I was in Tucson, AZ with my husband and as we were driving down the road I happened to spot something that I was very keen on checking out. So, naturally I started screeching to my husband, "turn around, Turn around!" He turned around and there we were... in the parking lot at Habitat for Humanity. VERY exciting, my first Habitat for Humanity store.
I found a few things I was really interested in, but Handy Hunk just wanted to get home. SO, I didn't get a single thing. I had spied a bed set in the back tucked behind all the other beds. As we were getting back into the trucks I was lamenting to Handy Hunk how much I really liked the bed set. He told me to go back in and make an offer. (I'm sure he knew he'd hear all about how I should of gotten it...;-) ) Short story shorter, I got the bed set for $30. Thanks Terry! He's the Director of Retail Operations there. Really nice guy!
I did a little research on the Showers Brothers Furniture to make sure I wasn't about to repurpose something incredibly rare... didn't find much, so on with my plans...
The front legs were going to be too short, so I ended up taking some of the middle railing that was left over from when I cut it in half and doweling them to the bottom of the existing front feet. Let me tell you- that was a lot of fun :-)
Thankfully you can not really tell that I had to add to the feet.
Handy Hunk did have to help me a bit with cutting the seat. Apparently I didn't make it completely even and level. :-)
Bench Seat Take 1:
Just stained it with some of the stain I already had on hand. I thought it looked just ok. But it just wasn't doing anything for me. SO...
Take 2:
I sanded back the stain then watered down some of the red paint and painted it on. A definite NO for this one.
Take 3:
Since I was almost completely out of the ASCP Old White I watered it down to get as much coverage as I could. I am not wanting to have to buy any more of this paint, so I had to keep watering it down to make sure I could cover the whole area.
Take 3 1/2:
Since I didn't have quite enough of the white to cover it all and some of the red was still peeking through I ended up just sanding it back. Maybe a little too much, but oh well. Its how its going to be for a while.
I framed the Showers Brothers label. The Dollar Tree has little wooden frames for a whole buck- love that. The label says that it was shipped to the Fort Wayne Indiana store. Which is very close to where my dad is from. I still have family back there, so I was really excited when I saw this label.
I did a really light coat of paint which was mostly water. I had some hardened paint in the top of the can so I put water in it let it sit for a while and then mixed it as best I could and brushed that on the back of the bench.
I love the detail this bed has.
Linking up to:
I'm so excited about this post. I have been wanting to make one of these for so long. This is actually how I got introduced to blogging. I had seen a headboard bench and wanted to make one so bad. So, I googled around and found this post over at My Repurposed Life on how to make a headboard bench of my very own. Awesome.! Now I just needed a headboard and footboard.
I have only found trashcans on the curbs where I live, so I checked out Craigslist for a while. Debating how much handy hunk would let me spend on this. Last summer when we went out of town to visit my dad as we were leaving town I saw this headboard and footboard on a curb. I shrieked in delight. Good thing Handy Hunk is a good driver. I was screeching out, "turn around, turn around, go get that headboard." :-)
I've finally gotten around to doing something with it. I was waiting for it to cool off and then I kept doing other projects.... Not anymore. I finally cut up the footboard and made my bench.
I had 2 drills going. The Dewalt to do my pilot and countersinking holes and my little Ryobi to put the screws in. Handy Hunk wasn't home and the clamps I was trying to use could only help me so much.
I learned that I should make the seat frame and then attach it to the head/footboards. More level that way, but definitely need another set of hands. This is the first seat frame attempt. I used L brackets too. But, when Handy Hunk got home he convinced me to take the seat frame out and start with new wood and no L brackets. I of course didn't take a picture of my seat frame. But, I made it on the flat concrete and then attached it to the head/footboards. Absolutely had to have Handy Hunk help me with that part. No way to hold it up, get it level and drill the screws in.
This is it after one coat of paint. YAY!!! It's 56.5" wide and 22" deep. Nice big bench. I've moved it onto our back patio. It is SO nice. Absolutely love it. I'm thinking about adding a little foot rest just because it is so deep. I'm tall so my feet still touch the ground but I'm sure others would love a little foot rest. I also added some furniture cushion glides on the bottom. Similar to these ones at Home Depot. I just wanted something to protect the feet from wicking up water when it rains.
Sorry I didn't stage it at all. I was just SO excited to show ya'll what I did :-)
Liking up to some great blogs, please check out the Party Blogs tab on the upper right to see where I might have linked up to. Thanks!
