A Bench & Shoe Storage DIY

When we put an offer on our house it was a double loan short sale.  It 6 months to hear back about wether or not the house would be ours.  During that time my mind was busily thinking of ways to make our home functional.  I wanted a place for EVERYTHING including our shoes that always seemed to be strewn about.  These baskets at Target were one of the very first things I bought for our new home.


I also wanted a place where we could sit and put our shoes off and on.  One of our friends from church has a little farm close by and had a bunch of wood that had been just laying out in his field for years and years and said we could come get a few pieces.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with that wood.

The legs on this bench are called hairpin legs.  There are many sites online where you can purchase these and they even sell them on etsy.  I got mine at a store in downtown Portland, Oregon called The Reclaimory.  They were $15 each. 

I am loving this bench and these shoe baskets in our home.  The only thing I am sad about is that for the first year we lived here we just had the baskets and no bench...I miss throwing shoes from upstairs down into the baskets and every time I made it I would say to myself "still got it."  :)

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 My husband used a wire brush going with the grain over the entire piece of wood; the wire brush gets rid of any big splinters while keeping the aged look of the wood. 

Then we used a cloth and rubbed this Natural Danish Oil on the wood to stain, seal, & protect it.  The natural finish was awesome because it really kept the aged look of our wood.

*You do not have to use an old piece of wood for this project.  Before we found our wood I had just gone to home depot and looked at different sizes that would have worked as well. 

The hairpin legs are easy to attach with an electric drill and some screws.

 

You know you need those baskets.  Make it happen.