Building a Kitchen Bench with Storage

The far end of our kitchen had been used by the previous owners as a small dining area. We decided to shift eating activity into the adjacent dining room, thus creating a space which we decided to fill with a storage bench. The idea was to build a bench with three drawer spaces for sliding wicker baskets. Here are examples of the effect we had in mind at the outset:

I approached the job in the same amateur DIY fashion as my first bookcase, namely sketch the basic design on the back of a proverbial fag packet and get on with it. I measured the bits of wood required, raided B&Q, and got stuck in. I constructed the frame out of lengths of 50x50mm timber. I wanted the drawers to sit a few inches off the floor, so I built ‘stilts’ on to which I screwed the mdf sheet that would form the base of the drawer space.

With the frame complete, I used mdf sheets to form the base of the drawer spaces, side panels, and front of the unit. I used a load of left-over pine slats for the top. Incidentally, these pine slats came from a futon my wife and I were given when we first moved in together, so it is rather nice that they still more-or-less serve their original purpose. This somewhat legendary futon also crops up in my post choosing a sofa for life.

Finally I glued on the skirting, added some decorative edging round the drawer spaces, and lashed on a couple of coats of primer and white eggshell.