Upcycled Bench for the Entry

I may have mentioned last week, we have FINALLY cleaned out the storage unit. I am really proud of us! It was both a business and personal decision I’ve been working through for months so the fact we were able to let it go completely feels exciting.

After all of the donating and price markdowns, we brought ½ a car load home which was totally doable. One of the things we had left was the headboard and footboard from my childhood set.   My parents were the kind of people that bought the entire suite of bedroom furniture which means I had a huge canopy bed, several dressers, a desk and hutch, a night stand – the works – and yes all of it matched. I was able to transition one of the nightstands into the pet feeding station in the pantry earlier this year. It’s been one of the best things we’ve ever upcycled. Yeah for calm mornings!

I wasn’t ready to let the headboard and footboard go yet but since we’re working to turn the garage into a workshop we really didn’t have room for them in there either. Given we have plans to give the entry and dining room a makeover later this year (hopefully) it seemed logical to build a bench for the entry. This would allow me to repurpose something from my childhood, we could have a more functional entry and bonus none of this would be cluttering up the garage.

I asked my bestie S to help me build the bench from the headboard and footboard. This is a full size bed so it’s a bit hard to give exact measurements. We built everything from scrap pieces of wood that had been left over from various other projects so this information shouldn’t be considered a tutorial at all. I had previously used the headboard as a memo board in one of my booth spaces. This is what it looked like…

The footboard was in its original state when we brought it home from the storage unit. It looked like this…

Here’s a look at how things came together scrap by scrap…

The actual seat part of the bench was made from some of the wood my dad used to build the bookcases in the office which is exciting.

Once all of the scrap pieces had been secured, I painted the outside of the bench as well as the seat and legs in Valspar’s Bistro White. Then I painted the inside area that used to be black in Glidden’s Granite Gray. The Annie Sloan Chalk Paint color equivalent would be Pure White and Paris Grey. I added a bit of Annie Sloan Furniture Paste Dark Wax to the flower detail on the headboard.

I love the way the gray and white plays off the wall color which is Ralph Lauren Oatmeal.

It’s crazy to think this entire bench was built from scrap materials, an old headboard and a footboard. I’m so glad we were able to save it. I spent yesterday making a bench pad and staining drop cloths with coffee so I’ll share that process with you tomorrow.

Many blessings,

CoCo