Salvage Banquette

I think it is safe to say that the biggest distraction for me over the past few years has been tackling my kitchen and transforming it into something resembling the vision in my head.  I have watched too many hours of kitchen crashing remodeling shows to count and am constantly baffled at the budgets people have to work with.  I get sick to my stomach every time I see an episode where somebody has blown $50,000 on a kitchen that looks ordinary and cookie cutter.  I prefer the shows where cash strapped designers have to get resourceful and creative to deliver impact on $2000 or less.  I have spent years absorbing their ideas and taking notes.  Recently I have embarked on actually using some of those ideas and setting this kitchen re-do in motion.  I have challenged myself to re-do my kitchen on a shoestring budget using found and salvaged items, lots of elbow grease and creativity to minimize large purchases from retail stores.  I am calling this adventure thelongestcheapestkitchenmakoverever... and it is my biggest most persistent distraction since buying this house almost five years ago.

You will see me mention my visits to various building salvage stores to source materials for my various projects.  The store I visit most often is Habitat For Humanity Restore because it is close by and I can pop in and out frequently when I am running errands as to not miss some fabulous find.  My husband calls me a hoarder because I have taken over his nano brewery, aka, our garage stock piling materials for the kitchen re-do.  Of course there are also the distractions from THE distraction where I happen upon some super great find which then invents new projects.  My post on the DIY headboard is a perfect example of a project that was born out of distraction while sourcing materials for the kitchen.

So, here goes the first step in this adventure I call thelongestcheapestkitchenmakoverever!

I didn't set out to build banquette seating for my kitchen, but one day while in HFH ReStore I saw some cabinets whose doors matched perfectly with some doors I've been collecting for the kitchen cabinets. The short upper cabinets (like the ones that fit above a fridge) were sitting on the ground and they reminded me of an idea I saw on Pinterest (Oh Pinterest, that troublemaker!) and so that day I went home with said cabinets and the kitchen plan now included plans for built in banquette storage benches.  These cabinets have been sitting in the "nano brewery" in my husbands way for almost 3 seasons.  Needless to say he is happy to see this project checked off the list.

Note: The cabinet on the let was not used in this project, I had a 2nd cabinet the same size as the one on the right in a different finish but the size and door style matched.  Knowing that I was painting them i didn't care that the wood doesn't match. I paid $10 for one of the cabinets and then found the 2nd one on clearance for just $2.50.  The 2 x4's also came from HFH ReStore and were about $2 total.  I spent more on the corner round molding than I did on the cabinets and 2 x 4's combined.  This was a very frugal project!

First thing I did was to build a 2 x 4 cleat attached to the existing floor.  This would give me something to anchor the cabinets to as well as bring the cabinets up to standard seat height.

I recycled the wood from some upper cabinets that we removed over a peninsula and built framing at an angle in the inside corner so the corner seat would be deeper and more comfortable wrapping around a round table.  I then took the big plywood backer off the recycled upper cabinets and cut the bench top pieces.  I used corner round trimmed to fit to give the edges a smooth rounded edge for comfort.  I covered the end caps and the inside corner angle with some scrap wainscot then trimmed out with baseboard and other small seem trim pieces.  Lastly, painted it all in Swiss Coffee satin finish to match the wainscot and trim.  Someday I may add cushions when my children outgrow this whole grimy piggy stage.

We had downsized from a larger farm table in the kitchen to a 42" round table which is a perfect breakfast spot for this family of four.

This project was very satisfying to do.  I am still a little PTSD over a table saw kick back incident, smashed my finger a few times with a hammer, and got liquid nails on my favorite apron (no I don't normally wear an apron to build stuff, I was distracted by my sons request for cookies in the middle of everything and tried to multi-task), but overall it was a painless experience and I am very happy with the end result.

Thank you for visiting my post and I hope this will inspire people to check out their local salvage materials store and do something good for our planet and your bank account by up cycling  another's castoff's into something lovely and useful.

 The table and window shades will be posted in separate posts.

Find a Habitat For Humanity ReStore near you http://www.habitat.org/restores