First DIY furniture project

Inspired by various other DIYers and blogers along with our goal of saving more money and my goal of becoming more crafty we took on our first DIY homemade piece of furniture a window seat bench. (and by we I mean that Patrick did all the hard work, I simply modeled on top of it for now).

First we looked at pictures of various other window bench seats online. Our aim was to settle on one type of window bench seat that met both of our expectations. This meant that the bench seat had to be both functional and "pretty", Oh and cheap (however as many firsts go we were not able to stick to this last goal, instead it may have categorically been cheaper to actually buy a bench. But hey we have begun our DIY furniture making and we are mighty proud.)

After deciding on all the minute details, how do we want the trim to look? do we want cupboards? do we want cubby holes? do we want a trunk? hinges, no hinges? We drew a plan and Patrick was off to the hardware store. Final decision; three cubby holes and decorative trim.

Step two: Remove molding, remove the old phone jack from the wall and patch the hole.

While Connor, Erin and I had fun at the Battle Ground used book sale (you could fill a bag full of books for only one dollar! Naturally Erin and I were pretty excited, being the avid book lovers that we are.) Patrick stayed home to work without distractions.
Here is what was waiting for us when we returned home.

The Con-man was very excited for all of Daddy's hard work

Next step:
* finish adding the rest of the molding.
* Sanding
* Staining
* Then the BIG step, my part which involves learning how to use my sewing machine so I can make a pillow cushion for our bench.

For now reading will have to be done on the bare wood...

Connor has been working on a project of his own learning how to sit without assistance.

Perhaps he will master keeping his saliva inside his mouth next!

The nuts and bolts:

Money spent:
$ 44.97  1 sheet of 4x8 oak plywood
$ 34.96  2 8 foot 1x4 oak
$13.97 pine wood for the frame
$12.94 2 boxes of screws (plenty left over for future projects)
$3.49 10 pack of pencils (unnecessary in my humble opinion, I think that regular ones could have done the trick)
$9.97 stud sensor (another item for our tool box and future projects)
$4.97 steel square (useful for the future)
$6.47 1 box of 1 1/4" screws

Total : $170.61 (missing the cost of the trim)

Hours spent: 2 days

Keep checking back for pictures of the final result!