DIY a seating bench with storage for the kitchen (aka March project).

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I always wanted us to have a sitting bench in our kitchen - big, soft and comfortable. And now we have it!!!

Our budget-friendly and kid-friendly bench. At first, we wanted to make it out of basic cabinets, kind of what we did in the boy's room, but just adding a frame on the bottom to make it higher. There were two problems with that. First, the price. It would cost us at least $150-200 in cabinets alone.Second is the width of the basic cabinets. The ones we used in the boys' room were from Lowes, and they were just too narrow for the bench we wanted to build.

We were considering building it ourselves but...well, we are not that crafty :) So after going back and forth, we stumbled upon a perfect solution for the perfect price in the Ikea as-is area:

Yeah, I know, I should've taken a better picture- this is only one side :) But it was a nice cabinet with two big drawers and no top. Only after I read the tag carefully, I realized it was a sink cabinet:

And both the price and the size (19 X 61 in.) was just right! We also bought a particle board shelf (only $5 in as-is area again) to use on top. It was a little wider (about 22 in.), so it was perfect to attach to the top. As you can see, the cabinet was partially brown but I sanded, primed and painted it white to match our kitchen better. Here's the proof at how wide it is :)

It's like a kitchen couch for the little guys :) The cushion came from Walmart online. I actually wanted to make my own but, as I said before, I wanted it to be very soft. And do you know that 5" foam padding costs $50 per yard?? Not even counting the price of fabric to go over it. Because I didn't have that kind of money, we just used a gift card and bought a lounge chair cushion (the only thing that was wide enough). It wasn't very cheap but the gift card helped a lot! The cushion was a little too long, so I cut off the extra and made a pillow out of it.

And after a few coats of Scotch Guard (you do remember, I'm potty-training this cute little guy above), it's ready to be used!! The drawers on this bench are HUGE!! I keep things I don't use very often in there (seasonal, table cloths etc. etc.) because most of the time this bench hides behind the table. It's not a window bench- we want to (hopefully!) build a deck next year and open up the window and add a french door there. But here's how it looks most of the time:

And this was our second March project, and the total cost was only about $65 but it's not even about the price! I just like to nap there :)

I shared this post with these awesome parties:
Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Party 
The Shabby Nest 
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Marvelous Mondays 
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Under The Table and Dreaming 
Pinkapotamus Pink Hippo Party 
Elizabeth an Co 
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The DIY'ers 
Little Mom on the Prairie 
Clean and Scentsible 
Hookin Up with HoH
The Shabby Nest  
Joyful Homemaking 
Thrifty Decor Chick 
Monday Funday