Padded storage bench and headboard...

Hi Everyone!  Yesterday I showed you a headboard bench that a client ordered for Christmas for one of her daughters and today I thought I'd show you what my client ordered for her other daughter.

 It's a padded storage bench with lots of room inside.  My client's daughter came out and picked the style of bench, the color and a couple of fabrics but left the final choice to me.

 This was her favorite fabric so that's what I used.  Then my client called and had found a headboard that had some damage on it and was shiny white laminate and wanted to know if I could make it over to match the bench and repair the damage.

 And this is how it turned out (sorry no before pictures).  I was able to repair the damage by adding an additional board to the top of the headboard and filling in the damaged area with Quickwood.

The really neat thing about this headboard is the cutouts.  It comes with plastic, colored pieces that you can use to change the look of the headboard, but instead of using those, I used the same fabric as the bench.  And of course I painted the whole thing black.  I think they turned out well and looked great together.  My client liked it too.  Thanks for stopping by.

Completed storage bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  Since I'm working out in the shop today finishing up on the three headboard benches that I've been working on, I thought I'd show you how one turned out that I shared with you about two months ago.  I finally completed it.  Do you remember how it looked?  It has storage in it.  Well, I finally got around to painting it.

Don't mind the cattle in the background.  I forgot to take a picture of it before I took it to my last craft fair.

I'm happy with how it turned out, but I think it might be too much for the people around here.  I took it to the fair in Red Oak a few weeks ago and I had a lot of interest in it and lots of comments on how much they loved it, but no one loved it enough to take it home with them.  I'm taking it to the Clarinda Craft Carnival and hopefully someone there will love it.  Otherwise, I think I might have to repaint it.  I'll let you know what happens.  Do you think it's too "out there"?  I've never painted a scene on a bench before.  I painted it with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Country Grey and then I painted the tree limbs and birds in black.  I wanted them to look more like a shadow falling across the bench than a detailed scene.  I'll just have to see how it goes next weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.

Storage bench...

Hi Everyone.  Do you remember the storage bench that my nephew and I made while he was here this summer? 

It called out to me wanting to be red.

 So here it is out in the shop after getting it's first coat of red.

 And here it is after getting it's second coat of red.  I used a very pretty red called Colonial Red in Satin by Rustoleum.

Here it is on display at the Essex Labor Day Market.

And here is Quinton sitting on it at the craft fair.  There was a lot of interest in the storage bench but it didn't sell.  The owner of the beauty shop where I have my items on display is wanting to have it in the shop so that she can make payments on it.  I'm going to take it to the craft fair this Saturday and if I have to bring it home once again, then I will take it to the beauty shop and strike a deal with her.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Storage box bench or coffee table...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  I hope you have plans for a great weekend!  I will be finishing things up for the Craft Fair on Monday.  My brother and his family are coming, in fact they are on the road as I type this.  Do you remember this storage box bench that I shared with you a few weeks ago?  Well, I finally finished the first of two of them. 

I painted this one semi-gloss white and then added walnut stain to tone down the brightness of the white.

And using the same walnut stain, I stained the top.  It's a plywood top and the edges have been faced with an iron-on veneer to give it a much more finished look.

 And here's how it turned out.

 I'm really happy with how this turned out.  It's the perfect size for a coffee table or bench with built-in storage.  I think the walnut stained top looks good against the white.  Now it's on to the second one.  I think I'm going to paint the base of that one black and make it a padded top.  Have a great holiday weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.

Solid back storage headboard bench....

Hi Everyone!  I just wanted to show you what I was working on this past week out in the shop.  This is a headboard/footboard that I picked up last spring at my favorite used furniture shop.  It's about an hour and twenty minute drive away, but I have never been disappointed.  I have always been able to pick up headboards.  It's in a town close to where my dad grew up so the owner knows my family and once he found out what I was looking for, he doesn't pass them up when he goes to auctions.  I wasn't real sure about this one when I bought it, but now I'm really happy that I did.

Since it's a completely solid footboard it was just begging to become a bench with storage.

I added the center supports but made sure to turn the 2x4's on their side so that they wouldn't take up too much room.

And here it is with it's plywood seat/storage top.  I have to face the edge of the plywood and add the hardware to the inside.  Normally I use piano hinges but since there are two center supports I'll either have to use several small piano hinges or a different style of hinge.  I also add a lid support that keeps it from slamming shut which works great on toy boxes with little fingers.  The last thing you want is someone getting hurt.  Now the fun begins.  Painting and decorating it.  I'm envisioning it in white or cream with some sort of artsy sign across the back that dips down onto the seat.  Maybe a tree limb with leaves...I have to think on it a bit more.  But I'll definitely show you the finished product.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Twin Headboard Bench with Storage....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  I've been busy working out in the shop, trying to get the last few things built on the benches that are taking over the space so that I can move onto painting.  I have one that a customer ordered and the rest are for two upcoming Craft Fairs.  I thought I'd show you one of the storage benches.  Do you remember the twin headboards that my aunt Barb hauled back from AZ that she found curbside?  Well, here's a picture of them when I got them from my aunt.

I like the detail on them, I think they look very feminine.

So, I cut one of them apart for the arms and cut the legs down so that the arms would be shorter than the back.

Since it was too hot to work out in the shop, I cut all my lumber for this project and hauled everything into my living room so I could work in a little comfort.  My dogs didn't like it, but I sure did.  And I decided that this needed to be a storage bench.

And here it is, almost finished.  The only thing left is the seat/top of the storage.  I've been trying to decide if I'm going to make the seat out of 1x6's like I did on the other storage bench or if I'm going to use plywood.  I think I'll be making this one out of 1x6's and using plywood on the other benches.

I'm really happy with the way this is turning out.  And I can't wait to paint it.  I'm thinking this one needs to be white or cream as I can see this in a girl's room.

I thought about painting it a nice red, but it's calling out to me to be cream. What do you think?  I'll show you how it turns out once I'm done making the seat and painting it.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Coffee table, storage bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Saturday!  I wanted to share with you one of the things I've been working on.  I made this storage bench/padded coffee table last year for the Clarinda Craft Fair in October and it sold before my benches did.  The top opens up and there's lots of storage inside.  So this year I thought I'd make a square one similar to this.

So I started working on my idea for a square, padded coffee table, made with the same look as the one from last year.  I cut the lumber and took it all inside into my living room since it was too hot to work in the shop and got all the sides made.  Each side is a panel that fit snugly together with the panel on either side and then the panels get glued and screwed together. 

So I had each panel made and I set it up in my living room and it was just too big.  Each side measures 36".  Which didn't seem too large to me when I laid out yardsticks when I was trying to determine my dimensions.  Boy was I wrong!  IT WAS HUGE!  I lived with it in my living room for two days and couldn't image anyone having room for that large of a box. 

I talked to my mom about it and she didn't think it sounded too big.  I talked with a co-worker of mine and the same thing, didn't sound too big.  I looked in Pottery Barn and their padded coffee tables were 48" square, but didn't have storage, just legs with an open area below........that's the problem!  It was the solidness of the box that made it seem so outrageous big.  I couldn't cut the panels down so instead, I'm making two rectangles instead of a square.  I'll try again on the square later.

So I made two more panels (I've only made one of the two so far) and put it together in my living room.

I haven't made the top yet.  Hopefully this weekend.

But I did move it out to the shop so I can sand it and get it ready for painting.

Since I will have two of them, I thought I'd paint one Graphite and the other Old White (using my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint) and then wax and age them.  The only thing I haven't decided on is if I'm going to upholster the top like the one I did last year, or have a wooden top.  Or maybe one of each?  What do you think?  The nice thing about these storage pieces, it can be a coffee table or storage bench in your entry way or kids room or at the end of the bed, or at your dining room table.  They are very versatile.  I'll let you know what I decide.  Thanks for stopping by.

Storage bench...

Hi Everyone!  I wanted to share with you the project that my nephew helped me build.  We started out just making a regular headboard bench using two twin size headboards.  They didn’t match perfectly, but they were similar enough that I thought they would make a good bench.  I started out by cutting the shorter of the two headboards in half.  Then I cut the turned ball off the posts of the shorter headboard that has now become the arms.  I cut and sanded them off because they didn’t match the ones on the back headboard and it gave it a unique look. 

 I clamped the arms to the back headboard, and in three different places, drilled holes through the back of the headboard into the arms, added glue and then screwed the two headboards together.  Then we measured the side of the arm from post to post and glued, nailed, and drilled pocket holes and screwed them together.  I have a tendency to over build benches so that they can withstand the weight and then I know they are secure and going to last.  My mom always says that an elephant could sit on them.

 I don’t have pictures of the in between portions where my nephew and I made the frame for the seat area because I had decided to turn it into a bench with storage and since I hadn't made one before it was a little trial and error and working without any plans.  So of course the camera wasn't in my thoughts at the time.  My nephew and I made the frame for the bottom of the storage area.  I added the support and the end pieces of the storage unit.  If you notice the end pieces that are green is a large scrap piece of luan that I was using as my spray painting board.  It just happened to be the perfect size for the end pieces.  All I had to do was cut it down, insert it and glue and nail it in place.

I cut the bottom piece of the storage from a large piece of luan that I had in the wood shop. I glued it and nailed it into place.  We added several other pieces on the bottom side of the luan to better support it, again gluing and nailing it into place.

This is a spindle that was cut in half from another headboard when I cut it half to make arms.  I like to keep these pieces because you never know when they will come in handy.  I added it as a decorative piece to each side of the outside front arms to cover the slots where the rails would have slid into instead of filling it with putty or silicone.

Up to this point all of the wood was scrap pieces that were left over from other projects.  We had to go to the lumber yard for a piece of 1x12” for the front and back of the storage unit.  I decided not to use luan for these pieces as they will carry some of the weight on them.  

 Here you can see an additional piece was added to the front of the frame of the storage box.  It was added because the front piece of 1x12" needed to cover the inside leg where the rail slot is and so there was more edge for the lid/seat to rest on besides just the frame.

The boards for the seat were left over from another project.  It has two 1x8" and one 1x4" that had to be shaved down to fit.  We cut the boards to length first, then glued them and clamped them.  We let them sit overnight.  My nephew didn't like to use the glue and wasn't a believer in the power of wood glue.  But after seeing that the glue held those boards together perfectly, he's now a believer!  We also drilled a finger hole in the middle of the front board so that the lid could be opened.

 Since this is the top of the storage and the seat as well, we reinforced the glue with two wood strips that we glued and then nailed into place with the nail gun and then put a screw into each of the boards for added strength.  We also made sure that the strips were short enough not to interfere with lifting the lid up or with the frame brace that goes across the middle of the storage.

 Then we sanded all of the wood with the exception of the headboard and arms. 

 Here's my nephew testing out the fit of the lid after sanding it.

And here he is after we finished building it.  We didn't have time to paint it.  And I will be adding this to the painting pile.  I have several craft fairs coming up and have decided to build all the benches first and then paint them all at once so I don't have to put away the paint after each one or clean up the sawdust before I paint so it doesn't get mixed in to the finish.  Also, I don't have to interrupt the building process while waiting for paint to dry.  So we'll see how this goes.  But that's my first storage bench build.  It took a bit longer than I had anticipated but the first time usually does.  Plus I was showing my nephew how to do things as well as getting help from him.  We had a good time working on it and that is the main thing.  He thinks he can go home and build one himself.  I'll be sure an show you the finished, painted project when it's all done.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

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