Entry Bench

We have started building some furniture.

This was one of my most anticipated pieces.  We used the plans from Knock Off Wood for the Simple Spa Bench and modified them.  The plan has the bench less than 3 feet wide, so Rhett modified it to be 4 feet wide, and added the center support with 4x4 post chunks. Neither of us have carpentry experience.  Well I think Rhett took woodshop in Middle School.  So her plans are really simple and easy to follow, even for beginners like us.

We built it together and it was pretty fun.

I'm planning to use the bench as an entry way stop, even though we don't have an entry way, I'm hoping my idea will work out.  So it will be in our living room really, and I chose to paint it with robin's egg blue, which is the accent color.

Here's our fabric for the room:

So when everyone sees it in the garage, they say "You painted that blue?"

Yes. It's blue.

So here's the painting process.  It was new to me to try to get the shabby chic/ rustic look.

1. Paint

I took a piece of the blue fabric to Home Depot and matched a color from the huge book behind the counter.  I painted it with one coat in satin finish.

2. Distress

Using high grit sand paper, I sanded away parts that would naturally get worn off.  I also bashed it with a chain that gave divots, and pounded places with the hammer.

3. Stain

I used 3 T cherry stain with 1/2 tsp ebony stain.  The ebony made it pretty dark in the end.

You just paint a layer of your stain over the whole piece, then wait 5-15 minutes for the stain to soak in, and rub it all off.  We are packing to move, and have a sack of mis-matched socks to throw away, so I've been using the trash socks to wipe the stain off.

I had to stain it twice to get it dark enough for what I wanted.

4. Seal

We got some rub on polyurethane to seal and finish it.

My dad saw the bench and said "Why is it all dirty?" I told him it was distressed and antiqued to look that way.  I don't think he was sold, but once it's in the house, I hope it will be great. 

I thought 2 dark wicker baskets would look good on the shelves underneath.