For Siri's karaoke room we didn't have any seating now that we've moved the patio furniture outside. I took one night and put together a basic bench. I designed a U shaped bench in SketchUp and you can get the plans
here. I followed the basic idea of the plan but made a few changes as I constructed it.
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| Inspection by the Admiral. |
I started by attaching a 2x2 cleat to the studs in the walls. This gave me my basic shape as well as the height. I had to make it about 21" tall to accommodate the existing outlets in the room, of which there are plenty.
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| Cleats attached. |
I used simple 2x4 framing and 4x4 posts cut to height for support for the inside corners. All of this was fastened together using 3" drywall screws. I probably could have made it much stronger by using lap joints and maybe some mortise and tenons. However, if I had done that this project would have ended up on my
woodworking blog.
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| Started framing. |
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| Supports installed. |
I notched the 2x4 supports to go around the cleats on the wall and screwed them up from the bottom. I continued this technique all the way around the bench and then started with the paneling. For this I used 1/4" lauan since we plan to cover the bench with cushions and fabric later.
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| Lauan plywood cut and notched to fit. |
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| Nearly done. |
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| Completely covered. |
This project only took me a few hours, even with a friend stopping by to visit for a while. The seating is slightly soft in between the bracing but after the cushioning and fabric go on it will not be noticable and these materials will help disperse the weight. After I cover the bench I may just use this room for my gaming room and move my consoles down here. I still need to cover a gap in the wall and put a door on the room so we can heat it efficiently in the winter.
