Added storage...

Hi Everyone!  Happy November.  I can't believe it's November already.  Where has the time gone.  Fair season is over and my motivation is low.  I still have orders coming in and lots of work to do, but I'm finding it difficult to work.  Maybe it's the long nights of work leading up to the fair or the fact that I've been working on getting ready for the fairs since June.  One of these days my motivation will return to me...anybody have any ideas on how to get re-motivated?

Do you remember this bench that I took to the fair in April?  Well, it didn't sell and I took it home with me.  I decided that it needed storage.  So about a month before this last fair I added storage to it.

Here it is at the fair in April.  The trick was adding the storage without having to repaint the entire bench.

I started by removing the seat and turning it upside down on my rolling bench cart.  After I decided how I was going to add storage to it without changing the way it looked, I took measurements and started cutting boards down to size.

I added additional cross supports for the the bottom to attach to without having to drill directly through the front board with the saying on it.

Here it is with the bottom of the storage attached and the back board in place.  The only part that needs to be painted.

I had to mix up the paint to match the existing paint but only enough for the back side.

The storage isn't deep, but it's enough to store mittens, hats and scarves.

Then I added the hinges and the safety arm braces so it doesn't slam shut on little fingers.

It still looks like the exact same bench but now it has a little bit of storage in it.

This is the best picture I have of it at the Clarinda Craft Carnival.  And thank goodness it sold.  I think adding storage to it helped to make the sale.  And I didn't have to bring it home.  I did have to bring two benches home but I sold one of them this past weekend.  My friend Brenda helped me deliver it on Tuesday to it's new home.  So that just leaves one.  And I'm okay with that.  I need to move it into the studio this weekend.  I have an order for a twin bench with storage to work on...thank goodness my client isn't in the hurry for it and I have some time to get motivated again.  Thanks for stopping by.

Jenny Lind headboard bench...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Tuesday!  I am spending today with my nephew Ridge but I thought I'd share with you one of the benches that I made for my last craft fair that did not sell.  This is what it started out looking like.  It is a Jenny Lind headboard.

I made this one armless since I did not have a footboard to go with it.  I took the feet from another headboard (one that I didn't like and used the back to make a sign out of it) to make the front legs of this bench.  Then built the frame work.  I had originally wanted to make storage in the seat of this one, but I ran out of time.  But if you look at this, it only needs the bottom of the storage part.  Maybe I will rework this one and add storage to it.

I painted it with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Graphite with a little black paint added to it to darken it a bit.  I upholstered the seat with my usual fabric choice (it's just been so popular).  And I added the saying to the bottom, Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often.  But since it didn't sell, I think I'll finish off the storage in the seat and then it will be ready to go for next year.  Well I'm off now to spend quality time with Ridge before he heads off to Marine Basic training!  I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.