How to Build a Bay Window Seat

The Design

• 1

  Create a design for a window seat for your bay window. Take careful measurements, and figure out a seat that works well in the space.

• 2

  Include a seat that has storage beneath, as well as a section beneath for shoes, and ends that are slightly taller than you can use as end tables.

• 3

  Make the seat from plywood. If you need to cut many pieces of wood that are the same length, you can use a guide that allows you to cut the wood at the proper length without measuring it each time.

Assembling the Window Seat

• 4

  Attach the ends to the bottom of the bay window seat you are building.

• 5

  Clamp the bottom so it stays up as you work on it, and use glue and nails to secure the ends and the bottom together. The nails serve to hold everything in place while the glue dries.

• 6

  Use a joining clamp to hold the corner pieces of the bay window seat you are building together so you can hammer in the nails. Attach the sides when you are done.

Making Joints

• 7

  Conceal the lid's front edge with a piece of solid wood. Do the same with all of the exposed edges of the bay window seat you are building.

• 8

  Measure and mark where you will attach a biscuit for a biscuit joint on the plywood and on the solid wood you will use as trim.

• 9

  Make slots in the plywood and the solid wood with a plate joiner. Begin by measuring and marking each location (both on the solid wood piece and the plywood) where you will attach a biscuit.

• 10

  Squeeze wood glue into all the slots as well as along all the edges.

• 11

  Insert a biscuit into the slots. The wood glue will bond well with these biscuits of compressed wood, but also cause the biscuits to swell, thus creating a solid joint. Clamp everything together until the glue dries.

Recessed Base for Bay Window Seat

• 12

  Make a recessed base for the bay window seat from 1 inch by 4 inch lumber.

• 13

  Glue strips of wood to the top edges of the recessed base.

• 14

  Nail the strips in place.

End Tables for the Bay Window Seat

• 15

  Create end tables for the bay window seat you are building by making a triangular base, and a shelf.

• 16

  Glue and nail the three sides of the end tables together.

• 17

  Make the top of one of the end tables fixed, while hinging the other so you can store things beneath it.

Finish

• 18

  Make sure that the bay window seat you have made fits in the bay window. Make any adjustments as needed.

• 19

  Prime the wood with a primer that contains a stain blocker.

• 20

  Attach the hinges to the lids, then to the bases.