One of my friends was looking for a bench for the the foot of their bed.  It had to be rather narrow due to space limitations and they wanted to incorporate  a step into the side so their dog could get up onto it easily.   We shared some pictures of colors and styles and eventually landed on a simple rectangular design with a grey stain that allowed the grain through and an upholstered top.

The plan

The part I struggled the most with was incorporating the steps into the side of the bench.  I went  through about 4 or 5 concepts before landing on something simple that I could actually pull off.  Essentially design the stairs for a 30 degree angle and then mount it to the bench with a piano hinge.  It wouldn’t work for a 200 lb person, but for a 30 lb dog it should be fine.  Golden ratio???

Lumber Selection

I decided to make this piece from white oak due to its strength, grain pattern, and the fact I have never worked with it and wanted to.  I ordered some white oak plywood through Home Depot which arrived in great shape other than some slight bowing.  The white oak boards were purchased from a hardwood dealer.  The hardwood will make up the faces frames, corners, step sides, and step.

 

Rough Cuts and Milling

As usual, I laid out everything with chalk and started cutting it to rough length.  I thought I was able to fit everything on one 8 foot board, but that bites me later, you just wait.

After the boards are cut to rough length I flatten one side with a hand plane or a power plane depending on my laziness and the temperature.  It was hot, so power plane it was.  I do this before I rough cut everything to width, so I don’t end up with banana boards and they all end up too narrow.

After jointing this edge, I take it the bandsaw for rough cuts to width since I only have a 6″ jointer and can’t fit this whole board.  Then to the jointer to flatten the surface and an edge. Finally it is sent through the planer to thickness it.

Once all the boards start getting close to the same thickness I draw squiggles(technical term) all over the face to ensure I have hit it all before flipping it over to hit the jointed side once.

If I am going to leave the lumber sit for a day or two, I typically sticker it and ensure I have good airflow around the board.

Joinery Thoughts and Final Verdict

When I started to make this bench, I was going to try and miter the corners and make a seamless grain transition around the bench top and sides.  So started cutting samples and figuring out how to biscuit the corners.

The more I started thinking about it, I figured this was a bad idea.  The corners are what need to be rounded or chamfered and usually what gets nicked and dinged. The plywood would be impossible to fix or add any significant edge profile.  So, no more miters.  I decided to use a traditional rabbet joint in the sides that accepts the top.  Then dadoes for the internal pieces.

Bench Carcass Construction

First thing to do was to cut the plywood sides and add hardwood edging.

After those got out of the clamps I add to flush the edging to the plywood.  It is always a bit nerve racking because a deeper than expected slice can leave an unsightly gash in the plywood that is hard to fix.  A light cut with a #4 and block plane does the trick.   I am really digging the veritas planing stops, I use them all the time.

I don’t have any pictures of cutting the rabbets or dadoes, but I used my table saw  to make those.  The dado thickness took me about 4 attempts to get the correct set of spacers/shims, but I nailed it.  The rabbets are cut into the sides and then dadoes elsewhere.  My original plan didn’t have the center divider, but I realized I would need it for stiffness.  A single 3/4 plywood sheet is not very strong when sat on, but by adding this middle divider I can share the load across two sheets and get a larger cross section to limit deformation.

After I was happy with the dry fit, I took it all apart and sanded everything.  80, 120, wet, 120 again.

Then it was time to glue up the carcass.  When gluing up things like this, a 90 degree upright holding one piece makes all the difference.

Face Frames

The next task was to start making the face frames for both sides of the bench.  I started by ripping all of the boards down to 2″ wide strips.  The face frames are going to add some more rigidity to the plywood so it won’t deform when sat on.  My first thought was to use loose mortise and tenons, but I changed my mind and used half laps.  I first cut all the pieces to the proper length and then marked all the half laps.

After marking the half laps, I used a dado stack in the table saw to cut them.

Once the half laps are cut, I needed to use some hand tools to get the joint looking good.  I had a few pieces that I had marked a little bit off, but luckily they were on the back side that mates with the cabinet.

The last step was to glue up the face frames.  I elevated the face frame so I could get good clamping access.  After the face frames came out of the clamps, I used hand planes, card scraper, and sander to clean up the surfaces.

Then, I glued the face frames onto the bench.  I use a small nail with the head trimmed off to keep a corner from sliding.  I also elevated the bench with 2X4s to get clamps all around.

Chamfering Face Frame

I used a flush trim bit to clean up any extra material on the top and sides.  I left some extra material on the shelf since I couldn’t flush that up reliably without screwing up the vertical pieces.

In order to add some visual interest to the bench I added some chamfers to the inside edges of the openings.

Next, I marked the intersection points and used a chisel to complete the chamfer.

Making the Step

The step is comprised of two outer rails, one step in the center, and two plywood pieces (above and below step).  The first step in making the steps was to cut the two side rails to length and at the proper angles.

After cutting the length, I cut the rabbets that will hold the plywood panels.  I should have also mentioned that I laminated two oak pieces together for a more substantial look.

I sized the dado for the step, but it looks like I forgot to account for the dado depth.  Time to make another step.

While I was laminating another step, I also clamped up the edging on the plywood pieces. Then I flushed it up with a block plane.

I made another step and was back at it.  Below are the five pieces that make up the stair.

I had to do some joint clean up to fit the new step with a chisel.

The last step before glue up was to cut the plywood to size.  The pieces have to be cut at an angle as well to mate up with the step and top/bottom.

Hinge Mounting, Sanding, Stain

After the step came out of the clamps, I added chamfers to all edges and sanded it.

To increase the strength of the joint, I added a large dowel into the center of the step.  Combining the dado with this dowel, I think the joint should be pretty strong.

I laid out the steps on the side the bench to make sure everything aligned and the laid out the hinge location.  I mortised the hinge leaf into the steps, but didn’t mortise the bench.  Down the road, if the owner wants to remove the steps there will only be a few holes instead of a big mortise on the bench.

Next was applying stain, General Finishes Gray Gel Stain

I ended up putting three coats, in total, with a light sanding in between each coat with 220.  It may have been better with some type of paint, but I like how the gel stain allows the grain to come through still.  The pictures below are after three coats and a very gentle sanding with 400 grit.

The last step is to spray some water based lacquer on the pieces and reassemble it.

Spraying Lacquer and Upholstery

I sprayed Target Coatings Emtech water based lacquer (satin) with my Fuji Semi Pro (2 stage) HVLP.   I put one coat on and had a few runs due to my slow movement.  I had to perform some light sanding to get rid of the runs.  Then applied a second coat which was also pretty heavy, but didn’t run.

The bench top is comprised of 2″ foam attached with spray adhesive.  Then it is trimmed to size.  After that, I applied 3 layers of badding with a staple gun.  The last step was to apply the fabric with a staple gun.

The plywood top had a pretty good bow to it, about 1/2″.  I attached the top with screws (quite a few) to take out the bow and make sure it was going to stay flat.  I think I used about 10 towards the center and then another ten for the rest of the top.

Finished Pictures