Creating Fabulous Furniture

I am pretty proud of this project.  I think it turned out really nice and proves that creating fabulous furniture is not hard to do.  It just takes the right paint and a little work.  That is all!

 

 

Creating Fabulous Furniture

This was a great project because it meant so much to Maureen, the person who owns the bench and my co-worker and friend.  She and her family recently moved their mom into a nursing home and sold her home.  It was a hard process for all of them but her mom is very happy where she is now.  Sometimes that isn’t always the case so I was glad it worked out well for them.

When they were cleaning out the house they had a great garage sale.  It was one of my favorite sales this year.  This piano bench was one thing Maureen had wished she had gotten before hand so I bought it back for her for $6.

You may remember the Beach Inspired Sofa Table that we made over together.  She LOVES the beach and has her home decorated in a beachy theme.

Her family also has a strong Irish background and their father was one of the founders of our, now famous St. Patrick’s Day celebration.  And to this day her brothers are both still very involved in the celebration and the community.

Maureen wanted a bit of “Irish” on the bench to honor her mom and her family and gave me an Irish saying she wanted painted on the bench.  She also wanted it to fit into her beachy decor.  I had my work cut out for me.

This is how this piano bench started out.  It was very dark and a lot of the stain was coming off at the bottom.  I have added some affiliate links below for your convenience.  You can see my full disclosure here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was in pretty bad shape and it had one joint at the top that was broken so it was very rickety.  Jeff fixed the joint for me and I got to work sanding like a crazy person.  I used the electric palm sander this time so it wasn’t soooo bad but sanding is not my friend.

Painting Process

I am entering this bench into the General Finishes contest (I will let you know if/when you need to vote) so I used some of their fabulous paint.  This is not a sponsored post.  I did not receive product or compensation of any kind.

I had never used their chalk paint before so I ordered some Key West Blue for the base coat.  The other product I used which I had used on my Guest Room Bedside Tables and the Cabinet Makeover for Baby’s Room was the Champagne Pearl Effects.  Geez I love this stuff.  I still have some left over even after three furniture pieces.  Yay!

But before the fun paint goes on.  I always use my tried and tested spray paint/primer first.  Especially on something with this dark stain that is going to light color.  I ALWAYS have bleed through and this has proven to work well for me.

This was after the primer coat went on.

 

 

You can see the bleed through on the “feet”.  Luckily this was minimal so I just sprayed another coat of the paint/primer on before getting to the good stuff.

The next coat was the Key West Blue from General Finishes.  Maureen’s beachy decor includes a lot of this color.  Although this was not going to be the final color, I wanted to be able to sand down and reveal some of this color underneath so it would blend with her other decor.  It is so pretty!

 

 

I got out my HomeRight Paint Sprayer and used it to cover the bench and the top.  In this picture the paint is still very wet so it looks lighter than when it was dry.  But, already there was such a huge difference from where it started.

 

 

Next was a coat of white latex paint, then the best part of all.  The Champagne Pearl Effects.  This stuff is beautiful.  I wish you could see it in person.  Well, you can…just get some!

 

 

After adding the Pear Effects with my paint sprayer I started sanding again.  This time with my sanding block to reveal the Key West Blue paint underneath.

 

 

After I got all of the distressing done.  I started on the Irish saying on the bench top.  I created this by using Photoshop Elements then I just had my sample on the computer screen and I drew it onto the bench top with a pencil then hand painted over my pencil markings.  The two fonts are Niagara Solid and Pillowbrook.

Here is my photoshop elements screen.

 

 

And here is my painting.  Not perfect by any means but it’s hand painted.  It is not supposed to be perfect!

 

 

It turned out okay!  Then I sprayed a coat of clear sealer over the top to keep the black paint form chipping off.

 

 

 

I added some scrapbook paper to the inside as a lining.  It matched so well.  It is the Moxxie beach line so it fit perfectly.

 

 

 

 

If you like this…please pin it!

 

 

I had a great time with this one.  (As I do with most of my furniture makeovers)  Now you see how easy it is to create fabulous furniture.  If I can do it…you can do it. too.

Maureen was thrilled to get it and loved it’s new look and that always makes me happy.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michelle

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Fridays Furniture Fix