Our Breakfast Nook Refresh – Part 1

Happy Sunday Friends!

An avid reader, I’ve always loved the idea of a window seat somewhere in our home so that I could enjoy lounging the afternoon away to a good book or cuddling up with one of the dogs as I listen to the rain. When we first toured the house, I couldn’t picture a better place for a built-in than the breakfast nook. From the delightfully over-sized window and its soothing natural light throughout the day, to the sense of seclusion it offers, feeling tucked away within our otherwise open floor plan. It was the perfect spot!

Now the challenge…

With our humble footprint of a house, everything must be both functional as well as offer additional storage. As we’ve only 1,475 square feet to work with, each nook (literally!) and cranny find themselves pulling double duty. That being said, in lieu of our limited square footage, the Mr and I decided to build a bench seat with storage.

For a bit of inspiration, we fell in love with this design while browsing through Pinterest:

 

 

In planning out the changes for each room of the house over our first year here, we’ve found ourselves growing more ambitious in our design. This is my reasoning for our decision to add storage capability to the bench seat as well as electing for a u-shaped seat, doubling its size.

While we both enjoyed the idea of pull-out drawers, we realized quickly that it would mean moving the table and chairs out from the bench seat anytime we needed to access the additional storage which was less than ideal. I’m not sure about you, but when something isn’t convenient to use, I know that I am far less likely to use it. Keeping that in mind, we decided on lids that could be lifted to access the storage instead.

To help us get an idea of the overall dimensions within the space, I grabbed some painter’s tape and marked out the spacing for the three separate pieces that would comprise the bench seat. Has anyone else ever tried this? We find it so helpful!

 

 

To help brighten the space, I painted the kitchen and breakfast nook walls in Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore for a crisp fresh look. We then set to removing the baseboards from the areas of the wall that the bench seat would nestle up against. This both allowed the frames to sit flush against the walls as it provided us with baseboard to be recycled to the fronts of the bench itself.

 

 

Next, we began building the framework for our bench seat pieces. Once completed we fastened the two smaller frames securely to the main frame.

 

We then enclosed the frame with sheets of 1/4″ birch plywood and fastened on the lids made from 3/4″ birch plywood.

 

Once we ensured that all three lids could open without clipping one another, we set to work on planking the accent wall to make it more of a focal point. To keep the cost down, I used 2’x4′ sheets of MDF board that I cut down into 10″ strips. I elected for a wide plank to give a more modern feel.

 

Once all of our nail holes had been spackled over and lightly sanded, we set to painting the MDF planks and the basic box frames of the bench seat. To ensure a smooth finish, we unfastened the two smaller frames from the main bench frame.

 

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I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a good before and after…though I suppose this would be better known as a before and in-progress. Though our nook is currently a mini construction zone, already it feels so much lighter and cheerful. I cannot wait to start finishing touches and adding the trim and baseboard to the bench. The new lighting is en route and things are definitely coming together. Stay tuned!

 

Cheers!

 

~Christy