How to Add Another Use to a Bench

We've got a bench in our entrance. Somehow it is ment to sit down to get the shoes off or on, but as many of you might know, it is mostly covered with other stuff and shoes are laying around in front of it, making it difficult to even get to the bench... ;)

Luckily I had a left over of some plywood of another project I'm working on (instructable is coming :)). I boght a small aluminium profile, worked for about 1h and now I'm happy with the result!

Step 1: The Stuff

The bench we already had in our apartment, the plywood is a left over and the aluminium profile you get for some $ at your shop.

I just used some basic tools:

- jig saw

- orbital sander

- cordless drill

- hand saw

- sanding paper

- oil finishing

and you'll need some small screws too.

So I spent about the money you spend for a beer in a bar to build a small improvement for our entrance.

Step 2: Mesuring and Cutting

4 corners of the wooden board had to be cut out. Because I didn't know exactly how much I've to cut out I marked something I thought might do it on both sides. The Idea was, that I cut it out, put it under the bench, cut out some more etc. To finally get the right cut-out! But I was lucky - my first guess turned out to be ok. The angle for the shoes was fine but it I still had to cut the right angle where the board meets the legs of the bench, as you see in the picture.

All cutting was done with a simple jig saw.

Step 3: Sanding and Finishing

The board was already quite smooth, so I just had to sand (by hand) the cut out parts and some dirt (including my pencil marks) off the surface.

I used an orbital sander for the surface (120 then 240 paper). When everything was smooth enough I painted it with an oil finish I had in my workshop. It's a colorless oil. I quite like it because it gives a good protection (water and dirt from the shoes) to the wood but doesn't change its appearece!

After whiping off the left over oil from the surface I let dry the wood for about half an hour before I moved to the next step. This depends of the finishing product you use...

Step 4: Nothing Should Fall Down

Of course I don't want the shoes to fall down! So I cut the aluminium profile I bought to the correct length, drilled some holes (about every 15cm) and fixed it to the plywood!

There you go! I know it's not much but for our entrance it changes a lot! And that's what I personally like about these smaller project, that it doesn't need to be a lot of work to get some nice improvement in your everyday life! But I also like big projects ;)

Hope you like it and I'd be glad to read about your thoughts in the comments!