This was our front porch when we moved in. It was just a small empty room at the front of the house. There are windows in this room, which make it a nice sunny spot to hang out- although it's not air conditioned or heated. You can see on the wall to the right that there were some hooks on the wall. The walls and ceiling are all white. The carpet appears to be new, and is a neutral tan color. All of this is fine, but not good enough for being the FIRST THING people see when they come into our home. I found many ideas for upgrading this space on Pinterest, and so the project began!
Ultimately, we wanted the front porch to look nice and be inviting. We also wanted it to be an efficient space that could house coats, and hats, and boots, and such. Our initial plans included a bench and coat hooks. Our ideas have evolved from there. Let's look at what we have so far...
Zac built this awesome L-shaped bench. Nice things about building benches: they are not too tricky, you can build to fit your space, you can make it be however you want it to be, it's cheaper than buying one like it.
Zac's bench is skinny on the left side and wide on the right side. The left side is for sitting down and taking off your muddy boots. The right side is for lounging around and being cool. Zac used pallet wood for the slats on the top of the bench. This is great because pallet wood is free! That meant he just needed to buy a few 2 x 4's and round up some screws for the rest of the bench. He also decided to get fancy and he put the seat of the bench on hinges. This is so that after we get the front of the bench closed off, we can open the top and use the inside for storage. So clever.
The process mostly involved cutting wood and drilling screws. The pallet wood was rough and uneven, so he used his belt sander to smooth it all out. Then it was time to upholster the bench!
First I laid the batting on the floor, put the foam padding on top of the batting, and put the top of the bench UPSIDE down on top of the foam padding. Then I wrapped the batting around the edges, pulled tight, and stapled it to the bench with a staple gun. I repeated this process with the outdoor canvas, cutting off any excess material from the underside. It was important to pull it and stretch it around the bench as tight as possible to hopefully prevent any wrinkling or bunching up later.
Meanwhile, I had also been working on pillows for the bench. I used coordinating outdoor canvas for those. Pillows are easy. Cut out two squares of the same size. Pin them together inside out. Sew around the edges, leaving space on one side open. Turn the fabric right side out. Fill with Polyfil. Don't forget to stuff the corners! Sew the rest of the way closed. Ta-daa!
So here is the wide side of the bench. It's not quite done yet. We still have to add the front piece and stain the wood. As for the skinny side, I have been advised to upholster it in the same fashion, but a part of me wants to leave the exposed wood. I just think that might look nice with a really clean, shiny wood stain on it.
But building benches is not the only part of this project. You might still be thinking about those sweet coat hooks you saw in the picture above. Well, sorry they're gone! Zac ripped them off and started working on the rest of the wall. He put a piece of bead board. Next he will be building shelves for either side of the bead board, and putting a nice, white ledge at the top of the bead board. Just under the ledge will be new coat hooks. It will surely look so fancy!
So, in summary, we need to finish the front of the bench, stain the wood, and decide what to do with the top of the skinny side. Zac plans to build shelves for the wall and put up a ledge and coat hooks. We also plan to take out the carpet just in front of the doors and put tile down instead. Then of course painting the walls and ceiling. Still much to be done. Hopefully we finish this project by the time fall rolls around!
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