Expedit Dining Nook

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Materials: Expedit 2×4 and Expedit 1×1

Description: I’ve been wanting to better utilize some of the space occupied by our table and chairs. Along with a switch from chairs to benches along two walls, I wanted something that also had extra storage. I decided an Expedit unit would be the best option. Many people have used the 5 shelf Expedit tipped on it’s side as a bench, but unfortunately we had only 68 inches of space to work with. After browsing Ikea’s website for a bit, I determined that it would be entirely possible to hack two Expedit units together to create perfect sized benches for our space: the single and the eight shelf Expedits.

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Once all the pieces are out of the box, combining them into two benches is rather intuitive. The top and bottom of the single unit become the new sides of the 58 5/8″ long bench (the sides of the eight unit becoming the top and bottom). The sides of the single unit are now the sides of a 31 1/8″ short bench (the top and bottom coming from the eight unit). The eight unit Expedit gives you four short shelves and three long shelves. One short piece goes into the 31 3/8″ bench, the other three go into the 58 5/8″ bench. Once the two benches were assembled, I put inserts with doors into them (minus the space where the benches would overlap) to create storage cabinets. I then used the long shelves that were left over and, using foam and fabric from the craft store, created cushioned seats to go on top of the benches. No pieces are wasted, and the benches are sturdy enough to hold several kids, or an adult and kids.