Number Fifty-Three: Rustic Tuquoise Bench

Hey there! Ever have fifty million things you need to do, but then set it all aside because you feel the inspiration to work on one specific project.

Welcome to my world.

Yesterday, I picked up this vintage bench. It looks homemade, which is why I loved it. It was the perfect shape and size for our living room. I had been searching forever for something like this.

While I loved the actual piece, it need some work to fit into our plan for the living room. And, yes, those are, in fact, cat legs outstretched under the bench. I couldn't budge Figgy. I explain why at the end of this post.

I started by removing the casters. Pretty much unheard of for me, but they just didn't seem to fit.

Next, I completely sanded the top of the bench down to the natural wood.

I brought it inside to get a feel for it in the living room and it wasn't working, height wise.

I measured how much needed to be removed from the legs, marked it, put a piece of tape on it so I would have a straight line to follow and cut it with my dremel. It was actually pretty easy.

With all the prep work out of the way, it was time for paint. I love neutral. As often as I try to add in color, I always return back to neutral. BUT, I do love to add a little bit of a punch here and there and the finish I gave this bench achieves just that. It's color, but not over the top bold.

Here's what I did. First, I pulled out my most favorite brand of paint in the entire world in my most favorite color (that's General Finishes Corinth Blue, BTW).

I pretty much used the paint as a stain on top of the bench. You can do this in one of two ways. Mix a little bit of paint with their clear glaze base or apply the paint directly to the wood with a sopping wet rag. (Simply get a clean rag very wet, lightly dip in paint and pretend you are staining.) Whichever method you use, just get the paint on and, with a clean rag, wipe the excess paint off.

The base got a somewhat distressed look. To achieve this I painted one coat with a brush. I let it dry to a place in between completely, just applied wet, and ready to touch completely dry. Then, I took a wet rag and scrubbed everything I had just painted. So easy. Plus, less messy than sanding. And I have done some insane amounts of sanding lately, so this technique was a welcome relief.

P.S. Figgy's is not as lazy as it seems. He's been on this wild, running around the house like a complete lunatic bender for two full days and nights now and he finally crashed.

So, that's just one of several updates to our living room. I think I have one more. I think I want to paint the little sideboard that holds our TV black. Then, I'll photograph the entire space to share with you all.