Love and Spray Paint: The Seat with Sass

"Hello Lovely!" I said to this little bench when I first laid eyes on it at a garage sale. But of course, it was not this pretty at the time.
Before it's face lift and tummy tuck it looked more like this:

Now, I know what you are thinking: HOW DARE I THROW OUT THAT WONDERFUL FLORAL FABRIC?! Easy peasey. This girl needed some help to bring her into this century. So off came those staples!

Now the canvas underneath wasn't nearly as dreadful and relatively clean since the floral had a plastic (that's right) liner backing. Just imagine for a minute how that sounded EVERY time you had to sit down........ugh. But somewhat beneficial in our case. I use a multi-tool that has a flathead tool to pry up those staples and a set of needle nose pliers to rip those babies right out. Clean as needed (Which is usually constantly because getting stuff second hand generally means that it has had a battered past, of which you have little assurance that sterilization was the first owner's prime concern).

Next: get your foam ready. Since I kept the underlying padding in tact, I didn't need to get the heavy duty foam for cushions. I used a 1/2 inch thick foam sheet (also a garage sale find. I'm telling you, people will get rid of all kinds of useful things at fantastic prices- you just have to be willing to dig and keep your eyes open)

Lay your piece out on top of your foam and trace around it.

HLT: If you are starting with your new foam on top of just plain board than you will want to leave a 1/2 to 1 inch or so extra around your piece when you trace. Otherwise just trace the same size.

Next you would put a layer of batting on top of your foam cutting at least a 1/2 more on each side that the foam. I skipped this step because I thought it would be plenty soft already and I was going to double up my fabric anyways instead.

See the blue fabric above? (The one in the foam pic) that was some scrap fabric I had in my fabric stash that I thought would be handy. Since the pattern I selected for the top was primarily white I did not want the batting to show through. Especially when choosing a cotton fabric, you have to think about what is going behind it and also how to make it stronger. For this reason, I love to use canvas (or duck cloth) for reupholstering because of it's strength and durability. But I loved the pattern on this cotton and wanted to use it so I cut the blue fabric right along with the white and began to assemble it all upside down.

HLT: ALWAYS iron your fabric before putting it down to staple. This avoids the dreaded fight that will inevitably ensue when you staple, flip your piece over, then discover a wrinkle that will not stretch out. Save your self the aggrevation.

Start by stapling the middle of one side, then the opposite side, rotate, and do the other side all the while pulling the fabric taught. Flip piece over to make sure that the fabric is as tight as you would like it to be, then proceed moving around the piece in the same fashion, but moving outward toward the corners. Corners are last. They require folding fabric to get the right look before stapling. I did not get photos of this step because corners need all hands on deck, leaving none for picture taking.

Say goodbye to the (now) donated stapler who made this and a few other projects really difficult. Sights like the one above were a common occurrence. Many a staple have been wrenched out of this thing with a pair of pliers and my force of will. Sadly it made it's way out of my house after the 20th staple (in a row) jammed it self, yet again setting my intolerance for stupid things flailing. Online research proves fantastic when shopping for staplers! READ the customer comments :)

Finish stapling fabric!

The base is next. If there are any stability issues, now would be the time to fix them.

Otherwise start sanding.

HLT: Buy the large sheets of sand paper and put duct tape on the back of them. Then cut out strips or shapes of your liking. This keeps the sand paper from curling or shredding in your hands.

Get it good and sanded, fine tuning and nicks or scratches.

Wipe all dust of with damp cloth and allow to dry.

Painting time! My favorite part.

I used a Valspar Paint sample. You can have them color it to whatever shade you like or they have ready-made ones for only 3.00 each. Well worth it if you have a small project. Two coats did the trick
for this one.

I wanted an antique look to this so I grabbed a can of wood finish and started painting.

So Staining goes like this: Paint on, wipe off, another stroke of stain, and more wiping off of said stain, etc..... Just keep slapping it on and taking it off until you are happy with your result.