At the beginning of last summer I found this blanket bench at a garage sale in a lonely cul-de-sac. It was late in the day and I talked her down to $25. It was well used - faded frilly graphics - but good bones, with no structural damage. I fell in love with it's legs.
I admit it. I'm a leg girl...
I immediately started to sand on it and discovered how cheaply a company can mass produce a piece of furniture. The wood underneath the top (which was the only area I sanded, was MDF (medium density fiberboard). Which is not even close to real wood. When I sanded it, it looked like a piece of plastic. Yuck.
I admit it. I'm a leg girl...
I immediately started to sand on it and discovered how cheaply a company can mass produce a piece of furniture. The wood underneath the top (which was the only area I sanded, was MDF (medium density fiberboard). Which is not even close to real wood. When I sanded it, it looked like a piece of plastic. Yuck.
I don't have any pictures of it sanded, but trust me I was disgusted with the end result. So I decided to paint it. About that time I decided to paint my kitchen cabinets too, so it sat in my shop for a couple of months while I finished the kitchen job. I couldn't decide what to do with it.
Originally I was going to use it as a coffee table. I have a smaller room off my master and was going to turn that into a beach themed sitting room - small loveseat, coffee table - but I've since changed my mind and that room is now my office.
Anyway - I decided on beachy colors. This was before my love affair with chalk paint so I used Home Depot's Behr brand latex on this thing. I'll tell you from experience, latex is not a friendly paint when you're working on a small scale. Painting those 'rings' on the handles was frustrating!
Here's the first painted finish.
Originally I was going to use it as a coffee table. I have a smaller room off my master and was going to turn that into a beach themed sitting room - small loveseat, coffee table - but I've since changed my mind and that room is now my office.
Anyway - I decided on beachy colors. This was before my love affair with chalk paint so I used Home Depot's Behr brand latex on this thing. I'll tell you from experience, latex is not a friendly paint when you're working on a small scale. Painting those 'rings' on the handles was frustrating!
Here's the first painted finish.
It looks ok here. I confess, I'm not good with color. I'm a shade kinda gal. Black, white and gray... So this much bright color was a bit of a shock to my system. And it looked bare to me. It needed something... so I started playing around with swirly graphics. Nothing seemed right so it went to the back of the shop and I tried to forget about it for a while.
I busied myself with other projects.
Eventually, I had done a few projects and felt comfortable with painting graphics so I decided on a beach theme. It's resting place was going to be at the end of my bed, and my bedroom was going to get a makeover in beach colors.
Just for the record - I live about a mile from the beach, but I just love beach houses & beach rooms. The colors are soothing and calm.
To see how I transfer the image to the furniture, see my page on Using Graphite Paper to Transfer Images.
Below is the progression I went though in getting the bench finished. I start out by moving things around to see what placement I like best, then I draw in some larger parts, and finally added the bed and breakfast on the front.
I busied myself with other projects.
Eventually, I had done a few projects and felt comfortable with painting graphics so I decided on a beach theme. It's resting place was going to be at the end of my bed, and my bedroom was going to get a makeover in beach colors.
Just for the record - I live about a mile from the beach, but I just love beach houses & beach rooms. The colors are soothing and calm.
To see how I transfer the image to the furniture, see my page on Using Graphite Paper to Transfer Images.
Below is the progression I went though in getting the bench finished. I start out by moving things around to see what placement I like best, then I draw in some larger parts, and finally added the bed and breakfast on the front.
And there you have it - the before and after.
And here it is at the foot of my bed. :)
Painted Coastal Bench