Getting your kids or the family together for dinner is always a challenge, right. Well not with this beautiful banquette seating and I am going to show you exactly how to build this unit for your kitchen, and that will ensure that you always have a full table for dinner.
Before you can build the banquette you need to take the measurements. So you want to measure the length, the height, the width and the depth of your seating area. A great way to determine the height of your banquette is literally pull up your favourite chair and bar the measurements from that, and just transfer it over to the bench field. Now that I have my measurements, it's time to go outside to cut and get ready to assemble.
I am going to be using three quarter inch of Birch plywood to construct the frame of the banquette. So my next step is ripping down the material for the four sides of the frame, and I am going to do that using a table saw. Birch plywood is a great material to use, because it's similar to what they make cabinets out of, and it's basically what we are doing here, plus it stands up with paints beautifully.
Next stuff, I am going to be cutting the ripped pieces to length, and I'll be doing that using a circular saw. A circular saw is the perfect tool to use for a cut like this, because it allows you to make a cut over 10 inches of length. Most minor saws will only allow you to cut up to 10 inches.
If you had ever noticed plywood has a tendency to splinter. Why? Because that the nearest is only a millimeter of an inch thick. To avoid that from happening while cutting it with a circular saw, taking utility knife and score a line which you've just marked cutting through the vignette. And the blade is -- making it circular cut, it won't tear and rip up the face.
Because we are finishing the banquette with the bench top which we will open for storage, we are going to be cutting 2 inch strips out of our plywood that act as a ledge, kind of like a picture frame.
All the pieces are cut and now it's time for assembly. Because it's sort of an L shape bench unit, we are going to be creating two separate boxes, which will be joined together as one unit. We are going to be using nails first to hold the unit together temporarily. Then we are going to be using inch and 5/8 wood screws which are really going to keep the unit tightly together forever, because screws have three times enough of holding power than nails do.
Ah! These things are great. Now we need to back inside, secure them in place with 3 inch wood screws into the wall studs.
There are many different ways you can finish off the front of your banquette. You can paint it or you can stain it or you can do what I am doing and that's installing beadboard. I am simply going to glue it and nail it right in place. You'll definitely want to install the beadboard before you lay the floor, this way the board tile covers the bottom seams.
Okay. Are you ready to top it off? I am going to take some measurements then go back outside to cut the pieces of plywood to size that are going to fit the bench tops. It's very important that you leave at least a 3 inch lift around the perimeter of the lid. It's when you lift the lid up, it swings past the 90 degree mark and rests on the wall.
In order to finish off the corner cut and get in places that circular blades cannot reach. I am going to be using a Japanese hand saw. It's a double edge blade, it's got one thick coarse set of teeth and then a finer set of teeth for the final cut. I am going to be using this in place of a jigsaw. If you don't have either of the two, you can use your grandfather's old fashioned handsaw. Now that the bench top is cut to size. I am going to glue and nail the perimeter piece in place.
Next I will be installing a piano hinge. I am using the piano hinge because of its length. The length of the piano hinge will offer lateral support, the entire running length of the bench seat top. And that's secured by these miniature finished screws. Now to start a hole for these screws, you want to use a tool known as an AW. It's a very sharp pointed tool which is used to punch and start a hole in wood. We also want to drive the first few screws in with a hand screwdriver. If you're going to and use a screw gun to drive these small screws, drive the screws slowly and steadily, because one or two slips from the screw gun tip will cause these small heads to strip out. Then you'll have big problems; so be careful.
The last thing to do is to paint or stain the bench top. Now that, of course, is left entirely up to you. I am going to be painting these bench tops white to match the base board. And we are done.
Cool function custom banquette seating, which I might add, it looks amazing. If this doesn't get the family to come sit down for dinner, I don't know what will.
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