Book Bench Refab

Using minimal outside materials, this creaky, uncomfortable chest was turned into a sturdy, multi-purpose piece worth displaying. Watch how it was made, along with viewing the atrocity that is the shop cleanliness.

Ever since I had seen this chest, I had been annoyed by it. It was given to us by my wife's parents (bless them), and while it makes for good storage space, the craftsmanship, strange additions, and the finish made it something of an eyesore for me.

I started with a hammer and chisel, knocking off the weird "Z" things tht made it hard to sit on. Then, I moved on the the side pieces and the front amoeba looking thing. It came apart with relative ease because it was brad nailed together, which also explained it's creaky instability.

Noted...

During deconstruction in the "Squat Shop"... Apparently before the amoeba, there was another front facing decoration. The underside of the lid also had use marks on it. I am not the first person to try to work on this thing.

I love the trend of having one's books become part of the decor, so I decided to have ours showing with an open book case on the front, but still have storage in the back. I just used the front face as the middle divider and scrap wood for the middle stabilizer board.

I definitely should have cropped this picture... 

This piece on top is to securely attach the stabilizer board from the top, in addition to the back side and the bottom. It is secured using colored pencils as dowels! I thought it would be a fun way to add spots of color while retaining some classiness.

The finish was done with Danish oil and paste wax after A. LOT. of sanding. Remember there was a finish on it before, I reckon it was spray polyurithane.

At this point I had been working in SketchUp to help visualize the final product.

I attached trim, via colored pencil dowels of course, and made a little center vignette for another color pop.  

Here's the inside with the lid open...

And the finished product! I added a little cushion too, for sittin', with plywood, $3 foam, and bought fabric. I also attached large dowel arm rails. I was going for fairly simple, classic but a hint of modern, but those rails made it middle-eastern REALLY fast. It's really amazing what a simple addition does.