VANITY BENCH MAKEOVER

Hey everyone!  How was your weekend?  I sweated while I worked on "fall-i-fying" my porch and patio (Oklahoma hasn't read the memo that it's Fall yet), and am spending today trying to wrap up the rest of the house.  In the midst of cozying things up and spreading pumpkins around, I had time to squeeze in a quick furniture project too.

This project came out of necessity, sooner than I planned.  My Mom gave me this old bench several years ago.  It's been in the attic patiently waiting for our bathroom reno (that's still not happening yet).  Even though there's a cubby for a bench in my bathroom cabinet, I don't usually sit down to do my make-up, so I wasn't really missing anything.

Until, my girl started getting too tall for me to reach her hair to fix it (as I type that through tears...).  After she spent several hair-fixing sessions sitting on the side of the tub, it dawned on me that I needed to pull this stool out and use it!

Here it is in all of it's pre-makeover nas-ti-ness.  Yuck!  But I like the clean lines and the size was perfect for the cubby space.

I wanted to use a fabric that would work with the colors once the bathroom does eventually get re-done, so I looked through my stash and remembered that I had this Schumacher Nanjing sample that I picked up for $2 at a designer's garage sale.  The swatch was nice and big (25x25), but the dumb Schumacher samples always have grommets right in the middle of them so they can hang on a display rack.  Those holes weren't working with my plan, so I thought I'd see if I could work around them.  I figured I didn't have anything to lose...

First, I used a flat head screwdriver to pry the grommet apart, and removed it.  You can see one of the holes left behind at the tip of the pencil below.

Then, I folded the hole in half, with right sides together, and stitched around it.  I started a little above the hole right on the edge of the fold, then curved out around the hole, then back to the fold below it.

Then, I opened the fabric and pressed the seam I made down.  It's not perfect, but the holes were gone and the entire swatch was now usable.

The repaired spots still ended up close to the top and bottom edge, so at least they weren't right in the middle.  You can see one of them in the bottom right of the photo below - I think if I would have pressed it a little better those little folds wouldn't have been noticeable.  Going to get the iron now...

After removing the old red fabric from the top, I added a new thin layer of foam and wrapped it all with a new layer of batting, stapling underneath with a staple gun.  Then, I wrapped the fabric tightly around and stapled.

For the base, I used my favorites to prime and spray (color-Metallic Gold), two coats of each.

After adding a screw to each corner underneath to secure the top, it was all done!

Perfect!  Now I can reach her head!

Who knows... I like it so much I might start using it, too!

Don't forget, there are two phenomenal Fall Tours happening this week.

Start here At Home with the Barkers for the Welcome Fall Home Tour series

and here at The White Buffalo Styling Company for the Blogger Stylin' Home Tours Series.  

You'll find lots and lots of beautiful Fall Inspiration.  See you on Wednesday with my Welcome Fall Home Tour!