Gorgeous Garden Bench under $125

A few months ago, while beginning the re-organization in the basement my husband took apart one of three workbenches left behind by the previous owners of our home. Each bench was about 68 inches long by about 30 inches deep.

This isn't the one we took apart, it's one of the two left behind, but I wanted to give you and idea of what it looked like.


After removing the "table top" portion of the workbench, my husband called me down to the basement. He had a vision of us turning it into a real bench that we could put in our garden.

You should have seen us trying to negotiate that thing up the stairs and through the kitchen to get out the back door. I was literally stuck in the stairwell for awhile while DH moved furniture around in the kitchen to make room for this monster to get outside!

Once outside, this is what we started with.


First, we (mostly DH, aka "Demo Man") removed the awesome dark wood paneling back. I'm pretty sure the back was left over from the original walls in my craft room. Next, we removed the extra support beams on the top and sides that once held up the massive table top. I then started sanding and sanding and sanding, until both hands we numb from the sander.

I then got to break out our circular saw, and cut down the front "table legs" to make armrests. We also added small pieces to be supports to hold the back of the arm rests in place.


The back piece was a left over section of pressure treated plywood that we had left over from the wood for our floor kit to our shed.


Already looking cute, right?


Then the bench got a good thick coat of indoor/outdoor primer.


And a few coats of outdoor stain.



Up until this point... we didn't spend a PENNY on this project! Everything we used including paint and stain, we already had. {YEA!!}

Next, I coated the bench in a few coats of clear gloss spray paint, and made cushions.

I measured the seat of the bench and it came to 26 inches by 66 inches. I picked up a two inch thick high density foam cut to exactly 66 inches (by 24 inches wide) at The Fabric Mill for $5.50 a foot ($30.25 total). The back pillow forms came from IKEA at $6.99 a piece for Euro Sham sized 26"x26" ($20.97 total). I then purchased two different outdoor fabrics from Joanns, (on sale for 50%) off, for around $50. Add in cording for piping at $.15 a yard ($3.00 total for 20 yards) and zipper by the yard at $3.00 a yard ($11.25 total for just under 4 yards). My total out of pocket cost came to under $125.00!!!



I used this tutorial as a guide to follow while making the box pillow cushion bottom and for cutting the bias binding for the cording. It's a great tutorial and really explains all of the steps well.



And, for those of you that have been following other "before and afters" here are a few pictures of what the area of our yard looked like when we first purchased our home.



Do you remember the awesome horse statue my husband cleaned up? Do you spot her in the garden now?



Now, to be able to take a break from my busy summer flying schedule and sewing for my ETSY shop and sit on her and enjoy a lazy afternoon with a book and cup of tea. {Iced Tea of course in the heat of this Long Island summer!}

Linking up to the following parties:

Bedroom before and after... and a tip for a happy marriage!

I literally planned my bedroom around the colors in a pillow sham. We registered for our bedding at Fortunoff, a store that is no longer in business, except for outdoor furniture. Our {KING SIZED} bedding sat in storage for almost two years, since when we first got married we had a queen sized bed.

Once we bought our home, my first painting project was our bedroom.

First things first, we HAD to get rid of the horrible carpet.... and ugly cast iron heater. You can tell by looking at the wall (and fabulous window treatments that were lovingly left behind), that this was a smoker's bedroom. :(


We revealed quite a surpise under the carpet in this room! It turns out, the pine floor ends and plywood subfloor begins when an extension was added to the house, decades ago. So, refinishing the wood floor in this room wasn't an option.


First, my husband and I cleaned the walls and ceiling, and then applied two coats of primer. Since we would be eventually covering the floor with carpet, I didn't bother to use a dropcloth. The hubby got almost as much paint on the floor, as he did on the ceiling... but I was thrilled that he was helping. Needless to say, that priming job was the last of the (above basement) painting he's done.

Next, I used a laser level to tape off a stripe in the lower third of the walls to make a "chair rail illusion". The lower section I painted a tan and the top a creamy blue/green. (Naturally these are the only two paint colors that I can't seem to find my paint chips for... hopefully I won't need to touch them up before I decide to change out my bedding!)


I found carpet that I absolutely fell in love with at CarpetDepot, but was quoted what I thought was a ridiculous price. I ended up at KAS Carpet where I found the exact same carpet and paid $300 less than my original quote! YEA!


On June 16th, our King sized bedroom furniture arrived! We didn't have a whole lot of room to work with, but everything fits perfectly.




Last summer, I made a casual roman shade for one window using this fabric at Joann.


The front window I just made plain panels, and seriously wish I had my serger then! The fabric was so thick, sewing the hems was difficult on my little brother sewing machine. Oh, and notice my adorable coordinating damask fabric liner for my laundry hamper. I took off the pottery barn liner that came with the hamper and made my own pattern.



And... finally.... my tip for a happy marriage???
HIS very own hamper!!!
:)



I'm linking up to the following parties:

What to do with dark wood paneling? Paint stripes, of course!

We closed on our home on May 15, 2008. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, the people we purchased our home from were smokers and had pets... needless to say, our first priority was removing carpet and painting surfaces. Here's the journey my craft room took.


Once we had the carpet up, we discovered this red layer of paper. I think it had to be some form of adhesive for the carpet, which had probably been down for decades!



However, this room turned out amazing! The original pine floors underneath buffed and polished looked wonderful.


After one good thick coat of primer, to block stains and smells.


I took more pictures during the process of painting, but because of the wood paneling lines, I didn't need to use tape to separate my colors. I took a few days to paint each color. I started with the white, and made sure it went on the largest of the panels and then randomly chose which panels to fill in with either black or pink.


Obviously this is my "pre-sewing" days. I still need to put up crown moulding, but seem to be so busy sewing and flying, that it hasn't been a priority. I recently posted pics of my updated sewing room.

It was so overwhelming when we first moved in, but we just took it one project at a time. It sure keeps us busy.

I'm linking up to the following parties:

Trash to Treasure

Last week when I got home from work I noticed our new neighbor trying to remove this old horse statue from her front yard. It looks like it could be original to the block... our house was built in 1928. She was really struggling trying to get it out of the ground. I gave my husband (who works in the horse racing industry) a call to see if he wanted me to ask her if we could have it. Obviously, he said "Yes"! I headed out to let her know she could stop struggling with it, and he'd get it out when he got home from work. The next day he started working on removing the dirt, peeling paint, and years of exposure to the Long Island elements.





And, after only one coat of paint, here she is! I joke that my husband is my "demo guy" - better at taking things apart than putting them back together, but, clearly he's hiding some DIY talent. I am really proud of him!


Now, we start to hunt for a lawn jockey to fix up!