around a gun case that is currently under our bed

Lumber

Since the base will be painted white, I chose poplar for the wood.  The aprons and lid started at 4/4 and the legs are 10/4.  The legs started out so thick since I will be cutting tapers in them. The internal shelf will be made from left over ash and the top will be upholstered 1/2″ plywood.

Rough Cuts and Milling

As all projects I cut the boards to rough length and then down to rough width under 6″ for my jointer.  I jointed an planed everything down, but didn’t take any pictures.  It is kind of boring anyhow.  The aprons ended up about 3/4″ thick and the legs were about 2 1/8 thick after milling.  Pictured below are the pieces stacked for even drying after removing material.

Aprons/Rails

Since the aprons are so tall I had to edge glue two pieces together and used biscuits to help with alignment.  Gluing up long boards is easier with a bit of help from the biscuits.

After the aprons came out of the clamps, I did some light flattening and pass them through the planer one more time.  The aprons ended up around 5/8″ thick.

Joinery

The bench will be mortise and tenon construction.  The mortises will be 7/8″ deep by 1/4″ wide and will have a haunch to keep the aprons flat over time. The haunch will be 1/4 deep.  To avoid the tenons interfering with one another, the long aprons will have double tenons, one top and one bottom while the short aprons will have a center tenon.  The long apron tenons are each 2″ long and the short apron tenon is a little over 3″ long and offset.

I started by laying everything out and then started routing mortises

The two pictures below better describe the leg joints

After all the mortises were cut I put the dado stack in the saw and had to make a few tweaks to my miter gauge to ensure it was cutting square.  Then set the depth of cut and set the fence as my stop.

After cutting the tenons, I laid out the haunch locations and cut out the waste.

All tenons got a quick refining and rounding to fit into the rounded mortises.  Next step was a dry fit to ensure all the joints looked good and the bench was square.

Cutting Curves and Tapers

The design calls for some gentle curves on the aprons and legs to be inverse tapered.  The curves were laid out using a flexible piece of wood and three clamps.

The side aprons were laid out in a similar process, but I had a shorter piece of wood to lay those out.  Next, was to cut the curve out.  I used a jigsaw to make the cuts and then my new spindle sander to clean them up.  The spindle sander left some unevenness, so I had to manually sand the edges to get it consistent.  I wasn’t wearing a respirator during all the sanding and now I have a sinus infection.  So, it is another reminder to wear my respirator.

Cutting Curves

I cut the tapers on the bandsaw and taped the cut-off back onto the leg to see my layout lines.  After cutting, I cleaned them up with the belt sander.

Sanding and Glue Up

The next step was to finish sand the base pieces.  So 80 grit, 120 grit, wet pieces, 120 grit again.  Also, I added a chamfer to the bottom of the legs with a block plane

I used the taper cut-offs taped onto the legs to make them square again for clamping.  I didn’t have clamps long enough to span the whole piece, so I clamped some blocks in the center to react against.

Lid and Seat Frame

The plan is to make a frame that will mount the plywood upholstered cushion, so I decided to make simple half lap joints in the corners.  The plywood will be fastened with screws from the bottom up into the plywood.

After the top got out of the clamps I sanded it and then added a rabbet where the plywood seat will sit.

Lid Hinge and Tweaks

Since the lid is so long, I figured a piano hinge would be best and mounted behind the base and under the lid.  It allowed the least amount of material to be removed for proper opening of the top.

The tops of the legs had to be chamfered and the bottom of the lid had to have a little recess cut out to have the top clear the base when opening.

Prime (and paint) Time

I have had mixed results spraying paint or primer, so I went with my tried and true method.  First step is to apply oil based primer with a roller and brush.  It is a pretty thin coat.

The reason I use the oil based primer is that is can be sanded smooth.  The primer dust is like talcum powder, so it gets everywhere, but is super smooth.

After priming, I apply a coat of latex, sand and one last coat.  I have had really good results with  Rustoleum Ultracover int in the past, but this can was really “splattery” when rolling.  Not sure if it was the roller I chose or the paint, but the finish was pretty poor.   After this project I decided to buy some pigmented lacquer (water based) that I will use on my next “white” project.  I used a foam roller on all the areas I could access and used the brush elsewhere.

Inner Shelf

The inner shelf of the bench is made from leftover ash scraps I had from my previous projects and will rest on cleats.  The individual pieces will be tongue and grooved.  The picture below is after milling the lumber.

The shelf pieces don’t have to be thick, so I resawed them all down to 5/16 and then planed them to 1/4″ thick

I laid out the pieces for visual preference and had to shift them up or down to make the grain align.  I marked where are the pieces should be cut to ensure the grain lined up.

After cutting them to final length, I marked the end of each board so I wouldn’t get confused later on.

The next step was to cut tongue and groove into each board.  Before I could do this, I had to figure out the total width, so I could cut my pieces to proper width before the T&G were cut.  I didn’t want some small sliver on each end.  It worked out where the widths were fine, so I continued on.  I used my table saw to cut the grooves.  I used my standard kerf blade and ran the boards on edge one direction, spun 180 and cut again to ensure it was perfectly centered.

Then I could cut the tongues and I snuck up on the fit by raising the blade. Below, I have a sacrificial fence since the tongue is so short and a dado stack in the saw.

I made a simple jig to set the cleats into the base.  The top part rests against the top edge of the base and then I clamped it down and pushed the cleats up against it.  Drill and drove #8 screws to hold it in place.

 

I will be using screws to hold the shelf down, so I countersunk every other board and will use some #6 copper screws during assembly. The drill press was used for consistency for edge distance and depth.

I oiled the the shelf boards after sanding

Upholstered Top

The top is comprised of a 1/2″ piece of birch plywood, 2″ foam, 3 layers of batting, and the fabric.  The top has rounded corners to match the rabbet and 1/16″ roundover to prevent any tearing.

The top is cut about 3/16 short on all sides to allow for the fabric and batting.

I used spray adhesive to attach the foam and threw some 3/4 scrap with a few clamps on it to hold it in place.  I found the best tool to cut the foam after it was dry was my flush trim hand saw

I didn’t take any pictures of attaching the batting and fabric, but it is pretty straightforward.  Stretch it over and use a stapler on the underside.  I didn’t take as much time as I should have and had some fabric buildup in the corners which made the future steps a bit tougher.  If I were to do it again, I would take time to ensure the amount of fabric was consistent all around the bottom.  I also didn’t think about the underside being visible when the top is lifted.  So I had to address that.  You can see below I added some red oak strips screwed in place to hide the fabric edges.  I used the same copper screws to hold this in place.  Also in the picture below, you can see the plywood top is screwed into place.

Finished Photos

Overall it turned out pretty nice.  No major mistakes during construction, which was unbelievable.  If I were to make it again, I would have made a larger rabbet to capture the top.  I also would have done something different to hide the underside of the top.  The paint finish is not great, but hopefully my next one will be better.  The project took about 31 hours to complete.