Bench Makeover

  Hi there, guys!

My name is Abbie from:

 

—where I literally blog about a little bit of everything, with a theme for every day of the week (Try-it Tuesday: tutorials, Wardrobe Wednesday: fashion, Feature Friday FREE-FOR-ALL: where I feature YOU in all your awesomeness at my weekly linky party, etc. etc.)—and I am beyond thrilled to get to stop by Cassie’s place to share a fun little bench that I made over with some paint, some Goodwill fabric, and my favorite cheapie DIY tool: Glenda, the glue gun (yes, I have a penchant for naming inanimate objects; I think I need therapy).

When I spotted this little beauty at a local barn sale on 25% off day (which brought it down to $47)…

…I knew it was the perfect piece for an otherwise bare wall in the nursery I’m designing for our newest impending bundle of joy (we already have two boys and a girl—ages 6, 4 1/2, and 18 months).

Or at least I knew it would be perfect after a bit of sprucing.

Of course, what I didn’t know at the time that I bought it was just how appropriate it was that it had not one but two places to sit since we found out at 19 weeks that we were getting a two-for-the-price-of-one kind of deal

{Looks kind of crowded in there, doesn’t it?}

That’s right, folks. Good thing I like BOGO sales because we’re expecting identical twin girls sometime in September!

And that means I’ve got to get busy on their nursery.

I chose Amy Butler’s stunning wallpaper called Lacework in the midnight colorway as the inspiration for everything else in the nursery:

…and decided to keep the bench concept fairly simple, so it wouldn’t compete with the intricate wallpaper details

It’s a little hard to tell from the swatch, but each of the large flowers in the wallpaper has yellow in the center, and since I already had a few yards of sunny-yellow fabric I scored at Goodwill for practically nothing, I decided to go with it.

Here’s Bronwyn (that’s the bench) after a good bath and a couple of coats of Rustoleum’s Ultra-Cover Primer in white:

Now, compared to Cassie, I’m a complete hack when it comes to furniture makeovers (I hate sanding!).

But I do know the importance of using a good primer and keeping the coats light. 

So, that’s what I did, continuing on from primer to Rustoleum’s Heirloom White:

 

Three coats of it, to be exact.

Next, it was time to recover the cushions—because somehow the concept of maroon and taupe paisley alongside all the lovely aqua and navy wallpaper tones just wasn’t doing it for me.

{Did you know that yanking staples out of boards is great stress relief?}

Using the old fabric as a template, I cut my new covers, at which point I had this:

And then Glenda and I got to work.

So, I bet I know what you’re wondering: why hot glue instead of staples?

Two answers, really: 1) Ease—I only have a rather large staple gun which has to be plugged into a pneumatic pump before it works, and that’s kind of a pain, and 2) Cost (hot glue is cheaper than staples).

I just kept folding my corners neatly like a shop-girl working the gift-wrap counter at Macy’s, until I had this:

Okay, so I might have gotten fired from Macy’s if that really were my day-job, but it was good enough for the underside of a cushion that nobody (except you guys, of course) was going to see.

Alrighty…

Ready for the big reveal?

How’s about we take one last gander at the “before” first?

And now the “after:”

And how about a side-by-side, just for grins (yes, I’m milking this).

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And now for another quick shot of the wallpaper (you’ll understand why in a second):

The bench will be on the opposite side of the room from the wallpaper since I’m only using it on one accent wall (the rest of the walls will be a warm, pale gray).

Given those details, I have a question for you guys. After all, you read Cassie’s blog, which means you have great taste.

So, what I wanna know is this: is that turquoise and white damask pillow too much with the wallpaper—even from the other side of the room?

I know it would help to see the finished room to answer that question, but that would require the room to actually be, you know, finished.

So, since that’s not the case, if you could use your imagination and let me know what you think, I’d be forever grateful (I’m only exaggerating the teeniest bit).

And you know what else would make me grateful?

If you’d swing on by my place and say hi!

I love meeting new people almost as much as I love cream cheese icing (if you knew me better, you’d realize what a huge deal it is for me to say this).

And I’d love to meet you!

Oh, and I can’t leave without extending a big ol’ Texan THANKS to Cassie for having me by for a visit.

You rock, girl!