Hall Tree #3 - Complete

The final thing I needed to do on the hall tree was put on the hardware - hangers and shelf brackets:

The oak-leaf hangers are what inspired us to do the hall tree in the first place. They are cast iron and painted flat black. We bought them at a local building materials reuse place, which I am happy to promote. They have wide variety of stuff, prices are great, and they are very friendly.

For you Oregonians (or those visiting), here is the list of reuse and recycling centers. I try to build as much as I can from materials these centers provide. It's good for the environment, my wallet and the local economy.

Hall Tree #2

I was able to get the hall tree stained, sealed and installed over the weekend. It fit nicely into the alcove...

I  made it in four pieces: the bottom cabinet, the seat, the middle section, and the top shelf. I kept the bench a bottom cabinet in two pieces, so I could fit the bench in snugly.

Here is alcove before installation. My DW pained the side walls and ceiling the day before installation. I glued and nailed a few 1/2" x 4" OSB strips across the back wall to give a good surface for mounting with 18 gage finish nails.

Once the four main pieces were in place I shimmed them to an exact fit and nailed them off. This made the hall tree look like one single unit. Here are the trim pieces...

I made the seat with the best boards I had - a couple of them had knots which I wanted to show for a more rustic look. I sanded the corners along the edges of the boards before assembling them, again to make the bench look more rustic.

The middle section took the most work. The 1/4" cherry plywood makes the base, with the battens and trim attached. I put 1/2" OSB on the sides to give them rigidity.

Building the base cabinet for shoes was pretty straightforward, holding two pair of shoes on each shelf.. 

I need to let the finish cure for a day or so, then mount the hardware.

Improving our Entry with an Alcove and Hall Tree

The entry to our house is fairly small and is typical for a house built in the 1970's. We have a nice covered porch area, but once you are inside the entry is about 4 feet wide and 7 feet long. The location of the stairs and utilities don't allow for much expansion without a major remodel project - which we are not willing to do.


To help make the area feel larger and more up-to-date - and keep the cost down - we created an alcove to hold a hall tree. This picture shows the progress so far: the alcove is done (needs painting) and the hall tree parts are fabricated (no trim, stain or sealer yet)...

I made the hall tree out of "rustic" cherry (some knots and minor defect), which cost $4 / b.f., which was about 1/2 the cost of regular cherry. It also gave me the the right look for our house, which is not formal.

Here is a picture of the floor plan changes we made. We "stole" about 8 square feet from my office (read bedroom for my son in college) where the closet used to be, and moved it down as shown.

I am going to add a set of built-in bookshelves to the office that back up to the alcove (3 ft wide x 7 ft high). I think the room will feel almost a spacious with these installed, instead of just a plane wall. Also, the hall tree does not need to be any deeper than 20" on the entry side to get the effect of more space.

A few year ago, I read a remodeling / design article that suggested if possible you should select a non-vital room to "steal" space from for improvements. This is what we decided to do with the office. I started out at a 12' x 10' 6" room plus a six-foot closet. We gave part of the room to the guest bath, and now a bit to the entry. This has left us with a 12' x 8' 6" footprint, plus a 4' closet, which is fine for an office / guest room in the long run.

Hopefully, this weekend I can get the shelves for shoes and face trim done, and have everything stained and sealed.