DIY Breakfast Nook Bench - Shoe Makes New

This DIY breakfast nook bench is the stuff of my dreams, but oh boy, it taught me a lot.

It’s huge, first of all, at about 8 feet one side and 6 feet on the other, and has drawers which were so intimidating to build and install. It’s an absolute beast and has already been tested by our standing on it to paint our entire kitchen white this last week, and it didn’t even make a squeak (or crack). It’s also tall, but we designed it that way so we wouldn’t need cushions.

You might remember this isn’t our first set of built-ins. We built a mudroom coatrack/shoe storage unit in our last house that we miss so much! The build for the DIY breakfast nook bench took me a couple of weeks of going bit-by-bit, and a whooooleeee lot of measurements, but hopefully I can break it down in a way that makes sense if you’re thinking of a similar built in bench. I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t need to.

Of course, you’ll need to re-configure the measurements if your space is bigger or smaller, so keep that in mind while following along with the plans. Just a note: The plans probably seem very intimidating with all these cuts and instructions, but once you get rolling it’ll all make a lot more sense.

Enjoy!

Custom Breakfast Nook Build Plans

Tools & Materials

Miter saw
Pocket hole jig
Drill
Pocket Hole Screws
Drawer slides
Nail gun
Plywood sheets (both at ¾ inch thick and at 5/16ths inches thick – see cut list below)
2x4s, 1×2, 1×3, 1×4 (see cut list below)
Clamps
Stud finder
Caulk
Sander
Paint — we used Midnight Blue by Fusion Mineral Paint

Cut list

Structure

2x4s
36 @ 20” (for the structure rectangles and joins)
16 @ 17.5” (for the structure rectangles)
7 @ 16” (scrap pieces to mount the drawer slides to)

Outer shell

¾ inch thick plywood
1 @ 20.75” x 95” (for the longer end of the top of the bench)
1 @ 20.75” x 52” (for the shorter end of the top of the bench)

End caps

2 @ 13.75” x 18.5”

Drawers

5/16th inch thick plywood (to make five drawers)
10 @ 19.25” x 17.25” (for the fronts and backs)
10 @ 17+6/16ths x 17.25 (for the sides)
5 @ 17+6/16ths x 18+10/16ths (for the bottoms)

Trim

1x2s
2 @ 75.75”
2 @ 52.75”
4 @ 20.75”
1x4s
11@ 17.5”
1x3s
10 @ 19.75”
10 @ 17.25”

How to Build a DIY breakfast nook bench

Removing the baseboards

Kind of a tedious step, but one that’s necessary to make sure everything is flush and as sturdy as it can be. Remove the baseboards around the area where you’ll build in your DIY breakfast nook bench.

For this, you could either remove the entire wall’s worth of baseboard and cut it then reattach, or use a tool like this oscillating tool to cut out just the length you need (much easier in my opinion!).

Make your structure cuts

I suggest you make the cuts for each section rather than making all the cuts for the whole DIY breakfast nook bench to start with because if your house is anything like ours, the walls and floors probably aren’t level and plumb and you might need to make some minor adjustments as you go.

That being said, start out by making the cuts that will form your rectangular 2×4 supports – the (36) 20” pieces and (16) 17.5” pieces.

Then, make two pocket holes in each end of each 17.5” piece. If you don’t own a pocket hole system, you could also use wood glue and long construction screws to assemble the frames, but I thought pocket holes seemed a little more sturdy and the goal here was to be solid enough that like six grown adults could sit on it.

Assemble the frames

Lay out two of your 20” pieces, and sandwich a 17.5” piece between them at either end to make a rectangle, then screw in some pocket hole screws or your wood glue/construction screw combo if you’re going that route. Repeat six more times until you have seven rectangles. (Note: You’ll have 20 leftover 2×4 pieces at 20”, but we’ll use those soon to join the rectangles together).

Join it all together

Next, take your new rectangle support pieces and space them out in your bench space, starting in the corner and working your way out.

Put one of the leftover 20” pieces along the wall in the corner, then add one of the rectangles at the end of it, with the 17.5” pieces standing vertically.

Put out two more of the 20” pieces (one along the back wall and one in the very front of the rectangle structure) and then add another rectangle. Keep going until you’ve got four rectangles on one side of the wall.

Then, go back and do the other side by adding in another 20” piece in the corner space, but put it going from the front of the far right rectangle to the wall. Add your next rectangle on the opposite wall so that the front of it touches the front corner of the other rectangle closest to the corner, but not overlapping. Repeat on that other side until you’ve got three rectangles and spacers laid out.

(It’s hard to explain so check the photo below for reference on how it’ll look in the end)

Connect all of the support rectangles to the spacers with pocket holes, making sure that the 20” connector pieces in the front of the DIY breakfast nook bench are flat on the ground, with the short side facing the front, and the ones in the back are vertical so the longer part of the 2×4 is flat against the wall.

You’ll see why soon, again, just trust me.

Use the rest of the 20” connector pieces in the same position as the ones along the ground, but between the top of the rectangles to make it like a cube.

Attaching them all can be a bit tricky, so a second pair of hands and a whole lotta clamps is helpful. If all else fails, a beer helps, too.

Attach to the wall

By now, you’ve got a big, sturdy but ugly structure but it’s kind of free floating in your room.

Mark out your studs on the wall, and use long 3” construction screws to secure the connector 2×4 pieces to the wall in a few places in the studs. This is why in the back we had the connector pieces flat against the wall, or else if a screw had to go through the longer 3.5” side of the 2×4, less of the screw would go into the stud, making it less sturdy.

Make drawers

This part had me ranting on Instagram about how America needs to get on the metric system, but here we go.

Grab your 5/16ths” thick plywood, and make the drawer cuts referenced above in the cut list. Use wood glue and a nail gun to nail it all together, with the bottom piece sitting inside all the others, not underneath them. I found it easiest to attach the sides to the bottom piece first, then attach the front and back pieces. The front and back pieces should go across the whole length of the bottom and side pieces combined.

Don’t be stingy with the nails, you want this bad boy to be strong so it can store all your treasures.

Attach drawer slides

Grab those 16” pieces of 2×4 and screw one along the bottom piece of each of the rectangular supports, making sure it’s even on either side. These pieces will be what the drawer slides attach to.

I just pretty loosely screwed in two of the 3” construction screws into each piece to make sure they wouldn’t be sliding anywhere. It really doesn’t matter how any of this inner 2×4 support structure looks because you’ll never see it.

Next, grab another scrap piece of 2×4 and put on the ground pushed up next to the rectangle you’re working on so you’re able to keep your drawer slide propped up and level while marking the drill spots.

Extend out your drawer slide and prop it up on that scrap piece of 2×4 you just put in place. If you’re using the same slides I used, when the drawer slide is as far back as it can go, the front should be just inside of the front of the whole structure.

Use a pen to mark the holes where the screws will go, then drill the holes and drive in your screws. Repeat nine more times until you’ve got the drawer slides attached for all five drawers.

Attach drawer slides to drawers

Take that scrap piece of 2×4 you used to prop up your drawer slides during assembly, and use it to prop up the drawer while you’re marking out your drill holes. Put the drawer in its space so it’s flush with the front of the whole structure and propped up a little bit with a shim or a dime so it’s got some clearance, then make a little pen mark where the front of the drawer slide reaches in that position.

It’s more important to have the drawer flush with the front than it is for each drawer slide to be attached to the exact same spot on each drawer.

Next, disconnect the front of the drawer slide from the already attached part (on mine it was with two little black levers that were exposed when the drawer was fully extended). Hold the drawer slide up to that mark you made along the side of the drawer, making sure the slide is level back-to-front, and then mark your holes and drill.

Slide drawers into place

Once all the drawer slides are secured to both the bench structure and the drawers, slide the drawers into place. To be totally honest, I had some issues with this step and had to re-drill some holes because the floors weren’t level and there wasn’t enough clearance for the drawers to slide freely. I was also obviously living in shambles by this point.

If you’re in the same boat, beer helps in this step, too.

Make your trim cuts

Here’s where it starts to get fun and look like a real DIY breakfast nook bench!

At this point you’ve got a big bulky structure which is great for the strength, but it’s not winning any beauty awards.

Start by making the 1×2 cuts. This is where it gets a bit complicated, but you’re going to do some 45-degree miter cuts. Also intimidating, but it’s so worth it for the more seamless look in the end!

If you’ve never done that before and have a miter saw like ours, there will be a little knob kind of behind the blade part that comes down and if you loosen it, the whole blade area will tilt to the side. Tilt it the whole way it’ll go and that should be 45 degrees (but there should also be numbers on it to tell the angle).

The two 75.75” pieces and the two 52.75” pieces will be mitered away from each other, which means the pointy, longer ends of the cut will be on opposite sides of the finished piece of wood.

The shorter, 20.75” pieces will only be mitered on one end.

Next, make the cuts on your 1×4 pieces. They’re a lot easier because they’re just straight cuts, so be sure to move your miter saw back to the 0-degree angle before cutting.

Start attaching your 1×2 trim

Take those two longest 1×2 pieces (the 75.75” pieces with the two mitered edges) and hold one along the base of the long side of the bench structure, so that the pointy mitered end is aligned in the inner corner of the bench (at the other end, the pointy part will stick out beyond your structure at the front, but that’s okay).

Glue and nail that piece into place, and do the same thing for the second 75.75” piece along the top, making sure the 1×2 is flush with the top of the whole structure. They should line up perfectly height-wise with the 2x4s along the bottom and top of the inner structure, so if you’re seeing the end vision, you’ll know that these trim pieces are basically going to just be the pretty face covering the inner supports.

Take one of your 52.75” trim pieces and hold it along the bottom of the shorter end of the bench, making sure the mitered pointy edge is also at the inner corner, butting up against the 1×2 trim piece on the longer end.

They should fit together perfectly and make a seamless-looking cut (though if your cuts are off and there’s a little gap it’s okay, caulk can work wonders in the end).

Glue and nail that piece into place and do the same for the other 52.75” piece along the top of the shorter end of the bench (and again, the other mitered edge on the outside will stick out a little bit from the end but that’s okay).

Attach your 1x4s

These pieces are pretty straight-forward, the 17.5” 1×4 pieces should fit perfectly vertically between the 1×2 trim pieces to cover the inner supports between the drawers.

Just tap them into place, then glue and nail the same as you did with the other trim pieces. On the very outer edges of the front of the bench structure, the 1×4 won’t go all the way to the edge of the 1×2 trim when you line it up over the 2×4.

But, if you add a 1×4 to both sides of the ends of the bench, then it should fill in that space. So on the end pieces, put one 1×4 piece right up against the wall between the 1×2 pieces, and one piece on the outer side lined up with the 1×4 from the front of the bench.

On the inner corners of the bench, you’ll need to rip down one of the 1×4 pieces to about 3″ before nailing into place. Then, nail one of the 1x4s into place in the corner, and the skinnier 1×4 piece should then butt up against it and cover the rest of the inner support on the other side of the structure.

Cut drawer face frames

Make your 1×3 cuts on the miter saw. These will be at 45-degrees as well, but different to the 1×2 cuts, because you’ll angle the way the saw blade faces rather than tilting the whole setup, if that makes sense.

Again, if you’ve got the same or a similar saw to us, there’s a knob at the very front end of the saw that you can twist to loosen, then hold up the lever and you can drag the whole saw blade from side-to-side to make different angle cuts.

There should be guides along the front of that area at the bottom that show which angle you’re on, so just keep going until it’s lined up with 45.

Start by grabbing one of the 1×3 pieces and miter it right at the very end so you’ve got an angled cut to start with, then measure 17.25” from the longer, pointy end and make a mark.

You’re going to make another 45-degree cut on that mark, but make sure you line up the saw to your mark and cut inwards, not outwards. So, the final piece should look like a piece of a frame with one longer end and one shorter end.

Keep going until you’ve got 10 of the 17.25” cuts, and repeat the same process with 10 cuts at 19.75”.

Attach drawer face frames

Your drawers should be attached to the whole structure and slid in the whole way so they’re flush with the inner 2×4 support. Pull out one of your drawers and hold up one of the 19.75” frame pieces (the 19.75” pieces are the tops and bottoms and the 17.25” pieces are the sides) to the very top of the drawer, making sure it is a little higher than the inner drawer plywood but not so high that your drawer won’t be able to close. Nail it into place from the inside of the drawer with ¾” nails and a brad nailer, making sure it’s level.

Repeat with the side pieces, holding the mitered edges together as seamlessly as possible (this is easier with a few clamps or extra sets of hands) and nail into place, finishing with the bottom piece. Repeat for all of the drawers.

Add the end caps

Take a moment to look at how good that DIY breakfast nook bench is looking, then let’s figure out the end pieces. These are just for aesthetics because they aren’t functional, but I chose to frame them out like the drawers so it had a bit more interesting a look than plain plywood.

Make your ¾” plywood cuts.

Slide out your end drawer the whole way, then hold up that piece of plywood you just cut on the inside of the open end of the bench so it’s sitting on top of the 2×4 that holds the drawer slide, but it’s flush with the outside of it.

At the top, it should fit in behind the 1×2 trim piece, so just shoot in a couple of nails to hold it into place (I found it didn’t shift at the bottom not being attached to anything, so I didn’t bother doing that but you could add inner pocket holes if you’re worried).

Add the end trim

Cut your end trim pieces in the same way you did the drawer frames, then hold them up and nail them into place the same way you did with the drawer frames on the front of those end plywood pieces.

Add the plywood tops (with a bonus fancy step)

Give your plywood top pieces a good sanding and wipe them down to remove all the dust.

If you want to be fancy like us, then add in this step: We were losing an outlet in the dining area because the bench would cover it up in the corner, so instead of that, we bought one of these conference center outlet strips and used the jigsaw to make a hole to sit it into.

Being that this DIY breakfast nook bench will probably be an additional work space for us, the ability to keep our electronics charged will be a big help.

We made sure to jigsaw the hole before bringing the plywood inside and into place.

Next, slide your plywood pieces into place on the top, then lift up the edges and run a bead of wood glue along the whole top of the 2×4 structure. Slide the plywood tops into place, making sure the fronts are flush with the 1×2 pieces right underneath them, then nail it all into place as best you can. (If you made a hole for an outlet extension like we did, make sure you run the cord into the outlet before you secure down the plywood top piece.

Caulk and wood fill

Use wood filler to fill in all the nail holes you’ve made across the whole project, and caulk all the seams. Remember wood filler is used for holes and grooves in wood, whereas caulk is to hide any seams.

So, you’d wood fill the nail holes or any imperfections in the wood, and you’d caulk the seams like the corners of your drawer fronts and where all the trim pieces meet.

This is where the magic happens and all your just-off cuts will start to be hidden.

Give it all a good sanding

Once the wood filler is dry, sand down all of those spots so they’re flat and wipe the whole thing down again, preferably with tack cloth so you don’t mess up your paint job with any sawdust.

Now you’ve got a whole DIY breakfast nook bench and you’re ready to make it even prettier!! Check back in a couple of days to see the details of the amazing furniture paint we used on this project that’s waterproof. And, I mean, check out that color.