Take A Seat: Piano Bench Makeover

One of the finds at the Victory Memorial Garage Sale in June was a cute little piano bench that I acquired for a mere $10. Yes, the wood was quite light and not my style...and yes, the upholstered seat was a worn cream-colored fabric...but the lines were clean and I.knew.I.had.to.have.it.

With a little bit of of effort, I was able to revamp the piano bench into a nice bench for our entryway.

I began the process by removing the upholstered top (it is literally attached by four screws, so all it took was a simple screwdriver to unattach the seat.

I then took some 100lb sand paper and put some elbow grease into smoothing out some nicks and dents, as well as removing the wood finish. After sanding to my liking, I did a spray down with the hose to remove the dust, and then wiped down with a towel. After drying outside for 10 minutes it was ready for some spray paint!

Using some black, semi-gloss Rustoleum spray paint (two bottles at about $5 a piece), I layered the wood bench with a few coats of spray paint, letting each coat dry before reapplying the next.

After about two months of searching for some new home decor fabric (yes, you could say I am a nit indecisive and paranoid I will make the wrong home decor choice - gasp!) I found a fabric I liked. I settled on a printed home decor fabric at Jo Ann Fabric called "Croscill Felton / Chili" (left). At $29.00 a yard, I was lucky to get it at 50% (and I got some extra in case I opt to make a pillow or two for the couch when I FINALLY learn to sew).

With the wood portion of the bench painted, I whipped out my handy staple gun and laid the fabric down, cut it so a few inches remained on all sides of the seat, and then carefully stapled over the old fabric around the entire seat (making sure the pattern was always aligned).

Once the seat was reupholstered (took about 15 minutes), I reattached the seat to the wood frame and WOW....a totally new bench! It looks nice in our entry, and now I just need to get the wall above it complete!



Now if only I could get my picture collage completed I would have a vastly improved front door space! Future blog post on that down the road...