The “Wing It” Bench

I came across this bench at an estate sale a WHILE ago. It looked like a disaster, but it was such a sturdy little thing I couldn’t pass it up. It came home with me and there it sat for months, like over 12 of them. Finally a few weeks ago I started on the sanding process. It was definitely a process.

It was surprising how easily the stain and the majority of the ugly blotches came out. It was a terrible stain job too, sloppy and so thick you couldn’t see any of the wood grain. After I finished the sanding, it sat in the garage for a few more weeks because I still had no clue what to do with it.

Inspiration came from digging through all of the random paint and stain cans that I’ve acquired from the Home Depot Oops Paint section.

I had some reddish weatherproofing wood treatment that I’d been wanting to use. Ironic since I hated the red that was on the bench originally. It would have been too gaudy to make the whole thing red, so I went with just the legs. There was also a new stencil that hadn’t been used yet, so now was as good a time as any…

A little distressing, some regular polyurethane and it was finished. It was fun to go into a project and just wing it.

DIY Plank Wall Mantel

The mantel in our house has more or less been a giant eyesore since I can remember. It didn’t always look as bad as it does in the before picture, though. It had a bunch of cheesy square mirrors on the top and sides. We took those off, and it sat in that sad state for longer than I’d like to admit. The stack of wood was purchased probably two months ago. I had the idea for a plank wall and we saw a nice bunch of wood in the discount pile in Home Depot. In total, all of the wood for the project was less than $9. There was a few things that I had to do, before cutting and mounting the wood…

There were giant holes where the shelf was bolted to the wall, and also one of the fake bricks was missing from the framing of the fireplace. I used Rock Hard to fill in the holes, and (more or less) made a fake, fake brick to blend in the gap. The “bricks” around the fireplace aren’t actual bricks, so that’s why it’s a “fake, fake brick.”  It’s not perfect, but it did the trick for now. Before painting the bricks, it’s also important to vacuum and wipe down all the crevices. It’s easy for dust to hide in there and ruin the paint job.

Cutting the wood was surprisingly easy. I give 100% credit to the nice miter saw that I got at an estate sale for $20. I got the idea for the chevron shape of the wood from a friendly older gentleman at Home Depot. I was telling him about why I was collecting all that wood and he said, “You know there’s a really simple way to make your wall look really fancy…” You just set the miter saw to a 45 degree angle, measure and cut. All I needed to attach the planks were 1.5in finishing nails and voila! It was up!

Next came the caulking…

Then the paint…

The bare wood looked great, but I wanted to try the white wash treatment. We’re also supposed to install some marble on the bottom, so I thought the raw wood and the marble might be too busy. I didn’t use an official measurement for the paint, just a plastic cup with some paint and added water until the mixture seemed about right. Very precise…

I’m in love with that incense jar…

So that’s that! I’m not brave enough to try to do anything with the marble right now, but I’ll post pictures of it when it eventually gets done. If you’re thinking of doing a plank wall, do it! It’s easier than you’d think and they look fantastic. For another great tutorial on planking an entire room, check out Domestic Imperfection… Leave me some comments with questions or suggestions. It’s always appreciated!

Dome Top Trunk part 2

It’s finished!! I already did the first post on the exterior, and now the interior is done. I’m so happy with it! This is how the inside started…

It was covered with several layers of awful greenish grey paper. Surprisingly, all it took to scrape that off was wetting it with a sponge and scraping. Lots of scraping..

I didn’t really have a plan for the interior. Well, actually I had several plans, but I wanted to wait and see what exactly I had to work with when I was done with the scraping. I toyed with the idea of modpodging an old map on the underside of the top, or using some of these sheets from Home Depot..

But the wood was looking pretty decent on it’s own..

Not too shabby! I thought I’d try a little stain and see how it turned out…

I always think that natural wood is prettier than any painting or paper. Also, the curvature of the inside of the top would make covering it with any paper or vinyl tiles very tricky (ain’t nobody got time for that). Natural wood it is! Lastly, I added the side bars back on, where they were previously, and made a box for the interior.

(I’ll do a separate tutorial on making the box, don’t want to cram too much in one post.)

…and the finished product…

A few side notes….

The wood in the top of the trunk was definitely different from what was used to make the rest of it. Before I stained the interior all the wood looked the same, but after the stain, the top turned a yellowish brown while the rest was reddish. So, if you look at the tray insert in comparison to the top, it won’t quite match, while it does still match the rest of the trunk.

It took three coats of two different stains to get the new wood on the tray and sidebars to match the trunk. There could have been a stain that matched it identically, but who wants to buy more cans of stain when I already have so many sitting in the garage? One coat of Sedona Red and too coats of English Chestnut, both by Minwax, and it matched almost perfectly. Close enough for me!

It looks fantastic in the office where it’s sitting. Once that room is complete, I’ll post pictures of it in all of it’s pirate-y glory.