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.

Vintage Bar Redo for Mother

So my mother got this vintage bar from a thrift shop for $20 a WHILE ago. It was so cheap was because the lock on the bottom section was broken, and no one in the shop could get it open. Well mom figured it out, because she has those wonderful “fix it” qualities that mothers develop over time, and thus we got a sturdy little bar with lots of potential! Then it sat… and sat… for the longest time while we decided what was next. I finally had some extra time to tackle the project over the Christmas break. Here are the before pictures:

If you have cats, you know that in their mind, any open drawer, cabinet, box, ANYTHING is fair game. You get used to it after a while. I pretend they are my person Vanna Whites.

I scraped the newspaper clippings off the side, sanded the whole thing and then filled in any ugly dents or scratches. Then I taped up all my lines with masking tape and got to painting! You can see some of the taping below. That picture was after all the paingting was done, but before the top coat of polyurethane.

I let it dry until the next morning and then I put about 3 coats of polyurethane for a shiny and durable finish.

And that is the finished product! Well semi finished. The lock still has to be repaired, and we have to get a second glass panel made for the middle section… plus I still need to refinish the inside, but whatever, finished for now! The interior light automatically turns on when the door is opened and that little shelf thing slides up and out automatically too. Pretty fancy right? I absolutely love it!