Take off your shoes and put on your slippers
The front door of my home leads to an indoor staircase. There is not enough space downstairs to take of your shoes so I decided to make a vestibule area upstairs. There are hooks for your coat, a bench to transition from shoes to slippers and... plants (of course). Welcome, make yourself at home!
The hooks
When I built the curtain rods, it was an experimentation for these wooden hooks. They both use similar hardware, the hook screws on a plate that's mounted on the wall. I love how they stick out of the wall without any hardware being visible. The key difference with the curtain rods is that I tapped the wood directly instead of having a threaded insert. It is quicker and plenty strong in hardwood (these are made out of ash).
The bench
As much as I love building pristine pieces of furniture, I believe that function primes over look. What's the point of a beautiful white sofa you never sit in by fear of making a spot on it? So when I got to design the bench, that's what I had in mind. Sit on it, stand on it, jump on it! This bench will outlast you!
It's made out of pine. Pine is a softwood. It marks easily. It will get dents and scratches; and that's not a bad thing, they tell a story. Pine is also cheap! 2x4, used for home construction, are about the cheapest pine you can get because it's full of knots and technically not properly dried for furniture making. After all it is intended to be hidden behind walls. Well not anymore. Knots, you are pretty! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
The design is pretty simple on paper, it is some sort of a finger joint. In reality, it was tricky to assemble. The bench is angled to match the wall and as a result I had very little clamping surface for the glue up. Some joints turned quite imperfect. I guess it is a theme for this build, making the most out of imperfection. I had a lot of fun with this project. Especially turning a boring material into an interesting object; to the point people would never guess what I used.
