Prezi Presentation on Fab Mudroom Bench

If you would like to see a more animated how-to tutorial for the Drab Hope Chest to Fab Mudroom Bench project, go on over to http://prezi.com/pfdxx0dul4m5/untitled-prezi/.

Old Wooden Desk into New Coral Vanity

 Yet again, I thought that this project was going to be the simplest one to date! All it needed was paint, no real detail work. Man, was I ever WRONG! Luckily it turned out alright, but it was one heck of a roller coaster ride to get there (and I don't like roller coasters)!

This desk was my brother's desk growing up. I had one too but I liked the style of this one much better with its simple lines and basic knobs. Among my many pins on Pinterest I had some pinspiration to turn it into a vanity for my little closet room that will be in the new house! I'm not a fan of the word "vanity," but I know that's what it is referred to as. I have never, ever gotten ready in the bathroom. Sharing a bathroom with 2 brothers, I always got ready in my room sitting in front of my dresser mirror. Did the same thing living on my own since it takes forever to dry and straighten/curl my hair. So to me this project didn't seem so "vain."

As always, I started off with a priming base over all the areas I planned on painting. Once dried I painted the drawers the cream color first and then turned the desk over on its top to do the first couple coats of paint. I like to do this to get the bottom parts that would normally be hard to reach because of the floor as well as underneath the ledges out of the way first.

Then the desk is turned over to finish the cream coating. You can't really tell in this picture but the only part that is not cream at this point was the top since it would be painted a coral color called Dark Mango. 

While the desk was drying it was time to get the knobs painted. I did not prime these ahead of time, which may have caused the reason for 5 coats... but after doing the top of the desk in the same color with prime it was still an issue. Side note: I'm not a pink person, but sign me up for coral!

 

 Yep, had to get creative on getting the knobs painted! I had to figure out a way to get the knobs stationary so I wouldn't have to hold them and paint them at the same time. So what we have here is the screws poked through the Diet Coke box and once again screwed in with the knob. Now they are ready to paint. Keeping crafty classy!

In between coats on the knobs I did coats of paint on the desk... many coats of paint. At least seven. I wish I was kidding. I tried to pretend that it didn't bother me but ultimately I had to fix the uneven paint. 

It was also during this time that I accidently spilled paint, stepped in it, and then tracked it on the carpet. Pretty sure I saw my life flash before my eyes. Since I'm currently staying at my parents, it was my mother's carpet not mine. Now, my fear of getting anything on her carpet far exceeds my fear of spiders, buses, and needles combined. I frantically called my father who actually ended up leaving work to check on me, shampooed for at least 30 minutes straight, prayed that God would show some mercy on my soul and finally it paid off, mostly.

 As you can see, the top of the desk had some issues with even coating. But I tried to work through it and put the drawers in...

 ... and then the knobs. But then I finally gave into my OCD about the top being uneven. I had to go get another sample container of the paint. Then I sanded the top to get excess paint off and try to even it out. Once that was done I tried out the roller to paint the top. I'm not a fan of rollers because the way it goes on spongy, so my mom was there helping for moral support...

...and then she spilled too! At least hers was on the canvas (which ended up bleeding onto the carpet, hello again Mr. Shampooer). But as you can see it splattered back onto the cream, which I had to touch up. I think the coral color may have been cursed.

However, the roller worked pretty well and it all paid off in the long run. 

 A little close up to show off the smoothness of the Dove Cry's (cream) color, I can't get enough of it!

And this will be the mirror that hangs above the vanity desk! It was a clearance find at Hobby Lobby, my favorite hiding place. Seriously, if you can't find me try HobLob first. I still need to find a cute chair to refurbish to go with the set. I also plan on getting vanity styled lights to put above it, maybe a lamp, and then a smaller vanity mirror for doing makeup!

Hope you enjoyed the final product as much as the roller coaster of a process!

Until next time, 

Audra

Drab Hope Chest to Fab Mudroom Bench

 This project was by far the most in depth one I have done to date. However, it did teach me a lot about the little details and I am proud of the end product.

This is the original piece, my Grandma Chubby's hope chest from when she was growing up. It was just sitting around in her basement so she told me I could take it and fix it up. Naturally, I had many pins on Pinterest just inspiring me to transform this drab hope chest into a fab mudroom bench! I took the idea and ran with with it. 

My first buy was the fabric that I wanted to use for the bench cushion, and then everything just came together from there. Then came the new handles and knobs, followed by making a decisions on how to go about painting it (which took hours of pondering, no lie).

Prepping List:
Hope chest
Wood filler

Bonding Primer
Paint brush
Multiple paint colors
Paint tape

Wood trim

Gorilla glue

Handles and Knobs
Drill

Batting

Adhesive spray

Fabric

Staple gun

Skipped a few steps in the pictures so let me fill you in on what went down first:

 First, I took off the old handles and knob (singular since it was missing one). Then I had to fill the holes with wood filler since the handles were very small and the new handles were much larger. Once the filler settled I was finally able to prime the hope chest, minus the top since that would be covered with the cushion.

  

As you can see I went with a little extra color to go with the design in the fabric. Each coat of paint took 3 coats, including the black.

This next part caused a lot of headache at first. There were groves between the color sections. My initial thought was to get dowel rods to paint them black and cover the groves. I was almost to the hardware store when I realized that using rods would not lay flush with the braided wood trim I had already decided on. No way did I want to sand the rods down to match the curves in the trim, so I was back to square one. So I finally decided to just be a big girl about it, tape it off (which I hate doing since it never seems to work out right), and then paint in the grooves with a smaller canvas brush. It worked after a few coats, but then of course I did a couple touch-ups. 

As you can see, the grooves came out pretty clean. Next, came the braided trim. I had them cut to size and then I sanded the top sections down a bit so they would fit underneath the lid. I was then finally able to paint them before gluing them down with Gorilla Glue. (Warning: use SMALL amounts of Gorilla Glue or else you will have foam coming out the sides, yes, foam.)

 Finally it was time to get the cushion together! Once again I needed a little help with this part, so I put my mother to work. We first rolled up the batting to where it was even on the top of the hope chest lid. When we had it the way we wanted it we used adhesive glue spray to keep the batting in place while we had the lid up and down to staple the fabric into place. There was a lot of tugging, stapling, cutting, and do-overs when getting the cushion stapled underneath the lid. No, it does not look perfect under the lid.... but that's okay for now. If it bothers me enough down the road I may get some more fabric to cover the inside.

TADA! It's finished.

 Close up of the handles... which we drilled new holes into the chest for. I learned the hard way that not all handles from Hobby Lobby are created equally! The top one was half an inch shorter than the others, so I had to make a trip back to the store to get another.

Top view of the fabric! Love it, but the cushion is not completely even yet. The batting needs worn in to become even, so if any volunteers want to sit their derrière on it for awhile come on over!

Little closer view of the braided trim...

... as well as the little knobs. 

I hope I did justice in giving this old piece new life. I can't wait to get it into my new house, with a hanging shelf above it to create the whole mudroom look! Thanks again Grandma Chubby!

Until next time, 

Audra