Refreshing A Little Old Bench

I love giving furniture a new life. Whether its stripping and refinishing antiques or as simple as this little bench I'm about to show you. I'd much rather put time into making something old new again and keeping the character than buying something that tries to look old but isn't.

I found this little bench for $19 at a local antique sale. I have been looking for something that would make a nice side table in our guest room and this fit the bill. Here's how I made it look nice and in tune with the room's current black wrought iron bed and accessories. (Finally a before and after on a project too!)

Here is the original bench

This is the fabric I chose that fits in with what's already in the guestroom. You want to find a fabric that's strong and durable and doesn't stretch when you pull on it from either direction. I found this at JoAnn Fabric in the home decor fabrics for 50% off.

I took the seat off the bench. I then took the new fabric and cut a rectangle large enough that I could wrap the fabric around and staple it to the bottom of the seat. I was lucky that the old cushion and fabric were in decent shape and I could leave them and just re-cover the seat.

Stapling the sides

The corners can be sort of funny so I'm posting pictures of these too.

I decided to paint the bottom wood part of the bench. When painting something like this its better to sand it down so that the paint will better adhere and be absorbed.

I'm cheap and didn't want to buy a whole quart of black paint for a little project so I just used the sample cans you can get at Lowe's - this one is a Satin finish by Valspar and I had plenty to do two coats.

Then I put it all back together and got this super cute little bench that I'll use as a bed side table.

 The project total came to about $30 including the bench.