Trofast Banquette

This is a banquette in our kitchen constructed with two Ikea Trofast bookshelf/storage units laid on their side. One unit was cut in half to fit the smaller wall. We sanded, primed, and painted them white, and permanently attached some of the shelves with screws. The units themselves are almost perfect for seating as far as height and width is concerned. At the moment the units are simply pushed together against the wall. They are heavy enough that they don't move around, though it would be fairly easy to connect them in the dead space in the corner for a more solid single piece.

The cushions are 2" fairly dense foam purchased from a local foam shop, cut to fit exactly. We found some cool patterned fabric, and with some basic fiberboard from Home Depot cut to the same dimensions, we stapled the fabric underneath.

The cubbies now have some simple baskets in them for storage, mostly used for drawing and craft material for our kids.

Total cost was roughly $350. The Trofast units were about $90 each, the foam was $120, the fabric was only around $20, plus we bought high quality paint from Benjamin Moore and few other incidentals.

Step 1 Get the Trofast units from your local Ikea.

Obviously you'll need to measure your space. We were lucky enough to have room for one whole and one half unit in the corner.

Initially we thought about using a few of the units that already sit flat for wall or floor storage, like these:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20087525

but when we went to Ikea and took some measurements, we ended up with two of these instead:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20114878

My guess is that any of these would work out, though you may not be able to mix and match if the heights and depths don't align.

Comments

[admin]

This project looks awesome but there isn't enough documentation of you actually making it to be a full Instructable. There are two things which you could do. 1) If you happen to have images of you making your project you can create some more steps, add those additional photos into your Instructable and then republish your Instructable. 2) If you don't have any more pictures of you working on your project, that's ok too. That just means that your project is better suited to be submitted as a slideshow. Your images are already in your library, and you can use the same text that you have already written for your Instructable so it should only take a few minutes to create your slideshow and show the world what you made! Thanks for your submission and let me know if you have any questions along the way.

[joshr]

I broke it out into the steps I took overall. Unfortunately I didn't take man any in progress pictures, but I'm adding one right now.

[admin]

Hello, and welcome to the Instructables community! It's great that you've decided to tell the world about something you've made by publishing an Instructable. We just wanted to let you know that your project still needs a little more work if you want it to be well received on Instructables. Projects that don't include certain basic elements tend not to get the attention that they deserve, and so we'd love for you to check out the list below of what makes a successful Instructable. Successful projects on Instructables include: - clearly written details of a finished project with instruction - as many steps as are necessary to explain your project - clear images that you took of your project for most, if not all of your steps - an intro image - proper spelling and grammar - appropriate cautions or safety considerations I'll give you another opportunity to make any final changes to your project before we publish it. Once you're all set to go, please republish your project and send me a quick comment letting me know that you've made some changes. I'll give it a quick final check to make sure you're on the right path, and then remove this note. Thanks for your submission and we hope to see your project published soon!

[joshr]

Ok, added about as much as I can.

[angelwill26]

I love it!!! Just what I have been wanting to do in my bathroom! Im making one this weekend! Thanks! btw what is the height of it exactly?

[country lou]

Amazing project ! Well done.