Mudroom bench (flat or butt shaped?)

2,025 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by Gary79Ag
jetescamilla
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I'm about to begin a builtin mudroom bench project and I've gone back and for on whether or not to carve in a butt shaped profile for the bench. I know I don't what to carve in individual butt seats but would rather have any profile change to run the full width. I'm curious what your thoughts are, leave flat or more ergonomic?

The bench itself will be 7'-6" in length and 1'-6" deep. It'll be made from 2 yellow cedar slabs glued together and have a live edge front face. I've already milled them down to a thickness a hair under 2". My glue up is probably going to be tonight or tomorrow (depending on kid distractions).

Below is a decent example of what I'm trying to accomplish. First step will be setting the bench in and "floating it". I'll then build the dividers and upper cabinets around it.


sts7049
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definitely leave them flat. carving in butt shapes looks like it belongs in an amusement park or something.
Flashdiaz
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some butts grow over time.

Leave it flat so no one gets a complex about it.







(sorry about the zoo type response, I couldn't help it)
txag2008
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I wouldn't mess with a profile. No one will ever be sitting on the bench for more than 2-3min.
jetescamilla
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sts7049 said:

definitely leave them flat. carving in butt shapes looks like it belongs in an amusement park or something.
Perfect guys thanks for the responses. This is just one of those things that I had planned to doing a while ago but you start to overthink as project time nears. Appreciate the feedback!
Koko Chingo
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Another for flat.

Butt shaped makes it uncomfortable to sit any other way besides straight on.

If you want to turn at any angle to face the people you are talking to, flat will allow that.

But shaped would work better on an individual chair versus a bench
hph6203
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Why would you want to discriminate against Starbucks drinking white women with flat asses? They need a place to sit too.
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toolshed
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Flat, I think the live edge is enough detail. You don't want too many things going on. In my opinion (not worth much) you don't want it getting too busy with details. I think one grand detail, done well, like a slab with a live edge, is enough to make a statement on its own.
Builder93
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My God, is this a first world problem or what?

Also, for the amount of time you would spend there, and the other uses for it, go flat. Ie, stuff will stay on it better.
Sliced Clown Bread
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What does you house look like? When was it built? Is the feature to be repeated though the rest of the house?
jetescamilla
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First world problem...yes. But it is a project I'm doing myself so I get to plan out the details. And the 2nd part of the question, it will get used daily, multiple time by everyone in the family. Living in Alaska, a mudroom was an essential room in the house we made sure to incorporate when we built it. It keeps all wet or snowy clothing in one contained spot and ensure the rest of the house stays clean and dry.

To answer the question above, the house is a cedar sided post and beam structure. The bulk of the flooring is 100+ year old reclaimed oak flooring from Pennsylvania barns and the mudroom flooring is bricked in a herringbone pattern. My wife and I did all the flooring ourselves and had this bench idea planned well in advance knowing it would be a future project for us. I'll see if I can get some pictures to add.
jetescamilla
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Some pictures of my bench work this past weekend. I'll get on the PC a little later to add some descriptions to the images

This is Alaskan Yellow Cedar and I couldn't find a slab wide enough so I got a long board (18ft long) cut it in half and jointed them together for a glue up. Also, my garage is too sloped and my work bench too small for this step so naturally, the kitchen table became my gluing table.


Once glued I made a template from 2" strips of 1/4" ply similar to how you would fit countertops and scribed all edges so I could have a tighter fit. I then transferred that to the slab and cut along the penciled lines. Using a hand plane I then shaved off to fit the scribed line. After all was said and done I did a fit up in place to ensure I didn't royally screw this up. Remember, measure 14 times...cut once!




Now to remove the bark. I bought a new set of chisels from a garage sale a couple of weeks ago so this seemed like the perfect time to sharpen them up and put use.


Not shown but I also used a No 5 plane (on the table) to level any warping and have a dead flat (no butt groove) bench. This was my first time doing the process and it was amazing easy and satisfying using a framing square to check for level and then using a pencil to mark the high spots. Shave the high spots and repeat.


Since I was doing a bunch of firsts and I had new chisels to break in why not step up my game and add some bow ties to prevent the natural split from growing at the end of the slab? My 2nd one was a lot cleaner, on the first I forgot to score the outline with a razor blade before chiseling it out. The chisel would crush the top fibers and leave indentations...rookie mistake.




This type of cedar is notorious for not taking a finish very well so I made a tester of the 6 different finishes I had in my garage on a cut off I had. I chose an oil base Varathane with semi gloss finish. Only downside is it takes a full day to cure so I can't just knock it out. It may even take a little longer because it's in my garage where the temps are hovering at 40 degrees right now.


Will update as it progress...
Gary79Ag
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Dang, now my wife's gonna want me to build a mudroom!

Great job!!!
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