The Versatile Bench

I had wanted to add some extra seating to the dining room to be used when we have guests.  The most natural place to add in a seat was with the secretary that I refinished here.  However, because I plan on mostly keeping the secretary open, I didn't want to go with a traditional chair.

 

Rather, I chose to repurpose a thrift store bench that had already gotten a couple of makeovers in the past, but never really fit anywhere in our home.

I started by painting the base of the bench a light gray, followed by a deep aquamarine/turquoise color that played beautifully with our dining room curtains.  (You can check out those here). 

The distressing and wax gave it a wonderful, beachy, worn-in sort of look, so I wanted to mimic that for the upholstery.

 

 

I started out by recovering the cushion in gray canvas (durable and also matches the gray in our curtains very well). And then, to add in the relaxed/worn look I was going for, I used this technique to add on decorative fabric.  

It was super easy! All I did was use some scrap fabric I had leftover from another project, roughly cut it out near the boarder of the print and washed and dried. It was simple to attach with fabric glue.

I love how it can be easily moved around to wherever we need an extra seat in the house and, because I used variations of grays and blues, it looks fine in the living room, too.  And that's where I normally find it. My youngest has claimed it as his own for TV watching. (He has vision problems and can't see the TV from the couch).

 

 

And when we're done, the bench fits perfectly underneath the secretary.



If you've missed any of my other posts relating to my dining room makeover you can catch up with my progress here, here, here, here and here.

To get more upholstering inspiration be sure to follow my Reupholstery, Slipcovers, Pillows DIY board on Pinterest.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Angela

Linking to: http://www.jenniferrizzo.com/