Project: Benched!

Our dining room chairs, most of which we have had since we got married, are breaking down. Whether this is due to them being reasonably low quality, or whether it is due to abuse by 1-4 excitable, bouncy toddlers, I can't really say. Probably a combination.

This fact, coupled with the fact that at most we could easily fit 6 people around our table (fine for just the family, not so much for anyone else) inspired me to build some benches to go down the 'long' sides of our dining room table.

Using Google Sketchup (if you do much carpentry design and you haven't tried it you really ought to) I came up with the following:




The lengthwise braces at the bottom of the leg are the way they are so that the bench can be turned to either allow longer-legged people to easily rest their feet on the floor, or else to let shorter-legged people put their feet on the brace. Clever, no?

I don't have pictures of the actual final product, but in a few hours on Black Friday my BIL and I were able to cut, rout and assemble two of those, one for either side of the table. I have yet to sand/finish them, but they are very sturdy and perfect for what I wanted. And only one of them is a little bit wobbly (made more noticeable by our undulating dining room floor)!

I'll try to get some pictures of the unfinished product to post. I'm hoping to have some time this weekend to do some sanding and at least get the seat varnished, so it will stop absorbing food and drink before the stains soak deep enough that they won't sand out.

Also note that this project wouldn't be nearly as practical if we hadn't recently torn the carpet out of our dining room and put in laminate flooring, so we can actually move the benches around reasonably easily. Although currently the table slides more easily than the benches, which makes for some exciting 'tug of war' when the kids are ready to get down.