I’m writing this on Sunday night. I’m so excited that I just have to post this for you to read first thing on Monday morning! I have a meeting at 9am, and this couldn’t wait til afternoon!!!
The Hubs had a meeting tonight so I put the kiddos to bed and just finished sewing a pillow a little bit ago. I’m now happily perched on my bed with jammies on, 27 Dresses on the TV (fab-o movie if you need a great chick flick), a handful of Cabury chocolate eggs (the little ones with the crunchy shells), and my computer chocked full of pictures of my latest project just for you!!
It’s time to reveal the antique headboard I converted into a bench! Just have to warn you…there are ALOT of pictures. I documented how we did it to show you in case you happen to score a cool headboard and need to do something with it other than attach it to the end of a mattress!
<—–This is the before on the left. Had been in someone’s barn for ages and then in our garage for probably 6 months…filthy, but full of potential!
Below is my big helper and me. We sanded the headboard down a little to reveal some of the layers of paint, and then we cleaned it off really well.
Above on the right, are the 2 pieces of wood (1×8, and 1×10) for the seat that I stained using MinWax walnut stain. Below is the frame that I made for the seat. The Hubs cut the first piece that fit along the back between the posts, and then I measured, cut, and screwed the rest of the inner part of the frame together. Then I pre-drilled holes into the legs and attached them to the outside of the frame. We put a piece of 1×3 along the front to give a bit more stability and make the legs look flush along the front.
Because of how I had to attach the legs on the outside of the frame, The Hubs cut a couple of little blocks to mount the 1×3 along the outside and make the leg look flush with the side again.
Tid Bit had been wanting to paint this thing for a week, so finally he got his chance. The headboard had layers of paint, so we had to do our best to replicate that layering. First we stained the wood, then painted green (Sherwin Williams Tansy Green to be exact), then a coat of cream (don’t know the exact color because it was just $2.50 in the reject section at Lowes, but was perfect), and then finally the taupe-greenish-gray color. The closest match I could find was Benjamin Moore Sag Harbor Gray, but I didn’t have that. So… I mixed some Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray with some yellow, and black, and brown and got a color that was actually an even closer match! Hooray for a genepool that passed on an ability for precision color mixing!
<—-So here it is up close…it was still wet in this picture, so the color does look a little off. Trust me, it’s just right! Remember the giant gouge that was in the top of the headboard too…yeah, I painted over that as well! All it needed now was to dry and then be sanded down to show all those beautiful layers that Tid Bit so carefully painted!
Ok…so see below! Sanded down a bit to make the new part look old too! I think it turned out pretty smashingly!
When I started looking at it all done and pretty, I decided that it needed a little something cushy! The other day I was thinking of upholstering the back, then I thought of upholstering the seat, then I decided I liked it so much just like this, but I now had a dropcloth that I’d washed and dried to do something amazing with…so I made pillows! And because I didn’t want to spend more on a monogram than I did on a 4×12 length of dropcloth, I decided to create a stencil and paint our initial onto the pillows!
First I found a “W” in a font that I liked and blew it up to be ginormous on a regular sheet of printed paper. Then I traced it onto a sheet of heavy duty stencil paper and cut it out. I made sure to leave some points of connection for the inner pieces that would have fallen out otherwise. I used spray on stencil adhesive to get the stencil to adhere to the fabric to make clean lines. To apply the W, I used a round paintbrush and dabbed some bronze paint onto the stencil.
See how there are some breaks in the W? That was from the connection points that I didn’t cut out. No worries though, I just used a small detail brush to fill those areas in! And below you can see the finished stencil!
I didn’t do a tutorial on how to make a pillow. I figured I’d taken enough pictures today and honestly, there are a million pillow tutorials out there! If you really want me to do one sometime though, I will, but you will have to comment and say so!
So here it is…the bench AND the pillow! In fact, I actually made 2 pillows, but need an insert for the other one…so hopefully you can get the jist with only one!
So that’s it! I’m pretty pleased with it! Now all I have to do is decide where in my house I’m actually going to put this beauty! Happy Monday!
– Logan
For more fun craft ideas, check out my new friend Beth’s blog here!
WOW- you rock Logan! Super cool- I love old furniture with new life!
Very neat! It looks great!
Looks Fabulous!!!!
Awesome!!
Love it!!!
You and your helper did a great job on this bench! Love the pillow, too. Can I borrow your W? Lol!
~Shannon next door~
Nicely done!! Looks great – I did my first DIY project this weekend and built a headboard. Turned out super great and it's mounted on the wall behind the bed.
Love it!!
Your bench turned out fabulous and your little helper is so cute. I love re-purposed projects like this. Great job!
sparechangechic.com
Thanks everyone for the compliments! Love hearing from you all and love that I'm making new friends doing random projects on here too!
VERY VERY NICE!!!
Wow, now this is a fabulous project that I haven't seen done before. LOVE the worn finish, great job…enjoy it! Janell
Thanks Janell, I have just LOVED it. Kinda makes me want to do another one too! It makes me happy every time I walk by it!
Thanks for posting Logan….Beautiful…I have several beds in the basement I have been wanting to make benches from…Just haven't taken the time to sit down and design anything..Your tips really helped me out..God Bless…
I have a question – how did you do the front legs of the bench? If you only have one headboard and therefore only two legs, how did you end up with 4? I love this idea and would like to try it with my daughter's old foot board. So I'm trying to figure out each step and exactly how you did it so I can do it too! Thanks for the great idea!
found you through tip junky. love this idea and personally love all the photos and step by step! i also was thrilled you explained your pillow. where do you buy stencil paper? i can't wait to try it out! thanks!
-nicole
Thank you! This came at such a perfect time. We just bought my endlessly growing son a full bed to replace his antique single bed. I didn't want to give the bed away but because it was so old it was too small for regular box springs (we adjusted the size for a mattress only). I was pondering what to do with the beautiful wood head/foot boards when I found this post. AW-SOME!
WOW! Looks like i need to thank the Tip Junkie for all you fun new gals stopping by! I do hope you'll come back and visit more! Now to answer your questions…
Shabby Allie, feel free to email me if you have additional questions along the way of your bench projects! Happy to help out however I can.
Courtney, the front legs I used were just from Lowes (about $9 each.) If you use a footboard too though, you can cut it in a little less than half (cut out part of the center so the sides will make the seat be about 18-20inches) and use the footboard as sides. This website http://www.robomargo.com/bench.html had a bunch of pictures, but no tutorial…should give you the general idea of how to use with a footboard though and you can use my frame directions! Hope that helps! You are welcome to email with any questions along the way too!!!
Nicole, I bought the heavy duty blue stencil paper at Hobby Lobby…I think it was like $5 for 4 sheets.
And Kim, I'm so glad to give you an idea of how to hold on to a treasure in a better way than just storing it in the attic! I have 2 boys and already hear you on the endlessly growing thing! And because of that, I'm sure this is just the tip of the reconversion iceberg for me!
For all of you with additional questions…you can email me at Loganberry7 at hotmail dot com. Make sure you put something noticeable in the header though in case you get sent to my junkmail!
Love your comments and definitely would love to see pictures once you get your projects finished! Happy projecting!
You've inspired me.
I have an old headboard and foot board sitting in the basement. I have all the materials to do this project and won't need to spend a penny on it.
Thanks for the wonderful idea 🙂
Anonymous….you are absolutely welcome! Would love to see how your bench turns out!
i love this one to just my taste love the rustic
look of it. you are super talented girl. i so happy were blogging buddies!!!