Hello there! I’ve been missing writing to you this past week and am finally able to share with you this bench makeover with layered paint and stain for a naturally weathered look.
You see, my Mac laptop has slowly been dying to a pace where I was barely able to type a sentence in the past two weeks. The “spinning color wheel of doom”, as they call it online, was constantly showing on my screen.
In the past, I’ve been able to clear that spinning wheel and continue working by catching up on software updates, running virus scans, or clearing cookies. I’m so not technical so I really don’t know if that actually did anything, but it seemed to get me back to a running speed at the time.
Not this time though. That little spinning color wheel was a constant and reduced my online productivity down to one on a scale of 1 to 10.
Thank God for my big family though. My super-smart techie brother ran some quick diagnostics and discovered a hard drive issue, so yesterday I took the laptop to the Apple Store. They really are fantastic there! A quick diagnostic test confirmed the hard drive was failing – not surprising as it’s six years old.
I think the age of computers should be calculated like dogs’ ages because they rarely last longer than ten years. So in dog / computer years, my laptop was really in its forties and having a mid-life crisis!
Relief set in when I learned the repair work was only going to cost $200. I was envisioning having to purchase an brand new $1500 laptop. Phew!
In the meantime, I’m working off my teenager’s computer, but will hopefully be back on track with my own in another day. I have so much to show you! I’ve done a mini makeover in my kitchen/dining area that has tied the room together so much better and toned down any chaos.
If you’re not signed up to receive my posts via email, do that today so you don’t miss those dining room/kitchen updates, including my quest for the perfect curtains! I’ve been everywhere and have some great insight to offer into finding the perfect curtains for your home.
Now, back to the bench makeover. This bench is actually an organ bench. Organ benches are a just a bit higher than piano benches so if you’re looking to purchase this for your piano, you may need to cut an inch or two off the legs.
If you’re looking for a bench to use in your entryway or at the foot of a bed, though, this bench is perfect! Especially if your family is on the tall side.
This finish on this organ bench was actually a color experiment. I wanted to see how certain layered paints and stains would turn out.
In this case, I applied a light tan latex paint (Benjamin Moore’s Abington Putty), let dry, then applied a wash of gray stain (Rustoleum’s Sunbleached), and finally a brown stain (Minwax’s Provincial).
The result is a very subtle layer of colors that creates a naturally weathered effect and just enough so that the original tan paint doesn’t look flat. It’s perfect!
The stain settled into the cracks and settled darker in spots than others, giving the bench the look of naturally weathered wood.
I actually experimented on a spare board with the stain vs. brown glaze. The brown glaze was much heavier, left darker streaks, and colored the entire board a darker brown. The glaze works really well when you want to change the color of the first layer of paint applied (as in this post), but I didn’t really want to do that here.
The stain left a much more subtle shading over the tan paint. A perfect neutral that would blend in most any space.
This stain-washed bench is now for sale in the Entri Ways’ shop.
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If you live in the Boston area and have solid wood furniture pieces that need an update, let’s talk about how paint or stain could transform them. See this info on my custom furniture painting & staining services…
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links to products I love and use myself.
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