We had a customer ask for a small, shaker style bench, for their mudroom. They wanted something about 36” wide to fit into a specific area, with some space underneath to put muddy boots. They also aren’t sure if they want to paint it or just polyurethane it or not, so they asked me not to finish it – they would do it.
The bench would require a 1×12 piece of pine, 8ft long, plus some hardware, glue and wooden dowels to tie the pieces together.
I measured the board out and cut the pieces to size.
Then laid out the grooves and arch for the legs, to give it a “shaker” feel
Used a spokeshave and sand paper to smooth out the curve
After that I laid out and used the table saw to create 1/8” deep dados on the bottom of the benchtop, as well as to cut dados in the legs for the center stretcher. Cleaned them up with my side dado planes.
After measuring the center stretcher for length and cutting it, I laid out a nice curve for it, cut it, and again used the spokeshave and sand paper to clean up the curve.
After dry fitting the parts together, I laid out and drilled the holes for the screws to hold it together and the dowel hoes. After screwing it together and making sure it was square, I glued in dowels to cover the screw heads.
After sawing off the dowels, I sanded everything down to 220 grit sandpaper, and then prepped it for the customer. They were fairly pleased with the end result and speed.
Project cost: $129.85
- Materials: $47.63 (1×12 8ft board, glues, hardware, etc.)
- Labor: $56.25 (2.25 hours @$25/hour)
- Overhead @25%: $25.97 (Taxes, insurance, business registration, etc.)