Project #5: Window Seat with Storage Towers

If you follow my blog, you know about my dilemma choosing a project for the Birthday Build, and what I finally chose.  Here is the finished project and some pictures I took along the way

What a weekend!  It was an exhausting build, but so worth it.

We went from this

to this.

I love how his awkwardly sized Imaginext and Little People toys fit perfectly on the shelves.  That is what happens when you custom build something yourself.  you can measured the toys and built everything to fit them.  I also love how within a day of finishing the window seat, all of the stuffed animals had mysteriously migrated from the floor and bed to the bench.  I've been told they enjoy the view. 

This project has been in my mind since we moved in 8 months ago.  I walked in this room for the first time and thought "Wow!  This is the perfect place for a window seat!"  It was not however, the perfect time to build one.  We had to unpack and settle in first.  Besides, the windows were rotten.  They would pop open on their own in a strong wind, and were not very secure against our inquisitive 4 yr. old.  The shutters covering them were not  screwed in well, and I didn't like how they were configured to open toward each side and the middle of the double window.  It blocked the light, and I need light. 

Time passed, we unpacked had fabulous, new, secure, efficient, vinyl windows put in, and since the shutters no longer fit with the deeper windows, the shutters came off and lived propped against the new window opening.  

When I decided to build the window seat, I knew it was time to address the shutters.  The plan: take them out of their frames and reconfigure them so they open to the sides leaving the middle area free and clear of obstructions.  

To make this work, the trim around the windows was replaced with flat stock to give a nice flat wood edge I could screw into.  

I drafted up plans for the window seat and towers and we got our build on.  If you want to try something similar, but aren't comfortable drafting your own plans visit Ana White's site and check out her plans.  Her  rolling cubby bench minus the wheels would make a simple window seat and 5 cube tower bookshelf would work great for the towers.

Don't forget to check out my other DIY projects before you go.