Entryway Ideas On Limited Budget

While visiting in Illinois earlier this month, middle daughter (Jaysa) and I stopped by a Crate and Barrel store and spied this bench. 

We had just started working on Jaysa's built-in-bench project again and wanted to keep this bench in mind to inspire us for that project, as well as a future project of my own.  

For a long time, I've been dreaming of adding a bench and wall trim to our own entryway. Except my dream is larger, whiter, and has to be a whole lot cheaper than the over $2000 price tag this Crate and Barrel bench carried.

To give you an idea of what I'm obsessed dreaming about, here's two pictures I've been carrying for a while. These entryways are far grander than what I'm planning to do someday, but they do make me drool.

Source Unknown

Not sure where I got these pictures, but they look like they're from a professional or magazine source. If you know the source, please let me know and I'll give them the credit they deserve.

Source Unknown

When we got home from our trip, one of the first things I did was to buy this package of pine bead boards to help me figure out how to create a taller and whiter version of the Crate and Barrel bench.

These boards are tongue and groove bead board. The package says it will cover almost 9.8 square feet. Our local Home Depot carries quite a selection of sizes in varying heights. The boards in this package are 31 and 3/4 inch long.

Each tongue locks into the groove of the next board. Here's a close up of the left (tongue) side.

Here's a close up of the right (grooved) side. The boards fit together by locking and it just takes a small nail to hold them in place.

We used a similar package doing Jaysa's bench in my last post, but it wasn't bead board like this one. It also had a white finish and wasn't wood, but a wood product.

I can't wait to show you Jaysa's finished built-in bench, but she's just now putting on the last coats of paint. I'm trying to be patient as I know paint has to dry well between coats. That, and the fact that she has a lot to do in her busy life than paint. 

Thanks for dropping by!

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