Reclaimed Wood Bench

I’ve had these antique wooden doors sitting in the corner of my garage for years. The doors were here when I bought the house a few years ago, but don’t seem to belong anywhere in the house. Now, my house was built in 1915, so these are solid core doors, and boy are they heavy. Unfortunately the doors have been exposed to years of water damage and really aren’t salvageable.

One day I pealed back a flaky corner and discovered that antique solid core doors aren’t actually made up of large chunks of solid wood. The inside is actually kind of like a butcher block and then a wood veneer makes up the outer layer.

I decided to cut up the door and run it through my planer to expose the butcher block core. I then glued up the sections to form the seat of the bench.

For the legs, I squared up some 2×4s and gave them a 5° degree bevel to give them a trapezoid shape.

I finished the legs with black spray paint for an industrial steel-like look, and finished the seat with some natural-colored Danish oil.

If you’re interested, you can watch the full build process:

Free plans available!