Our Little Bench

After the addition of the new, bright media cabinet, James and I decided to breathe some more color into the living room. This little wooden bench sits under the window in our space.

It was perfectly cute in its natural wood state, but we decided to use it to experiment with this red furniture stain. We stained the seat first and then decided that the whole piece in that red might be too much. So we used the white chalk paint for the bottom of the bench and distressed it a bit. I like the contrasting colors, as well as the contrast between the sleek stain vs. the aged look in the paint.

First big sell

I know most of you have seen this project, but I figured I must include my first big seller on the blog. I found this piece in the swamp of "free" stuff on craigslist... another man's treasure, right? Anyway, it had great bones when I got it, but was looking a little sad in its current state.

I decided to spruce it up with some white and blue Annie Sloan chalk paint. This is a new favorite: no priming necessary and the paint covers a lot of ground = well worth the cost. I spray painted the handles with a glossy black and sealed the entire piece with soft wax. I was very happy with the pizazz of this and enjoy how you can use it with or without the hutch. I have to admit, I kind of miss it. But I'm happy it went to a good home.