DIY Storage Bench with Hinged Lid

Our front porch has been a cluttered, embarrassing mess for too long! It's always covered with our son's foam sword armory, umbrellas, bike helmets and half-dead plants. Nothing says "Welcome to our home" quite like the decor of an abandoned yard sale.

I wanted this collection of random outdoor things to stay outdoors, but contained and hidden away. Some seating would also be nice, so I can watch the sword fights from something a bit more comfortable than the concrete steps. What I really needed was a bench storage box.

I started looking around at various options, but there's not a ton of choices out there. Plastic deck boxes are fairly inexpensive but don't do much for the curb appeal. On the other hand, nice wooden ones are soooo expensive! Then I found this fabulous DIY outdoor storage box plan made by Kim from the fantastic blog Sand and Sisal.

Isn't it gorgeous? And exactly what I was looking for! The trim would echo back to our huge 9-pane picture window at the front of the house, and the dimensions were perfect for the space. I love the pop of color under the lid, but I'll stick with boring white for now.

I won't go through the step by step building process, since Kim did such a great job with her tutorial. But I'll show you some changes I made along the way, and some mistakes you can hopefully avoid!

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My first change was to assemble the box with pocket holes and screws, rather than glue and nails. I was worried that nails wouldn't hold up to constant abuse from our son and his friends grabbing toys out of the box.

I used my pocket hole jig to make the holes, then the Kreg right angle clamp to hold the pieces in place while I screwed them together.

My trim turned out slightly different on the ends of the box. I wrapped the top and bottom of the box with 1x2 primed trim boards. I left a ¾" overhang on the front and back trim, and cut the side pieces to fit.

I cut each vertical trim piece to fit, making sure each one was at a perfect 90 degree angle when nailing it in place.

I didn't add any vertical trim pieces to the ends of the box. I offset the front edge pieces by ¾", so they frame out the side panels without any additional trim. That resulted in slightly narrower trim on the sides than the top and bottom, but I liked the lighter look.

Once the trim was in place, I filled every crack and hole with wood filler to create a nice smooth surface.

After all the wood filler was sanded down and the dust cleaned up with a tack cloth, I filled every seam with paintable caulk. It seemed like it took forever to caulk around every one of those squares, but it gave the final product a much more finished look.

After primer and two coats of white outdoor paint, it was time to build and attach the lid to the box.

The original design called for a plywood top with quarter round trim around the outside edge. However, the rain absolutely destroyed it, so I ended up building another version out of cedar, which is rot-resistant.

The door hinges raise up the back of the lid slightly, but this turned out to be a good thing. Rain will now flow off the lid, rather than pool in the middle. Yay for happy accidents!

I also decided to install a soft-close lid support so the lid wouldn't slam down on little fingers. However, the instructions for installing the lid support were insanely un-helpful, and I ended up having to reinstall it a few times to get it to function correctly. Pay no attention to those extra holes!

I am so excited to finally get this project completed and in place. It has a ton of room for all my son's outdoor toys, and I can even put a few pillows and cushions in there to make more comfortable seating.

Check out these other outdoor furniture projects!