Farmhouse Bench

My first furniture build is in the books folks and here she is! I got a referral from a very nice girl I had met through a local buy/sell group to build a bench. When I built my Shanty-2-Chic floating shelves, I definitely got a confidence boost that I could build furniture. So when I got asked to build this bench, I was very excited to build it. From Shanty-2-Chic's website, I came across the Rogue Engineer and follow them on IG. So when I got this order, I immediately logged onto his website and came across this plan.

I started searching for some similar legs that I could get locally. Home Depot had these beautiful legs and of course there were only 3 when I got there. Just my luck. So I found someone to see if they had more in the back and he pulled them up for inventory and saw they had 5. Well, there was one more in the box next to it! Phew, so I grabbed them and the wood and couldn't wait to get started.

The build for the bench went well for my first time. The Rogue Engineer's plans are great. In total, I spent about 3-4 hours building it. If I had to do it again, it could be completed in 2-3 hours. Here are some pictures of the build.

And there she is all put together. Next was the stain. I chose to go with Rustoleum's Kona stain for the top and then Varathane gel stain in natural for the base of the table to match the clients current dining room table. To seal the bench and protect it, I went with my favorite polyurethane in satin. I am in love with this bench. If only I had a big enough dining room for my own. Someday.

Thanks so much for reading!

                                                                            Shayla

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Table & Chairs Round Two

When I first moved into my condo, I never would have thought about re-doing a dining room set for myself. That changed quickly after I did my first desk for my place and found this love for furniture. I have a small dining room area that has become even smaller due to my buffet/dresser that I am determined to keep even though I do not have a ton of room for it. That buffet/dresser will be another blog post. Here is a little preview of it.

My first goal for this table set was ideally to find an entire set for a good price. I had been looking for about 2-3 months and was not finding anything I liked. Then, one day my furniture friend Kim had texted me that she was at Goodwill and they had a set of four matching chairs. That was a start. I was having a hard time finding a good set of four all matching chairs. Here they are!

I loved all the great character they had and wide seat base. Then my next step was the table. I did a little searching and found one from a friend that she had already painted, but never completed. It was a very cute oak pedestal table that would fit great in my little dining room. I didn't take too many pictures. but I basically sanded off all the paint for the top wood part in anticipation of Java gel stain, my favorite! I used my Ryobi orbital sander a lot. Here it is after one coat. 

I was hoping it would take darker, so I did two coats. It just was not getting as dark as I hoped, but I knew the polyurethane would darken it a bit as well. It all just really depends on the wood itself for exactly how dark it will go with Java gel stain. I did three coats in my favorite polyurethane in gloss to protect the table. I then had this fabric from Jo Ann's for the chairs. I hand painted the base of the table and all the chairs. Still need to get that sprayer, the chairs just take so much time and have so much detail. I used my favorite charcoal grey color I have found, orion grey by Behr. I used the same grey & fabric in this desk here. I absolutely love the combination.

I had used this table once for Easter and then determined it would be nice to have the ability to fit six people. So pretty soon after I finished this table, I was on the hunt for a similar table with the ability to have a leaf. You can see how packed it was with all the chairs in my tight little dining room space here. 

I just finally finished up the final touches on this table and sold it this past weekend. I did find an amazing table with leaf and a set of six matching chairs with two captain chairs that I will be redoing for myself very soon. Stay tuned for that posted!

Thanks so much for reading!

Shayla

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