The Easiest DIY Bench Ever + Week 4 NYNR Office Update

Here it is week 4 of the New Year New Room Challenge! It’s definitely been an intense few weeks around here. Between ripping off all the old paneling, 3 intensive weeks of nothing but plaster repair we are finally making loads of progress and only one more week to go.

Week 4 New Year New Room Challenge Progress Update

Not to say that there still isn’t a ton more to do. There is. I finally finished wrapping up some of my wall repairs and was able to get some fresh clean paint on the walls!!! Whhooop Whhhooop! My original plan for this weekend was to tackle some cabinet making for my builtins but unfortunately the weather took on a mind of it’s own. We got about 2 feet of snow this weekend coupled with some seriously negative temperatures, -20, no really, burrrrrrrrr……. All of which put a definite canx on garage time since we haven’t been able to get the heater working out there quite yet.

Instead we spent some much needed family time together. Enjoying the long weekend and celebrating my husband’s birthday. I also managed to clean up my seriously disastrous construction mess that had basically taken over the entire second floor, we got both of our beautiful new Randolph lights from Hudson Valley Lighting wired up and installed thanks our good friend and electrician. And on top of it all I found some time to put together a super simple DIY project.

The Easiest DIY Bench Ever

Now anyone who has ever purchased an old house knows that they come with plenty of quirks and fun crevices. More often then not they also come with assorted bits and pieces left over from previous owners. Some time these bits can be quite useful, (like the bucket of drywall compound I used to skim coat the walls) and sometimes they can be quite a pain (like all the 1950’s garbage we hauled out of the attic). Either way these bits are a part of the house, a part of its history, a part of the fun.

One of the few random bits we inherited when we purchased this old house was a very big, thick block of wood in the garage. It was all wrapped up in old paper a twine and tucked away under the garage stairs.

Upon first inspection I thought it was a new piece of wood, because really who takes the time to wrap up an old piece. But after unwrapping it, you can clearly see that someone has chipped away at it over the years.

Needless to say, all of it’s time spent sitting under the stairs has left it with a beautiful aged patina that was perfect for something. That coupled with some awesome mid-century inspired legs I had bought for another project but never used, was the perfect combination for creating the easiest bench for the upstairs landing.

To make this easy little bench I simply picked my favorite side of this old wood block.

I knew I wanted the legs placed at the edge so I pre-drilled the screw holes with my drill to prevent the wood from splitting.

Then attached the legs using some screws.

Seriously, the easiest bench ever! The whole project including cleaning all the dust and cobwebs off this old chunk of wood took all of 15 minutes.

Its just the right size to fit at the top of the landing and once I get my gallery wall hung up with all of my new Art To Frame, frames its really going to be stunning! The perfect counter balance to my little office at the other end.

Don’t forget to take a few minutes and stop by to check out everyone else’s Week 4 updates! We are getting so close to reveal day and everyone has been hard at work! Its so cool to see everything take shape!