One Room Challenge: Enclosing the Stairs, a Built-in Planter/Bench Combo and a Little Black Paint

It’s hard to believe that this is my last update before the reveal, and while I may have started this week calm and collected, I’m going, being honest- I’m starting to feel the pressure.

Which is funny because I swore up and down this project was going to be low stress despite the timeline, scale, and the fact that we are building so much from scratch. But at this point, I have to admit that we’ve put so much into it that I am fully invested and want to see it to completion. Even if it means we need to push just a little harder over the next few days.

Here’s what we’ve taken on this week… We enclosed the space under the stairs with wood we reclaimed from the old fence and painted in Farrow and Ball’s Railings (an off-black color with a hint of blue) and discovered a rather large gopher snake in our San Fransisco backyard in the process. Urban wildlife- we got it. Enclosing the stairs was one of those projects that might not make a big dramatic statement. Still, it allows you to focus so much more on the things that do by eliminating visible clutter and creating storage for all the “need to haves” in the yard that aren’t so appealing to look at.

I think creating storage was the theme of the week- that and black paint. The other big project that we tackled was making a built-in storage bench along one side of the new dining table like a banquette with a planter box built into the backrest. At the beginning of the week, I was nervous about pulling it together as we only had a loose plan and some wood, but I couldn’t be happier with how it’s coming together, and it’s nearly complete.

For the planter/back of the bench, we framed it out like anything else then used wire mesh to create support for the depth of the space that we wanted to plant (around halfway down). We then lined the wire mesh with landscaping fabric to keep the dirt from escaping and stapled it into place. We based it roughly on how we created our garden boxes, so hopefully, it holds up just as well over time! Once everything was lined, we nailed the boards onto the frame- taking care to match them up with the fence behind it, so it appears seamless. Finally, a few finishing pieces on the top covered the edges and hid the mesh and landscaping fabric to keep things looking neat.

With the box completed, we framed out the bench. The boards that make up the seat run lengthwise and will be hinged to open up for storage, and the wood on the front and sides will match the fence and planter for a seamless built-in look.

We also put together our new Fuego grill and painted the window frames the same shade of black as the back stairs. This coming week we need to finish up the bench, build our little outdoor kitchen, and put the space together. Check back next week for the reveal, and if you want to see it unfold in (mostly) real-time, follow me on Instagram.

Thanks for following along; you can check out what the rest of the participants are up to over on the One Room Challenge blog