Wellie Boot Bench

What's wet and muddy and something easily tripped over?

Yep - wellies, wellington boots, galoshes, gumboots ...however you name them.

Kids leave them lying there right by the door, they don't stand up properly and they might house that menacing spider!

Well I designed and made a bench so you can store them away and have a sit down while you struggle to put them on.

Ply- 18mm - exterior type if you can afford it (you could use MDF but it'd have to be well sealed)

2x hinges - brass, steel - your choice

Quality wood for the top - in this case yellow pine

Note: dimensions for this is in the PDF

Tools :

If you're going to make this you probably have some decent tools already and know how to use them. Alternatively you could get the ply cut to size by a local wood merchant or DIY warehouse.

I used:

• table saw
• router
• hand drill
• electric sander
• hand saw
• hammer
• screwdrivers
• square / rule / drill bits etc

Also the finish is down to your preference but the ply was painted with an exterior stain/paint which still showed the wood grain and the natural wood had a wax finish applied.

This was originally designed in Sketchup but I had to do some boot measurements to try and cater for larger boots (in this case size 13- euro 48). Also if a taller boot was being placed how that effected the overall height for a sitting person. The boot shelf slots also had to be designed carefully to properly position the boot if it was inserted either way, to give certain amount of grip and be spaced proportionally. I also didn't wish to have any fittings visible - ie screw heads so that was considered.

The ply sides are basic rectangles. The cut away triangle part is just decoration so you may wish to create a different look. You could do this with a jigsaw, hand saw or a band saw.

The vertical 'grooves' are to suggest the wood is assembled as a tongue and groove so again just decorative. I used a router with a 'V' bit to do this. If you don't have a router the only other method I can think of is to run a shallow cut using the table saw. This was done on both faces on the left and right sides.

The natural wood strip - although also decorative - is to hide the screw heads that hold the boot shelf in place. The wood strip is just nailed on so it can be removed if necessary at a later date.

On the internal face I used the router to cut a slot - 18mm wide and 6mm into the face. This allows the boot shelf thats 18mm ply to slot in. It'll improve the sturdiness as well. You don't have to do that - you could fix a strip of wood below where the shelf is to sit to give it the support but its not such a clean look.

Once the ply was all cut to size and marked out the 8 holes were drilled first using a flat bit. Remember to clamp it down on top of scrap wood to get a clean cut on the reverse. The cuts to open up each boot slot were done with a jigsaw at the time. All edges were then smoothed off. Now this could be a square ended slot if you can't access a 38mm flat bit but aesthetically it's not so pleasing.

This is a basic rectangle of wood that sits below the boot shelf to support its length as well as improve the bench structure so its an important part.

This can be secured either by screws or dowels from above through the boot shelf into the support edge. This is also secured into the bench sides using dowels.

The top is made of Yellow Pine - it had a good grain pattern, it was chunky, cheap and available. Its made of two parts - the back piece is secured to the bench sides using screws that are in a counterbored hole and dowel capped so they can't be seen, The front section is then fixed to the back via brass hinges.

The reason for this is to give better access to your wellies, preferable but its not essential so you could make your top one whole piece if you so desired.

In fitting with where this item is to be placed I applied a 'rustic finish'. This basically involved denting, cutting and burning into the smooth piece of timber to make it look old. I used a stain wax (by Briwax) and applied it using wire wool. It gets in all the cuts and dents to emphasise a 'used' life. There's plenty of info out there on how to achieve this so I won't cover it here.

So once you've painted or finished it in whatever way you wish then you can get it assembled. Just make sure your joints are squarely assembled. Your bench top needs to be the last piece to go on.

The aim of this was to produce a simply constructed piece of furniture, but with enough detail to make it fit in with its surroundings - in this case a country cottage. The painted finish can easily be wiped down or repainted and the bench top was given a worn rustic look to fit in with other pieces. Hopefully the idea is there so others can be inspired to make their own but in a way that suits their skills and decorative style.

Thanks for viewing.