Tutorial: Bathroom Bench

A few people have asked to know how to build the bench I made for my bathroom so I thought I would give a short tutorial.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures while building but I think I can walk you through the steps and give you cutting dimensons I used.

Here's the bench were working on.

Materials List

1 - 1X12X6 ft pine board (legs and top of bench)

1 - 1X10X3 ft (shelf)

2 - 1X4X4 ft (leg supports)

wood screws or nails

level

Step 1:  Cut wood to size

Take the 1X12 and cut two lengths to 17".  These will be your two legs.  Cut the remaining 1X12 to 36".  This is your bench top.

Take your 1X10 and cut it 29 1/2" long.  This is your shelf.

Take your two 1X4's and cut each to 29 1/2" long.  These are your leg supports.

Step 2:  Cut Decorative Details

For this step I used a jigsaw. 

For the leg supports, I drew a cutting guide onto the wood with a pencil, then cut it out using the jigsaw.

For the legs, using a small plate as a guide I drew a half circle at the bottom of the leg.  Once again using the jigsaw to cut it out.

Step 3:  Assemble the legs and leg supports

Now for the fun part - - putting it all together.

Start by laying out the leg supports and legs upside down(so the detail cutting is facing up), making sure they all line up. 

Next attach the leg supports to the legs using wood screws, making sure to pre-drill your holes.  I attached mine by driving the screw through the leg into the leg supports from the outside. 

Attach the other leg in the same way.

Step 4:  Attach Shelf

Keeping the bench upside down, mark 1 inch down from the top of the leg circle.  This is going to be where you attach the shelf.  At this point you can measure in from both sides of the legs to center the shelf - or - you can just eye-ball it like I did. 
Once again pre-drill your hole from the outside of the leg into the shelf.  Attach with screws.

Before attaching the other side of the shelf in the same way, make sure it's level and attach.

Step 5:  Attach Top

Flip the bench right-side-up.  Center the top onto the legs.  Attach by screwing from the top down into the legs (I used two on each leg), and from the top down into the leg supports (I used one on each side)

Step 6:  Paint

Fill screw hole with wood filler if you would like then paint.  I primed with a white and used a top coat of blue.  Next I distressed it by sanding it down to make the white show through.  Finished up with a couple coat of polly and I'm done!

So Easy!  Now go build on for yourself!