DIY Mudroom Wall and Bench : Inexpensive and Easy!

Hi Guys! I’ve been on a role of remodeling my house over the past few months and this is one of new favorite rooms.

I converted our dining room into a farmhouse style DIY mudroom and dining room. I made all of the furniture for a fraction of what new furniture would have cost.

In fact, I sold my dining room table and hutch and pretty much was able to remodel our whole downstairs with that money – win win!!

This is a pretty easy DIY mudroom wall and bench with plans from some of my favorite sister bloggers, Shanty 2 Chic.

So this was our dining room for the past 12 years – I loved those red walls when we moved in! Not so much anymore:(

The room was just so dark with these walls and I wanted a light airy feeling.

So the first thing we did was painted the walls the same color as the rest of the house.

I love Wise Owl by Kelly Moore so this part was easy! We first applied a primer with a slight gray tint to cover up that dark color and then painted on Wise Owl.

I even had a cute little helper for this part!

First coat added with primer. We used Kelly Moore paint which did a nice job covering up the red.

Just painting it a light color, made a huge difference!! It opened up that room so much.

We only used the dining room table a couple of times a year so we discussed not even having a dining room at all. We ended up deciding it would be nice to still have a table but we did not need a hutch.

I really wanted a DIY mudroom wall where my kids could store their bags, jackets, and shoes so they weren’t all over my floor.

To Pinterest I went, where I found this picture that I fell in love with by McNelly Farmhouse Love!

I wanted a wall that looked kind of like this where the hutch used to be. Next thing I found on Pinterest were these plans to build a DIY wood bench from Shanty 2 Chic. (They have a great website. If you’ve never checked it out, I highly recommend you do!)

Off to Lowes I went to buy all the wood for my bench which wasn’t very much. This was my first time using my Kreg Jig since I bought it.

I had been intimidated by it for a long time but finally decided I just needed to try it out and let me tell you, it is super easy!! It makes building so simple that even a 40 something Optometrist can do it!

I got the basic Kreg Jig since I already had clamps. I just clamp it on and since most of what I work with is 2 inches (2×4 or 2×6) the setting stays the same at 1 1/5 with 2 1/5 inch pocket hole screws (love these found here!)

Clamp it, drill the hole, loosen clamp and move down the board about 6 inches, tighten clamp, and drill again! Keep repeating until all the way down board.

Then use long drill attachment to screw in pocket hole screws. That’s all there is too it!

Once you got the legs secured, flip it over, sand it, and stain it!

I used MinWax Colonial American found here.

After the stain dried for a day I added polycrylic top coat to seal it. This is my finished product! Not too bad for my first big build and it only took a few hours to make it… Woo Hoo!

For the rest of the DIY mudroom wall I screwed in an old pantry door to the wall and added rustic hooks (found here). I also added a shelf out of old reclaimed wood and made a sign to add some color.

I love how it came out!! What do you think?