Grandpa’s Bench Revival

Let’s just say I had this “phase” during my college years where ALL and I mean ALL of my furniture had to be painted black. That was my go to for all things furniture. Poor taste Robyn…poor taste! Fast forward 10 years, and now that we are going with the “Industrial Farmhouse Chic” look for our house all that black furniture needs some TLC! Talk about tedious! Here is my first project in this color change process. My grandpa made this cool bench over 40 years ago and it had some layers and history to uncover that’s for sure!

I tried sanding off the paint but that just wasn’t cutting it. I had to use this Ready-Strip to get all of those layers off of the seat itself. I decided it would look best with a wood seat and white bones. I used my favorite Waverly Chalk paint from Wal-Mart in snow white and my go to Minwax Stain in dark walnut.  After getting all of the layers off of the seat I gave it a good sanding for a smooth finish. I taped off the seat with painters tape to be sure not to get the paint on the seat. After 2 coats of chalk paint and 1 coat of glaze she was ready to be stained. I have to say… that I like to paint, but I LOVE to stain! It just brings the wood to life and shows its true beauty. After 1 coat of stain and 2 days of drying I put a coat of shiny polyurethane on the seat to give it a nice sheen.

She just looks so cute under our window in the great room. (Please excuse the sparce space, we still have some work to do). Whenever I work on these pieces that my grandpa created years and years ago I feel closer to him. I can almost smell him. It sounds weird, but he always smelled like sawdust and sweat. I love you grandpa and I hope you will approve of my latest improvement to your beautiful bench.

Thank you little birdies for flying by my nest!

Robyn