I have a dining table and hutch that I have had for over 20 years and I have been happy with them but, a few years ago, the back on one of my chairs broke so it’s been sitting in the basement ever since. Unfortunately, this meant that my table for 6 was a table for 5 until we pull out a not so pretty folding chair. This does the job but is less than ideal! As much as I love my table and hutch, they are made out of oak and mine is, well, orange. I’m tired of the orange look and after I finished my barn doors and hung them right behind the table, it made the table even more orange, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. My dream is to refinish the table and hutch with a dark stain on the top and an antiqued creamy white finish on the bottom. So, I decided it was finally time to tackle the project and while I was at it, I asked my husband to build me a bench so that I could be back to a table for 6! YAY! I haven’t finished my table and hutch yet, but that is a whole other adventure that I will show you when I get them done! For now, I just can’t wait to show you my bench, because I LOVE IT!!!
I found a picture of a bench that I think the legs are super cute on, and I showed it to my husband and he went to work building it for me.
We have access to raw lumber, and we had some left over from our office desk project that was perfect for this bench. It started out as a piece of lumber about 10 feet long, 22 inches wide, and 2.5 inches thick. The first step was to cut it down to size, 5 feet long, 16 inches wide, and the thickness stays the same at 2.5 inches. He decided to make the legs with the extra lumber so he cut them down to the size of a 2 x 4. See how the legs have just a slight angle to give the bench a fun look! He cut the legs at a 10 degree angle and about 15 inches long so that the end result would be between 16-17 inches tall after adding the 2.5 inch thick top. You can see the screw holes in the legs where he used 3 inch screws to attach two cross pieces on each side to add extra support. I had him counter sink the screws so that I could fill them in later and they won’t be seen.
To paint the legs of the bench I wanted to be able to flip the bench over so I did a quick coat of Minwax dark walnut stain on the bottom of the seat. That way if I got any on the legs, the chalk paint would cover it up.
You can see that I filled in the holes on the sides of the legs, but there wasn’t a reason to fill in the holes on the bottom since I don’t expect anyone to ever see this part, or maybe it was just me being lazy, but either way, I am super happy with the finished look of the legs.
To get this look, I used chalked ultra matte paint that I bought from Home Depot, made by Rust-Oleum. They had a linen white color and a chiffon cream color, and after experimenting, I decided to use a mixture of the two. The white felt like an icy blue white when it was by itself, you know, like looking at a beautiful iceberg that you can see the blue hues in! But that wasn’t the look I wanted. The linen felt a little too yellow for my liking. So, I mixed 3/4 cup of the white and 1/4 cup of the linen and it was exactly what I was hoping for! A nice creamy white!!
After brushing on 2 coats of the chalk paint with the black sponge brushes, I brushed on 1 coat of the polycrylic semi-gloss, I don’t want the legs of my bench super shiny so I used the clear semi-gloss. Once that was dry, I used a 220 grit piece of sandpaper and sanded the edges, the knots, and a few random places to give it a little more character.
Once I was done with the sanding, I used a cotton cloth and lightly rubbed Minwax dark walnut stain where I had sanded. I used a second cloth to wipe off any places that I felt like were getting darker than I wanted. Once I was happy with how it looked, I put on 2 more coats of the clear semi-gloss polycrylic.
I waited about an hour and then flipped the bench over. I used garbage sacks to protect the legs from getting anything on them and it made it really easy to just slide them in and tape the bags around the top of the legs.
I finished the top and sides of the seat with the Minwax dark walnut stain. The finished look was great, however since I was doing the dining table at the same time and I wasn’t having as much luck with the oak finished look, I ended up spraying a toner over the top of the dark walnut stain so that it will match the table and hutch exactly. I talk a lot more about this in my post about the table and all the steps taken to get the finished look of the top of the bench.
I am in love with my finished bench and can’t wait to have my table done and have the completed dining room table set for 6 (or 7 with that long bench)! For now, we are happily using the bench with the temporary fold up tables.