If you’ve been following along with the progress on our new home transformation, you are probably aware that I became fed up with our “mudroom” several months ago. It simply didn’t have enough space for our ever growing family of five. Furthermore, the Ikea cubbies that conveyed with the sale of our home were totally open. If you have young kids (ours are currently 2,5, and 7) you know that it’s rare that they put away their things without prompting… let alone by themselves… let alone neatly. Long story short, even on our best days, the drop zone was a total mess (our very best day is pictured here). Initially, I was fully committed to creating a bench surrounded by custom cabinets. However, I had already used unfinished prefab cabinets for our living room built ins which are only a few feet away from our planned drop zone. It was a good decision in the end since it made for a continuity of design and saved a ton of time. Keep reading to see the basics of how we did it! For detailed plans of this build, check out our DOWNLOADABLE PLANS page. Price Time Difficulty $260-300 4 days Moderate Materials Tools Optional But Recommended: Detailed Plans This post contains a basic run down of how to build a custom drop zone the easy and inexpensive way with prefab cabinets. If you’d like more direction, check out our detailed DIY project plans with over 30 pages of in-depth illustrated instructions, material lists, and everything you will need to complete your project right. How To Build It STEP 1: CUT AWAY THE EXISTING BASEBOARDS I took care to cut the caulk where the baseboards met the wall with a razor, and then used a putty knife and a small pry bar to fully remove the moldings. A good trick to get leverage but protect the surrounding drywall is to use a small piece of scrap wood to push against. For a detailed description of removing molding without damaging your walls, head over to this post. STEP 2: MARK THE STUD LOCATIONS I used a stud finder to locate each stud in two locations- one high and one low. Then I used one of my favorite little tools, this laser level, to draw a straight line between them. That way I’m sure to hit a stud anywhere along the length of the line. STEP 2: RUN THE ROUGH ELECTRICAL I decided to add an LED recessed light above the bench. I moved the gang box and added a larger one to support the old switch for the overhead light and also the new bench light. STEP 3: BUILD A BASE FOR YOUR CABINETS I mounted scrap 2x4s and 2x3s to the wall studs to give me a solid anchor point for the standing cabinets, and provide the desired depth of 15″ for my bench seat. The optimal height for bench seating is between 17-19 inches. Because of this I decided to use 2x3s in lieu of my normal 2x4s for this foundation to reduce the bench height. This part is easy- simply measure the overall footprint of your project and build a rectangular platform for the prefab cabinets to sit on. Level the base with shims as necessary. STEP 4: INSTALL THE CABINETS I stacked the cabinets where I wanted them, taking care to shim them until they were absolutely level and plumb. Then I attached them to the rear supports using 1 1/2″ cabinet screws, and to each other using 2″ wood screws. I used construction adhesive to attached scrap pieces of 3/4″ plywood between the wall and the standing cabinets. This allowed me to attached the 1×2 poplar trim later on without getting in the way of the cabinet doors. STEP 5: TRIM THE ENDS WITH 3/4″ PLYWOOD STEP 6: BUILD ANE INSTALL THE SHELVES This is just a 3/4″ plywood box built from scrap I had on hand from previous projects. I added a 1/2″ plywood back for rigidity. Check out our post on tips for building shelving to see how I get everything square and build shelves quickly. STEP 7: INSTALL THE BENCH OVERHEAD LIGHT This LED recessed light was so easy to install. The whole process took a grand total of 4 minutes. YouTube video to follow. STEP 8: TRIM THE FRONT WITH 1X6 HEADERS AND THE VERTICALS WITH 1X2 POPLAR STEP 9: ADD RECLAIMED WOOD I used a new material from Timberchic instead of buying bulky and expensive reclaimed barn wood boards as I’ve done in the past. This was way simpler and super easy to install. Check out our post detailing the product and installation. STEP 10: INSTALL THE BASEBOARD, QUARTER ROUND, AND SHOE MOLDING STEP 11: PREP FOR PAINT Use wood putty to fill all of the nail and screw holes. and any gaps between adjoining wood boards. Sand all surfaces smooth with 220 grit sand paper. Some parts like the crown molding needs to be hand sanded, but I recommend a good orbital sander to save time. Lastly, caulk all of the joints and corners. STEP 12: PAINT IT I chose to use an airless Graco 360 sprayer. With a little practice on some scrap boards and a steady hand, you can get a near cabinet-grade finish. Using an airless sprayer requires a bit more prep than brush painting, as you can see, but the finish is so much better! It’s really perfect for a DIYer like me. If you want a really quality finish, you need to sand lightly between coats with 220 grit paper. Apply at least 2-3 coats of paint for the best results. STEP 13: INSTALL THE HARDWARE Installing a couple of handles shouldn’t be too hard, but when you’re doing five cabinets or more, there’s a lot of measurements to be made to get it just right. Rather than make a template for each job, I like to use this cabinet hardware jig. This little guy allows me to put the holes in exactly the same place on each and every door. Just set it and forget it! (It saved a TON of time when I installed drawer pulls and cabinet handles on all of our kitchen and bath cabinets- 39 doors in all) I hope you guys enjoyed this project and found this article helpful. Let us know if there is something you would like to see. Detailed plans for all of our builds are coming soon. I’ll be sure to post pictures when we get our custom seat cushion in. I can do a great many things, but sewing isn’t one of them! Maybe you guys can give me some pointer in that area. After the cushion, the finishing touch will be installing a new overhead light fixture. You probably also noticed that we installed new craftsman style trim along with our built ins. To see the details of that build check out our post here. Until next time, cheers and happy building!