A Place To Put The Pillows....The Master Bedroom Bench

After my last blog post about the nightstand redo, a friend of mine asked me about all the pillows on our bed and how long it takes to make the bed each day.  I had to laugh because yes there are a lot of pillows on the bed!  I have to admit though, most times they are sitting on the bench at the end of the bed and the bed isn't even made.  GASP!  Did I just write that I don't make the bed every day????  YES I did!  Guess what?  The world didn't collapse!  Anyway......The bench isn't in any of the nightstand redo pictures because when those pictures were taken I was in the middle of redoing the bench.

We've had the bench for a very long time.  We purchased it at a store in Canada and it was very inexpensive.  I've never loved it, but it always served a purpose...holding the pillows from the bed of course!  The poor bench even had some puncture wounds in the 'pleather' from Hunter poking it with a screw driver when he was 2.  It was time to do something to this poor, dark and damaged pleather bench.  I took my cues from the nightstands and the amazing Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I knew I needed to reupholster the bench as well so the first thing I had to do was find a fabric.  I went to Calico Corners thinking I'd find inspiration there, but I was wrong.  The big problem I was running into was I love our duvet cover and our area rug so whatever I found had to work with both of these.  Nothing seemed to work until I found a quilt for the end of the bed.  Then everything started to make sense.  After a trip to Pottery Barn to buy new pillow covers I knew what I wanted to do.  I love it when everything falls into place and the ideas all work together!

This is a picture of the bench.  You can see the lovely pleather top.  I always liked the 'bone's of the piece, especially the slats along the bottom.

In this picture you can see the puncture wounds from Hunter poking a screw driver into the bench.  

Once I found my fabric at Joann's I was ready to get started.  The finish on the wood was a bit shiny so I wanted to scuff it up a bit to make sure the paint adhered nicely.  So I got out my trusty orbital sander and went to work.  I don't know what it is, but I love sanding with that thing!  

In these pictures you can see I've taken the bench apart and sanded all the pieces down a bit.

Next step was painting.  I wanted the bench to coordinate with the nightstands, but not be too 'matchy' so I used the Annie Sloan paint again in Old White.  This stuff is so amazing!!!  One coat of paint and I was ready for my next step!  

Here you can see how well the paint went on in one coat!

While the paint dried I got to the bench top.  I was REALLY nervous about this part.  I had heard horror stories about reupholstering in striped fabric and of course I picked STRIPES!  I figured the worst that could happen would be I'd have to redo it.  No big deal because the fabric was only $16 for 2 yards.  I just had to take the plunge so to speak :-)  First thing I did was staple the batting down with my trusty electric staple gun (LOVE THAT THING!!).

Then I laid the fabric out and lined the stripes up and put my first staple in.  I then pulled it tightly and did the opposite side and so on until I was completely done.  Guess what?  The stripes all lined up and it was so PURTY!!  :-)

 

Next step was to scuff up the paint on the bench a bit and then give it a coat of clear wax, a coat of dark wax and then a coat of clear wax.  Trust me, it was time consuming, but I was thrilled with the outcome!

Here you can see up close how the legs and the bench turned out!

Last step was to put the bench back together!

Then move the bench back upstairs to it's place of glory at the end of our bed.  

I missed the bench while it was living in the garage.  It was nice having it back in our master bedroom, but what was even better was not tripping over all the pillows on the floor in the middle of the night!  I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  It was so easy to reupholster the bench I'm on the hunt for a coffee table I can turn into an ottoman for our family room!