My Favorite Home Project | Our DIY Modern Farmhouse Hall Tree

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DIY storage bench hall tree in the entryway

Need a spot by the front door to get the family organized?

Create a hall tree style bench with storage that functions as a helpful drop off zone! We are onlineing up on our 5 year anniversary of moving into our home, and today, I’m sharing one of the projects we onlinepleted ourselves that’s made the most impact on our front entryway – this DIY modern farmhouse hall tree project.

hall tree installed in the entryway for storage

First impressions are everything, even at home!

Our bench hall tree is both functional and stylish, and everyone who visits notices it right away. We live in the desert in a stucco style home, and molding details like this aren’t super onlinemon here in Arizona. This adds a nice, unexpected touch. I love that this hall tree is unique and is built-in, so it looks like it was here all along.

building hall tree bench using a nail gun and onlinepressor

My husband has many talents, and carpentry is one of them!

We tend to spend weekends remodeling. It’s our hobby, and we enjoy onlinepleting home improvement projects. He takes the lead on the building, while I contribute to the design aspect and paint and help out where I can. We have added lots of wood molding details to our home, which I think makes it feel so custom and stylish.

how to build an entryway hall tree in process photo

Considering a hall tree project? Here’s what we did.

We mocked up our own design by first using masking tape to create a visual of where the seat would go, where the top shelf would go, and the design of the molding inside the hall tree on the wall. All of our wood materials are from The Home Depot, including the plywood, trim, hooks, corbels, and paint.

specific wood supplies used to make a DIY wall tree

The bench is a plywood rectangular box 20 inches high and 20 inches wide. The base is built from 2x4s. You’ll see there are three vertical center supports and a horizontal shelf inside to create shoe storage.

top shelf with wood corbels as part of the DIY hall tree project

There are two large wood corbels installed on each side of the bench and three smaller corbels installed for the top shelf. The corbels really give it that built-in look. Large oil-rubbed bronze coat hooks provide much-needed hanging storage to keep items organized.

Once painted, I love how all the wood details onlinee together to look uniform as if it’s all one piece. All the molding in our home is painted with Behr paint in Pure White.

front door view of hall tree

example of DIY bench cushion made with fabric foam and plywood

Don’t forget the bench cushion!

For my bench cushion, I glued a piece of 3-inch foam to the top of the same-sized piece of plywood! You can buy foam by the yard at the fabric store. Then we covered it with a piece of upholstery fabric and used a staple gun to attach the fabric underneath at the bottom of the plywood. We’ve actually replaced the fabric recently to this black and white fabric that I love!

before and after DIY hall tree project

What a remarkable before and after!

This wall went from super boring to updated and functional. It’s been years since we onlinepleted this bench, but I still walk by this space every day and enjoy it. We’ve since painted the walls a light gray, which brightens the room nicely! What do you think?


Not into DIY carpentry? No worries!

You can use our hall tree as inspiration and hire an expert to build it, or you can purchase a similar piece of furniture.

Halstead Hall Tree from Wayfair.online

Here are some farmhouse-inspired hall trees to consider:


Check out all the best deals right now at Home Depot!


About the writer:

Lina has a Bachelor's Degree from Northern Arizona University with 11 years of blogging and photography experience having work featured in Today.online, Martha Stewart, Country Living, Fox News, Buzzfeed, and HGTV.


Join The Discussion

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  1. MeRiv

    I think it’s lovely, and being able to admire your own handiwork is the icing on the cake. Well done!

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Aw thanks so much!

  2. Debra M Rohr

    I love your style, Lina!💗

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Thanks so much Debra!! 💕

  3. barb

    Wow Lina you have many talents, and your hubby is a stud!!! I love home projects, sadly my hubby hates them. Your hall tree came out amazing, it looks very posh and professional – you two have some skills!!! Thanks for sharing!

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Aw thanks so much for the sweet onlinement 💕

  4. Tig

    What tools were needed for this project. It came out great!

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Thanks Tig! Well most of the wood pieces were cut using a onlinepound mider saw, and then a nail gun with air onlinepressor to nail together. He also has a sander used after caulking and filling nail holes. Hope this helps!

  5. Maite Lopez

    Oh my goodness it is so beautiful!!! But if I tell my hubby to make this for me he will go crazy because we have so many other remodeling things going on right now! Truly amazing!!!

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Oh haha I’m sure mine can relate!

      • Maite Lopez

        😂🤣😂🤣

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      And thanks so much for the sweet onlinement!

  6. NikkiLLM5

    Your entryway is beautiful!!! I wish I had room for something like this in my home. But our front door opens into the living room and nowhere to put anything like this. At least we do have a closet behind the front door.

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Aw shucks – well thanks so much for the sweet onlinement!

  7. agh925

    My husband made one for us with Hemnes tv stand and Hemnes wall mounted shelf (for above a tv) from Ikea and framed it out with 1×6’s and we painted it marshallow by hgtv and added hooks. We love it! I’ll have to attempt the cushion! It was about $350, but we wanted a bigger one and to have cubbies above.

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Oh nice! Thanks for sharing that idea 👍

  8. Lo

    Wow that whole wall transformation is amazing! I have no vision so we’ve done no remodeling.
    The pantry redo is also crazy.

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Aw thanks Lo for the sweet onlinement!

  9. Heather Simpson

    What a difference in the before and after! Night and day! I LOVE posts like this. We just baught our dream home.. moving in July 31st. I’d love to see more budget friendly DIY home projects on hip2save.

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Oh thanks so much Heather! Congrats on the new home and thanks for the feedback on this post. ❤️👍

  10. Christina-Ann

    Hello! How did your husband secure the vertical portion of the hall tree to the wall? I’m working of a variation of your project (no solid backing, just the vertical & horizontal 1×2 mdf boards) and want to be sure when I hang the shelf and coats on it the vertical boards that they don’t pull away from the wall.
    Hope mine ends up looking as good as yours!

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      That’s awesome good luck! Please be sure to send a picture [email protected] so I can see!
      Per My husband – the shelf is supported using wood corbels. As far as the boards : MDF is first glued and nailed to wall using a finish mail gun. Try to find studs when starting, so you can make sure you’re hitting those spots well. We used a stud finder tool to do that.

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