Final week of work to finish mudroom bench

September 2018 - I got some help to move the case up from my basement shop to the garage. Thank you very much Kamil. Once it was in place there, I worked on getting the crown molding installed, as well as the lighting. Once those were in place, I took a couple of weeks to paint the whole piece with General Finishes "Charleton Blue" chalk paint. It took two coats with a quick sanding after the first. 

October 13, 2018 - This is the weekend I finished this project. Sprayed the whole case with lacquer. (I don't have a HVLP spray rig, so it was rattle cans from the  big box store. $12 a pop for those cans, but the result was worth it. ) 

Then it was the struggle of getting the 2 1/2" thick cherry seat installed. Boy, that was a challenge. It had fit perfectly in the shop, but of course, after the paint was applied to the case, and of course the higher humidity of the garage space where it's installed, it didn't quite fit. I had to haul the seat back to the shop and sand and plane a bit more to get the clearance needed to make it fit. It's a very tight fit, specifically in the center where the seat fits tightly around the center vertical shelf piece.  

Got the seat installed and screwed the case with four screws from below. And with that, Voila! C'est fini!

My wife loves it. I probably spent about $400 on this thing altogether, counting the cabinet grade plywood, the expensive seat, the chalk paint and lacquer, and the hardware ordered from Lee Valley.  A friend of ours who does custom home furniture for wealthy clients in Buckhead said he would probably have charged $10k for this piece. That was a bit startling.

Overall, pleased to finish another piece, and especially a large one that didn't take me 8 years. (Oy . . . I have to finish the workbench and the jewelry armoire.) That's happening in November.