Hello,

I am looking at building a pretty simple cabinet and bench for our mud
room. I am pretty new at this but have been using Oak for other
things in my house and would like to change it up a little bit. The
mudroom area is a kind of dark so I was looking at doing a lighter
stain so it didn't make it any darker in there.

What type of wood would people use for this project and would also
look good with an oak baseboard and raised panel doors that are
already present? I was thinking pine or aspen since they seem pretty
reasonable? Both pretty soft, but I am thinking about trying to go
with a used look for the wood with the nail holes, etc.

The area I am looking at putting this in is 42 inches deep by 36 wide
by 8 feet tall. A very strange deep area. I was thinking on making
the sitting bench nearly as deep as this spot and then stacking 2
drawers side by side running the width of the area but make them only
around 24 inches deep. I would then add two tall cabinets that sit on
top of the drawers and run nearly to the ceiling making them the same
depth as the drawers. This configuration seems a little strange, but
I can't think of a better way to utilize this area. Any ideas or
pictures of things maybe you have done that could help?

Thanks for the assistance.