Entry Storage / Hall Tree

[Chestnut]

Going to start off by saying I don't understand the term Hall Tree as this isn't a hall and the only trees involved were the ones that generated the lumber. YAY English! We're not even going to talk about how the bass from my music scared all the bass away from the bow of my boat while i was bow fishing. Yikes this is off-topic already.

I posed about remodeling our entry in these posts ( OT1   OT2  OT3  ). With the remodel work behind me i twas time to start on the woodworking aspect of this project. This project is likely to consist of boring casework so I'll probably just highlight the oddities and random bits. The whole unit is going to consist of a bench with shoe storage below. A coat hanging back that hinges to allow access to hidden storage. And a large upper cabinet to utilize all 9 feet of the vertical space we have.

The first item that I wanted to complete is the storage bins that are to be built into the stud bay. This is the spot that the sheetrock was removed in the picture below. The stud wall is a 2x6 structural wall.

I wanted a bit extra depth than the 2x6 allows so shoes etc have more storage space. As a result the storage boxes will hang out of the stud bay by about 3.5". I made the storage unit out of 1/2" birch veneer plywood. I used 1/4" Baltic birch I've been holding on to for the shelves. The 1/2" birch was edge banded with walnut because  i have a lot of scraps available.

The top and bottom were attach to the side via dominoes. The shelves were set into a dado or groove on both the sides and rear panel. This was done to strengthen the relatively thin material. The back panel of the unit is also 1/2" plywood for a couple reasons, one stiffening the shelves but also a reason to be outlined below. I cut the dados on the table saw with a FTG blade and the kerf master. This is my favorite way to go as it's fast and easy for me to understand. With this project i figured out a good trick to keep the dado depth consistent. I have a large magnet from a broken subwoofer. I initially thought of using it as a weight to keep the plywood down as a feather board would be hard in this situation. When i set the magnet on the board not only did the weight help but i also noticed that there was a significant magnetic impact through the plywood. So a really good feather board for large plywood.

Assembly was done with brad nails and glue. This isn't fine furniture speed is key as I have very limited shop time. Once assembled I softened edges with sand paper and applied 3 coats of shellac. Once the finish had a decent amount of time to dry the unit was installed in the stuff bay. On the other side of the sheetrock is our master bathroom. The toilet paper holder is conveniently in that stud bay and was mounted with drywall anchors. The anchors for what ever reason didn't hold very well so the holder was loose. Using 1/2" plywood for the back I'm able to use the plywood to hold the toilet paper holder with 1" screws.

This both holds the storage unit in place pretty well but also made the toilet paper holder way more sturdy.

When installing the unit I needed some shims to level everything out. I ended up finding these really sweet bespoke walnut shims. These were off cuts from tapering legs for some other project. I sunk 6 nails into the studs surrounding the unit as well to ensure it was held securly to the walls.

[Chestnut]

I'm going to throw my cad drawing up showing the area when everything is done. I modified it a bit from when i started and figured out a few of the hurdles. I'll cover that more in detail when it gets built as my plans aren't set. I have a lot of driving to do and tend to refine my ideas over time. First is the front with the hidden storage doors closed. The doors will be the panel area plus the middle stile.

The following is what the area will look like with the hidden storage doors open. I also am going to panel the 2 side walls for a few reasons.

The next bit i'm working on is the bench area at the bottom. This is the part that I'm most looking forward to having to help putting on shoes as well as expanding shoe storage in our entry. The goal is to make the storage so easy to use that it's more difficut to not use it. Our family has a habbit of leaving their shoes all over this area and it can be a pain.

First step is to tempate out the awful wall on the right side.

This wall is built around the chimney for our water heater that goes out the room. It was not done well. I think the angle on this wall was close to 7 degrees.This also gave me an idea of how the bench would wrap the corner. I like that little bit of design element to give the bench more of a built in feel. If it wasn't mentioned the entire unit is going to be cherry. I'm sick of walnut. Just ready to be done using it. The boards for the bench are some 5/4 or 6/4 stock I can't remember. It was pretty flat but there was a slight twist in the board. Beings that the boards were both short and over 9" wide I wanted to try just hitting the high corners with a hand plane and then sending them through the planer.

This worked way better than I expected. Both boards fro the bench came out wonderfully flat and it took a minute tops. Way longer to do some sort of wide jointing method and I lost far less thickness.

The next item is to get the 2 front legs for the bench milled. The right leg is going to wrap the corner of the wall. Beings the wall corner is 97 degrees the simple rabbet that was my plan won't work as the outer edges of the leg will have gaps and things won't sit right. To accomplish the goal i decided I'd just measure the angle and then cut the rabbet on the table saw with the blade tilted, hence why i know the exact angle. This worked out perfect.

The opposite leg was very easy just a simple rectangle. To hold the middle shelf I just cut a notch that will hold the front edge. The shelf is edge banded maple ply. I did a test  install to show Megan and get her thoughts.

Her thoughts were the same as mine. The all cherry install with the maple showing for the bench was going to look off. So there is an easy fix for that. Veneer. I already was buying cherry veneer for this project so i took some of my projected extra and used it to veneer the shelf. The thing I always forget with veneer is that it's not always jointed or is probably never jointed, and that jointing veneer is difficult. For this particular project I sandwiched the veneer between some plywood and used a block with sand paper to joint the veneer edge.

This took some iterations but worked out extremely well for the 34" long veneer joint.

As most of the shelf won't be seen I was tempted to just do 1 piece of veneer but then figured that'd bother me. Though I wanted to veneer the entire shelf I wasn't going to waste veneer to have 3 full length pieces. The sheets were 48" long so the off cuts were used to fill in the back. Spoiler alert the seams came out perfect, even the end to end joints in the rear. I have to give a shout out to @Ronn W for all the veneering help he has provided me.

Got the seams taped, glue applied, and into the vacuum bag. The large bag was awesome for large project but it's a bit of a hassle for this little one. I had a moment of quick thinking and grabbed the silicone place mat to help protect the vacuum back from the shelf sharp corners. it's probably not needed but extra insurance can't hurt.

[gee-dub]

Lovin' the journal.  That magnet discovery is a slick trick.  We don't have much in the way of entry halls or mud rooms on the left coast but they sure would make life easier.  I've always wanted a hall tree, shoe stash, or a sofa table along the wall at the front door but our layout has room for none of that .  BTW, what vacuum pump are you using?

[wtnhighlander]

That's coming along nicely, Drew!

[Chestnut]

On 1/8/2024 at 9:03 AM, gee-dub said:

BTW, what vacuum pump are you using?

Vacupress compact 300

[Chestnut]

I got some more time this last weekend and was able to get all the parts planed, for solid wood, and sanded for the plywood. The veneer for the lower shelf turned out OK. There were some defects but on the whole they will require an attentive observer to spot. The back of the shelf needs support and to accomplish that I cut a piece of cherry ply and put a few dominoes in. The shelf is going to just hold shoes and possibly act as a ladder for toddlers so the strength isn't super critical on the rear. On the front it might be more so but my calculations indicate that it should be able to support a 100lb center load with some safety margin. I put some shellac on the ply to seal it and make it easier to clean, in the event that i decide to try and reach back there to clean it. In reality no one will likely see the plywood.

Getting the plywood to fit in the space was tricky. I wanted to cut it to fit nicely enough for never being seen but putting square corners into drywall inside corners can be difficult. I decided to cut a 30 degree angle in the ends of the plywood so the installation would be easy and the buildup of the drywall inside corner wouldn't hold it unnecessarily away from the back wall.

With that installed I got the bottom shelf on the dominoes and then installed the front " legs". I wanted to minimize the number of brads in the front legs so I decided to CA glue the legs to the wall. I figured if i tear this out I'll be doing some drywall fixing anyway. The notches for the legs hold the front of the shelf. All the gaps are pretty good looking and I was really happy with how it all tied in.

After getting the legs and shelf installed I cut the baseboard to fit and reattached it with some brads. Then after reattaching all the trim I went through and filled the old and new nail holes with filler. The space is coming together and is starting to be useful as well. The bench is really nice for getting my shoes on in the morning.

[Coop]

That looks really sweet! Like you, I think we just about have enough dark walnut in our house with my latest bed build and will lean more towards cherry. I think oak looks great in other peoples homes but it’s just not me. May make a couple of maple accent pieces as it goes well with both cherry and walnut. 

[roughsawn]

Looks good! Interesting...at the same time, I'm building a sitting bench to change shoes, and store more underneath. 4' wide, and 18" deep. And a cabinet 6' tall with 5 cubbies for bins, along side of it. Then a live edge slab, 12" deep, above everything for a shelf. Coat hanger under the shelf. Everything is 1" oak. Overkill, but should hold anything.

[Chestnut]

12 hours ago, Coop said:

May make a couple of maple accent pieces as it goes well with both cherry and walnut. 

I'm never fully happy mixing maple in with walnut and cherry it's too dramatic, on a single piece of furniture. It's like that person that's just trying to hard and sticks out. I like it when there is a set or pieces that are mostly or completely maple that get mixed in. I think i'm pulling that off in our downstairs living room right now but maybe I'm just delusional?

12 hours ago, roughsawn said:

I'm building a sitting bench to change shoes, and store more underneath.

Measure your shoes so you can give them enough room. I made a shoe rack that was just a bit too tight and it sucked.

[roughsawn]

Yep, thanks. Bin storage is 14"X18". And room under the bench is 16" high X 18" deep. Building it to accommodate rubber boots, winter boots, and hunting boots.

Didn't mean to horn in on your thread, just though it's funny we are both building the same thing at the same time. Great minds think alike...lol 

[Coop]

Drew, I really like the door design with the wider panels on top of the bottom ones. 
Question(s). The upper cabinet is drawn showing a center stile and two doors. The lower appears to be one door. Is that a typo? 

[Chestnut]

10 hours ago, Coop said:

Drew, I really like the door design with the wider panels on top of the bottom ones. 
Question(s). The upper cabinet is drawn showing a center stile and two doors. The lower appears to be one door. Is that a typo? 

The lower is supposed to just look like a paneled wall so the doors won't be obvious. There will be coats hanging on them but no it'll be 2 doors on the bottom.

15 hours ago, roughsawn said:

Didn't mean to horn in on your thread

Horn away, getting off topic is mostly why i create these. We aren't doing bins, my wife asked for that but i know well enough in our house all the shoes will end up outside the bin in the middle of the floor. Having it open makes it easy to move the shoes from the middle of the floor to some semblance of a home.

[roughsawn]

I installed mine today, then put the bins in. A shame, hiding all that beautiful oak I worked so hard to stain and finish. If the boss says bins...then bins it is.

[roughsawn]

Drew, I feel uncomfortable jumping on your thread, but for sake of simplicity, we can just call this a thread for changing shoes...lol Since we are both doing the same thing, we can exchange ideas. Heres a couple pics of my bin storage. The sitting bench will be to the left, and live edge coat rack with live edge shelf will be above that.

 

[wtnhighlander]

@roughsawn, that is a cool grain match on the left side, and some slick bowtie work on the right!

[gee-dub]

On 1/12/2024 at 5:55 AM, Chestnut said:

Measure your shoes so you can give them enough room. I made a shoe rack that was just a bit too tight and it sucked.

+1.  So true for many commercial shoe racks as well.  We don't all wear size 6-A's.

[Chestnut]

That's a nice setup... You can't beat the character in home sawn lumber. Was that a tree from your property as well? The bins cover some up but the panel facing your man doors is in full view. Its a good side to show off.

Also it looks like someone parked a Subaru in your shop hopefully they didn't run over any tools.

[roughsawn]

Yep, it was a red oak from one of my stacks I've shown here.  Just goes to show, with some epoxy, brown tint, and some elbow grease...you can turn a crappy piece of lumber into a nice project. The other side was an 11" wide slab, 10/4 thick. It is the piece I showed earlier at my resaw set up. I just opened it up, milled it, and glued it up. It is bookmatched as well.

Those were the first 3 bowties I ever attempted...lol Really fun chisel work. I'm fussy, maybe too fussy at times. But really learned how to do it right. With all the slabs I have...I BETTER learn how to do it...lol

3 stalls over from the Subaru, is my shop.

[Chestnut]

I got more time finally to work on this entry storage. It was slow over a couple months. Mid winter was hard on us with toddler sickness i swear every week was something new.

I made a 2nd cubby the same way as the first. The only difference was the size. This cubby was shaped with a deeper part to maximize the use of the dead space in the wall. Started with a template to make sure it fit the wall opening.

Then the real deal.

THis one had 1 less shelf than the other cubby unit.

Installed.

Following this i made a frame to mount the doors in. I didn't take any pictures of this. The only clever part was creating a way to attach the frame to the wall. I just attached plywood to the frame sort of like a cabinet and nailed it to the side walls. Following the installation of that I cut some plywood scraps to cover up the ugly studs below and to the side of the cubbys. Then it was hinge install time.

The next item to make was doors. My plan for these all along was 1/2" plywood for stability. I figured even the best made frame and panel might have problems long term with heavy coats hanging on them for long periods. I didn't want to buy cherry plywood so instead i bought veneer and made my own panels with my vacuum bag. Before attaching the veneer I edged the plywood with thick cherry for mounting hinges. I figured this would take a screw better than the plywood edge.

I have to say this was the better idea cause the figure on this veneer is awesome.

To get the panel look i was going for I ripped some thin pieces of cherry that i'd glue on the surface to create faux panels. This meant even more vacuum bag time. For those wondering the blue inside the bag is silicone place mats I use them for many things but they also work great to cover sharp corners to help protect the vacuum bag.

The slats helped flatten the plywood a lot too. Over the 48" length there was probably 1/8" bow. After the slats were glued on the plywood came out pretty dang flat. With the doors finished the final bit was to install hinges on the doors and trim everything to provide an even reveal, then install some magentic stops.

Finish was then applied. I did rubio monocoat just like the bottom bench area. I really don't care for the finish. It's hard to mix small quantities and it's really messy. So far those are my only complaints because it is REALLY nice to apply 1 coat and be done. I can get a nicer looking finish than shellac and I'd guess durability is roughly comparable but we'll see. So far the bench is showing zero wear after 4 months of toddler use.

The upper cabinet is going to be on hold for the foreseeable future. Might get to it this summer or fall not sure yet.

[wtnhighlander]

Very creative use of the vacuum bag!