Redoing a Wooden Bench

A mini-tutorial. :)

We got this AWESOME storage bench off of Craig's List for $25. It was carefully crafted originally, but was pretty hammered from years of use by the previous owners. The only way we could think to help it survive was to reinforce all the joints and screw it all together. (It had been carefully nailed together previously.) This meant that the pretty honey color wasn't going to work because of the extra wood and screw holes we added.

From The Diet Coke Diet

You can see the the white is the wood filler from the screws we added.

SO! After screwing the joints together with wood screws and adding two 1 x 4 slats across the back to keep busy little boys from breaking it, we decided to PAINT it.

To accomplish this, we did NOT sand it at all. (Derek sanded his new added pieces, but that's it). Instead we uscd KILZ spray primer. Then we sanded it a bit to smooth out the rough edges.

Then we spray painted it with Krylon Bright White Satin spray paint (2 cans). It took about 3 coats to cover the way I wanted it to.

We decided to preempt any wear and tear, and distressed the bench with sand paper around some edges and here and there.

Finally, we clear coated it with Krylon spray Crystal Clear Coat and it was done.

I sewed a micro suede seat cushion and attached biased tape ties to the back to go around each back slat for a slightly softer seat.

From The Diet Coke Diet

The lighting in this room is not the best, so you it looks more "shadowy" than it is. It's BRIGHT white. I love it!
It was easy. Very quick and much cheaper than starting from a pile of wood. It was a fun little weekend project for Derek and I to do together.

I love that it has storage in the seat. Anything that serves a dual-purpose is a-okay in my book. :)
So, before you buy brand new, look for Craig's list options and if it needs work, don't under estimate yourself. It's totally do-able!

:)