Tree Hutch - part 3

Okay, I am back with more on the tree hutch progress. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday working on it, with breaks for Valentine's dinner, church, and grocery shopping. It's actually really nice to have fresh food in the house again... But let's move on. The big news is that storage bench is almost built, except for the painting portion and attaching one piece.

The first step was to attach the pieces for the top of the storage bench.

I again used pocket holes to attach the three pieces together. So far, so good.

Then, I decided that I ought to assemble one of my Christmas presents in order to make further assembly a little easier. This actually took about an hour to assemble, but I quite like how useful it is.

I decided to use pocket screws to attach the four sides. I could have also used finish nails. For each of the pieces I screwed together, I also used wood glue to secure everything together. Putting the four panels together actually took a while.

I used beadboard for the backing windows. I took J along with me to Home Depot to help with getting the 8 foot sheet. We had the guy there cut it into the correct size pieces.

I used wood glue and 3/4" screws to secure it to the backside of the panels. The beadboard doesn't have to be exactly the right size to get the right effect.

Once the beadboard was in place, I used less expensive pieces of wood to create extra strength for the top of the bench.

This wasn't part of Ana White's original plans, but gives extra strength to the bench if someone sits on it.

After this, I seemed to forget to take pictures, but I used finishing nails to attach the molding to around the bottom. I attached the top pieces with finishing nails and screws (and, of course, glue).  The seat will attach with low profile hinges to the rest of the top. I couldn't find the hinges I needed at Home Depot and had to order them online. I am planning on painting it prior to attaching the last piece so I don't have to paint around the hinge. I did sand it down quite a bit so it is ready to be primed and painted. I also used wood filler to touch up a few problem areas, where the pieces didn't join properly.

All in all, I am quite pleased with the progress made on the hutch. The storage bench is mostly complete now. I am thinking of painting it a dark blue to go with our living room decor. My plan is to prime and paint the bench and then start on the hutch portion, attaching the two pieces at the end. I am feeling quite sore from all the lifting and sanding (the bench is getting quite heavy). I watched quite a bit of Downton Abbey while working on this project and am now almost done season 2. I might be all caught up by the time this project is completed!