Over on eHow: DIY Industrial Entry Bench

We've mentioned a few times that my daughter, Stephanie, recently moved from our place into her first apartment nearby with one of her college roommates. Throughout this process, we've gained an empty guest room upstairs (handy for shooting big projects), and have also had fun making a few projects for her new place. The first request we were thrilled to DIY turned out to be this custom bench for their entryway.

We'd recently tackled a pair of custom bookcases for our office using plumbing pipes and untreated lumber from the hardware store, so applied the same idea in a much smaller scale here. Making this bench was really a matter of picking out a wood stain and piecing everything together like a puzzle. You can find the full step-by-step tutorial with a materials list in our latest project post with eHow.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, our project supervisor was on the job, inspecting every last detail (only the best will do for his Stephanie):

Making a bench like this allows for customization. Stephanie needed a specific size to fit on the wall between her entry door and the other furniture in the apartment's opening room. To make this bench a custom length, you could use a longer or shorter wooden board and lower connecting base pipe; all other components and steps for putting it together remain the same. Something like this could be shortened to make individual seats or stools — or lengthened to make a bench spanning the full side of a dining table.

For the feet of the bench, we tried out a fun hack — trimming down a few corks from bottles of bubbly we'd saved. After a couple swipes with the box knife, they slid right into the openings of the bench's leg pipes and the end result turned out really well. We like how they provide a little visual interest, but also protect the wood floors and carpet from scratches and marks:

As with most projects around here, it wasn't long after we started shooting the final pictures of this bench that our oblivious model walked right into the frame, striking a pose that looked like something out of Garden & Gun magazine:

Then he just made himself comfortable on the rug, since we were all just "hanging out" up here in Stephanie's now-empty room, right?

Oh Basil, you never cease to bring a smile to our faces.

Head on over to eHow to find our full tutorial with step-by-step instructions and exact materials list for making one of these entry benches for your own space.

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