Number Fifty-Three: Vintage Painted & Upholstered Bench

You may have noticed in our Holiday Housewalk tour or my Sukhi Rug post, that I changed up some of the seating in our living room.

The All Modern chairs that you can see here have made their way into other parts of our home and this vintage bench has taken its place.

I'm really loving how it keeps the room visually open, especially during the holiday season when we have a tree in the space and are entertaining more often.

I can almost always see the potential in incredibly dated pieces of furniture and come up with a definite plan to update them right away. Honestly, I cannot say that this was the case with this bench, however. Darrell really had to push me into purchasing it, which is very odd because it only cost a few dollars, was at a tag sale just a few houses away from ours and I love benches.

Anyway, here is the before. I would be absolutely shocked if it had ever even been sat on. It was that pristine. There were zero repairs needed and the foam padding was like new. This was truly just a cosmetic update.

I knew that I wanted to keep it neutral, with modern colors and a classic feel. While I wanted it to have presence, I still wanted it to blend with the current palette of the room.

I painted the base white and very lightly distressed it. I used upholstery fabric in a gray corduroy for warmth and durability. I love mixing textures and this adds another layer of interest. (Also, don't you love the pretty arms on this piece!)

I have photographed this in multiple lights, multiple days, but truly the lighting in here makes it incredibly difficult to actually capture the space as I would like.

So, what do you all think of this update? I have to say, that in the end, I am pretty pleased with the results. I had intended it to be a temporary piece, just for the holidays, but now that it's been in the space for a few weeks, I think it's going to be staying!