How to Build A Mudroom Locker’s Bench

My mudroom lockers are by far the project I love the most in my house. If you hang tight, you will see the final reveal soon.

Woo to the hoo we have storage for all our coats and shoes and I couldn’t be happier!

Mudroom Lockers Part 1 – Bench

This week I am going to break down the project for you and show you exactly how I built it.  It is best, when you tackle a project of this magnitude, to break it into parts. 

So I am going to show you how I built the mudroom bench, then the upper cabinets/shelves, and lastly the middle part.

I will also break down the cost for you as well. 

While this isn’t a sponsored post I do link to the products I used and have used some affiliate links.

Materials needed:

So for just the lumber of the mudroom bench, I used:

• 3/4″ MDF plywood sheet – $36.32
• 1/4″ beadboard panel – $19.97
• 1″ x 2″ x 8″ – $2.98
• 3/4″ x 20″ x 8″ Stain Grade Panel – $36.94

Total lumber cost: $93.85

Materials costs if you don’t have already:

• Gorilla Wood Glue
• SPAX MDF to Wood #6 1 1/2″ screws (found at Ace Hardware)
• Minwax Dark Walnut Stain
• Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner
• Minwax Polyurethane Satin
• DAP Paintable Caulk
• Minwax Stainable Wood Filler
• Primer and paint
• 3″ wood screws

Tools Needed:

• Tape measure
• Cordless drill
• Sandpaper
• Miter saw
• Table saw
• Corner clamps
• 1 1/4″ Pocket Screws
• Brad nailer
• Kreg Jig
• Stapler
• Rockwell SonicCrafter or a way to cut the baseboards
• Pry bar and hammer to remove baseboards
• Utility knife to cut caulk to remove baseboards

Step By Step Instructions:

Let’s begin with where we started.  This small 8″ x 6″ room was the space between the garage and the kitchen, AKA the mudroom. It also served the previous owners as the laundry room. 

However, there is also a laundry hook up in the finished basement.  Not ideal for me but that is where the washer and dryer are right now. 

I knew for a fact I would HATE the laundry area in this space so it was a no-brainer to make this an actual functional mudroom. 

Ideally, I would love to move the laundry upstairs.

However, it has these cabinets over the washer and dryer that would be great to reuse and build in as part of the lockers!

I showed you last week the addition of some IKEA shoe bins I added to the small niche in this room.  This helped keep the flow and added some extra storage in this awkward niche as well.

Step 1 – Prepare the Area

So the first thing I had to do was prep the area.  As you can see I had to seal off the washer/dryer hookup and get rid of some electrical boxes: one 110 and one 220 volt.

How to Seal Off A Washer Connection

This is what you need to do that:

• 2 threading fitting hose caps
• 2″ twist test plug fitting
• wire nuts
• screwdriver
• plumbing tape

To tackle the washer and dryer plumbing area I removed the frame and got some hose caps and put them on the hot and cold water with a little plumbing tape. 

Then to plug the drain I purchased a twist on cap (not pictured).  All of these can easily be found at Lowes in the plumbing department.  That was the easy part.

For the electric part, I had to turn off the electricity to this area from the electrical panel and then remove the outlets and put some wire nuts onto the wires.

Since we need these spots on the electrical panel for other projects I also had an electrician pull the wires from the box so no one will know we ever know we had electricity to this area. 

Now they are ready to be blocked.  If you don’t have the luxury of doing all this then you will have to cut out the back of your lockers and put a blank faceplate over them if you need access to them down the road.

Step 2 – Moving the Baseboards

Next up was removing the baseboards. 

I wasn’t as careful protecting the wall since it was going to be covered.

And I did use my Rockwell Sonic Crafter with the 1-3/8″ Standard Wood End Cut Blade to cut the baseboards on the right side.

This allowed to still have to rest of the baseboard intact but to make room for the locker and face frame.

Now my area was ready for building.  So I measured the width of the space and it was 71 1/4″ wide. 

I wanted to build the bench 1 1/2″ less than that to accommodate a 1″ x 2″ face frame on the left and right.  So after I built the bench and put it in place there was a 3/4″ gap on each side.  Perfect!

Next, I measured the depth.  I wanted it as deep as it could go but not interfere with the door.  I decided to go 18 1/4″.

So the MDF would be 18″ and then the beadboard would add that 1/4″.

So I had Lowes rip my 4″ x 8″ MDF sheet into 18″ strips (so they were 18″ x 96″). 

When I got home I cut one 18″ x 69 3/4″ for the top and then 5 pieces at 18″ x 18″. 

Next, I used MDF to Wood Spax screws to screw the bench in place.  I used Gorilla wood glue and corner clamps to hold it in place while I drilled the screws in. 

The corner clamps are helpful if you are building solo. I had the skeleton of my bench built now.

Then I ripped the leftover piece of MDF into 2 1/2″ strips.

This would serve as supports at the top and bottom of each space.  I measured each space individually and cut two 2 1/2″ pieces to those lengths for each cubby. 

I used my Kreg Jig to drill pocket holes and screwed them in place from the back with Gorilla Wood Glue and 1 1/4″ Kreg screws.

Next I ripped two lengths of beadboard to 18 1/2″ and I stapled that onto the back. 

I had to cut another section since the 4″ width that the beadboard comes in wasn’t enough. 

Then I painted and primed the entire thing with my Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer .

Find your studs in the wall and mark them.  You will need these measurements for all three sections of this build.

It is important to screw everything into studs.  Using 3″ wood screws I attached the bench to the studs in the wall.

Next, I cut the 3/4″ stain grade panel to 71 1/4″ (which was the width of the opening) by 18″. 

Measure accurately.  Most of the time you have walls that aren’t perfectly square. 

You might have to scribe it and cut crooked if your walls are really wonky. I also ripped a length of the stain grade panel to 2 1/2″ to use as my face frame. 

I cut that to length and had to miter a little piece to wrap around the front since my bench stuck out past the edge of the opening a little bit (see pic below).

This is the corner edge already finished!

I air nailed the bench top in place in the back and to the sides being careful to try and only nail it in places that would be covered by the middle part of the lockers. 

That way it was less to patch.  Then I nailed my face frame in place onto the front of the stain grade panel.

I used Minwax stainable wood filler to fill any gaps or holes left by the nails.

This was my first time using this product and I was impressed how well it took stain!

I sanded all the stain grade panel down with 100 grit sandpaper followed by 180 grit making it smooth.

Then put a coat of pre-wood conditioner on, followed by Minwax Dark Walnut and then two coats of Minwax Oil-based Polyurethane in Satin (sanding between coats).

While that was drying I cut my face frames for the legs out of the 1″ x 2″. And then primed and painted those and air nailed them in place. 

You will have a 3/4″ gap on the left and right of the bench.  You can nail a piece of the 1x 2″ in that gap so you have something to attach the face frames too if you want.

Although it isn’t necessary unless it sticks out like mine did.  Then I filled holes and touched up the paint. 

I also caulked the edges of the faceframe where it meets the wall.

And the bench was complete!

Click here to read Mudroom Lockers Part 2: The Upper Shelves

Click here to read Mudroom Lockers Part 3: The Part Where the Coats Hang

Click here to read Mudroom Lockers Part 4: The Final Reveal