Repurposed Bench With Faux Grainsack

Ahhhhh. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. My repurposed coffee table bench is complete! Sorry it took a little longer than I thought. I had put all of the finishing touches on the bench and was about to post the "after" shots, then decided it needed a pleated skirt. It was my first time ever at sewing pleats, and it took forever because I had to sew about 256 inches of  fabric to fit around the bench. Not hard, but not that much fun either.

So what do you think?

I found the topless French-style coffee table abandoned on the curb a few months ago.

Then a couple weeks back my brother broke his bench.

Genius struck and a new bench was born! I painted the coffee table frame with 3 coats of Sherwin Williams Uncertain Grey and removed the upholstered seat from the broken bench. This picture was taken with 1 coat into my painting process (I dry brushed the first layer).

I liked the funky modern feel and considered keeping the dry brush look to go with the faux black leather, but I realized the coffee table frame was sticking out too much on the sides. The bench seat had to be bigger. So I did a complete 180 and reupholstered the seat by adding 2 layers of cotton quilt batting and chose painted dropcloth canvas as my fabric. Using painters tape and dark blue acrylic paint, I used a foam brush to paint 2 sets of parallel lines on each side. Now instead of faux leather, I had my faux grainsack! The fabric and batting were attached using an electric stapler and 3/8" staples.

I actually would have preferred to keep the bench this way to show off the details on the side of the table, but I had to add metal L-shaped brackets to the corners to reinforce the frame and both the wood and metal still showed a tiny bit when I put the bench seat on.

Of course that just wouldn't do! This is where the skirt came in. I decided on pleats and cut the dropcloth fabric 6" long and 256" wide and hemmed the bottom. And here's a little pleating trick of mine that hopefully you find useful in the future! Index cards! Don't know if anyone else has used them before for pleating, but I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea. I chose to make 3" wide pleats and a 3"x5" index card was the perfect little guide.  I folded fabric around the card (frontwards or backwards depending on the pleat) and was able to pin each pleat the exact same width.  The picture below is of my practice ruffles so it shows pleats at different sizes.

After sewing the pleats together, I stapled them beneath the bench seat. I hand-sewed the back where the two ends meet and chose a convenient place where I was able to hide the seam beneath the fold of a pleat. Then I ironed the pleats out so they didn't look so shabby.

Now to the picture-less portion of this post (I was too involved with the process and forgot to get the camera). In order to attach the upholstered seat to the bench, my husband had to help drill holes in the coffee table. In the typical upcycle style, we used the original screws from the old bench. It took 1 larger drill bit for the screw to go in and a smaller drill bit so that the screw head wouldn't fall out. After a couple test runs he was able to successfully drill 8 perfect holes for the bench. Woohoo! No yelling or cursing from either of our mouths. A proud moment for us :).

Finally, she's ready for the big time! My first furniture repurpose project is a success! And both the table and the seat were free. Yippee!

And sorry to everyone who hasn't heard from me lately. There's always so much to do and so little personal time that blogging and everything that goes with it has been on the backburner. Don't think I've become unfriendly and distant though! It's still me :)

Love the Beasts,

Emily

Linking to:

Sneak Peek At My Coffee Table Bench

In my last post I mentioned that my brother's upholstered bench top was a little smaller than the coffee table frame, but I was planning on leaving it that way. It didn't bother me or him that the wood frame was sticking out further than the top. Of course a day later, I completely changed my mind. It was bothering me a lot. Especially after I added L-shaped metal brackets to each corner of the frame. I was afraid the joins in the sides of the table weren't strong enough, so my husband helped me come up with the idea of adding the brackets. Anyways, the metal was sticking out beyond the bench top and made the size difference much more obvious.

So I had a new plan and told my brother that the bench probably wouldn't match his bedroom anymore. I decided to add a couple layers of batting to the outside of the bench top so that it would cover more area, and recover it with a different fabric. I painted some dark blue stripes on dropcloth with the help of painter's tape and it turned out perfect. Well perfect for me, not my brother.

Here's the sneak peek:

Love the Beasts,

Emily

Reviving A Sad Curbside Coffee Table

I found this French-style coffee table frame a few months ago on the curb. It had no top, which made it look pretty sad, but I figured I could do something interesting with it at some point in the future.

When my brother broke his upholstered bedroom bench a couple days ago I realized the coffee table's time had come. My brother's style is modern so I didn't think I'd be able to refurbish any of his furniture at any point, but the fake leather bench top didn't look half bad with the French-style look. It actually looked pretty darn nice. I got lucky that the top fit the coffee table frame (it's a tiny bit shorter but my brother said he wouldn't mind if some of the wood stuck out further than the bench top).

I've already painted the coffee table frame a nice light grey and I'll be working with my husband over the long weekend to make it more structurally sound. For now, you can imagine what it will look like from this picture.

And you may have noticed my blog background has gone through a few changes. I finally found one with the right colors and look. Yippee! Hope you didn't suffer to much from my temporary madness!

Love the Beasts,
Emily

Finally On The Bandwagon: DIY Silver Display Stand

Annie's in the middle of her nap so I need to make this post short and sweet because I have a million things on my to-do list. I know it's been a little over a month since I've posted any furniture redos, but that will be changing in the next few weeks. After taking a little break and trying to avoid working in the 100+ degree weather, I'm going to be back at the furniture game. I have a few projects up my sleeve that may not be easy or quick, but they should be fun!

And yes, I finally jumped on the DIY Cake Stand bandwagon although I'm calling it my DIY Display Stand. You know the ones you see everywhere of candlesticks glued to plates? I found a great silverplated tray with a nice detailed frame and glued it to a short silverplated candlestick. Both were purchases from thrift stores for prices that even I consider low! And I'm pretty cheap!

I was going to buy gorilla glue like everyone else to attach the pieces together, but in an effort to save money I looked through all my different glues and noticed that my Loctite super glue works on metals. There was my moneysaver! After tracing around the candlestick on the bottom of the tray (using a eyeliner pencil because I couldn't find anything else), I put a small amount of glue around the rim of the candlestick and held it against the plate for 10 seconds. A half hour later they were bonded properly and I ended up with this!

You probably know where the items in the stand came from if you read my last post :). How easy was all that for something so cute? It's the perfect thing to display my custom gift tags one day when I have a booth at a fair or a shop!

Oh no. She's waking up. I guess it'll be another late night!

Love the Beasts!
Emily

Grainsacks and The Most Generous Blogger: Andrea at Town and Prairie

I know already dedicated a post to Andrea at Town and Prairie a couple weeks ago, but I have to do it again. I don't know what else I can do to say "thank you." I was almost in shock when I opened the package she sent to me. She is ridiculously generous. You forget that people out there like her exist. They do crazy things for people they've never met out of pure kindness. So Andrea, my new BBFF, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Here it is everyone. The most amazing package I've ever received in the mail.

Such a pretty handmade card. Look at all those details. An aged recipe for crust top apple pie and beautiful gold embellishments. "LB" for Lovely Beasts and "TP" for Town and Prairie. I think she's not too fond of her initials, but I think they're hilarious! And memorable! 

Anyways, the card and sack are lovely right? That's just a very small portion of the actual package. I'm serious. Are you ready?

Um. What? WHAT? I saw her post a picture of one grainsack from her neighbor's farm and I emailed her to go back and get it for herself. And then I mentioned if there were more, get me one and I'd buy it from her and pay shipping. She responded happily that she'd go get them and send them to me, no charge. I was already blown away by her generosity at this point. So I was expecting one really cool grainsack. Then she emailed me again and used the word "grainsacks." So I figured, maybe she'll send me two. No, not two. Not three. Not even close. She sent me twelve. 12!!!!!!!!!

I know, I know. I don't know how or why I deserve this either.

And here are some close-ups of the sacks. Andrea warned me that they were a little beastly with stains and holes, but I was expecting much worse. These were and are amazing. The Funk Farms and Ful-O-Pep are my absolute favorites.

UNREAL. I've been wanting grainsacks forever, and now I have 12. Andrea even washed them for me. I'm guessing they almost destroyed her machines, but when I opened each sack they smelled like fresh laundry detergent. Again, I don't think I deserve this. But I'm very thankful to have met someone as kind as Andrea.

Please PLEASE go visit Andrea's blog Town and Prairie. Leave her a comment about these amazing grainsacks, the fact that her blog's initials are "TP", or really just say anything! She has a great blog with gorgeous furniture, and is a wonderful new friend to have.

By the way, this made me really laugh and then gag. Here's a close up of the ingredients printed on the Lay-A-Lot sack.

Blood Meal? Hahaha...ew.

Love the Beasts...and Town and Prairie,
Emily

Industrial Pentagon Glass Box

Remember this thrift store purchase I showed you earlier this week?

These types of glass and brass boxes are my favorite things to work with. I used to think they were so ugly! Back in the day a lot of people used to use them in their bathrooms to hold cotton balls, etc. But they're the perfect thing to transform! With some help from modpodge, vintage dictionary illustrations, and twine the sad-looking beast turned into this.

The illustrations on top are of a siphon-bottle, stereoscope, printing press, stocks, and a torturing rack. On the bottom is a beautiful drawing of a four-masted schooner. It might seem odd to put all these pictures together, but I like putting the industrial together with the whimsical!

You may have noticed that when I bought the box, part of the knob was missing. So I did what I usually do with my salvaged creations! I wrapped it up in twine. 

This box is now for sale in the Lovely Beasts Etsy shop!

And if you're wondering how the shop is doing, I've already had 7 sales which is better than I had hoped! What I'm finding out is that vintage finds do better than my little recycled or salvaged creations. This is great news for me though! The whole purpose of my Etsy venture was to see what would sell best anyway. This process has helped reaffirm the fact that I do have an eye for vintage objects and what people want in that department. And I do enjoy making my little creations, but now I know where I can focus my time if I want to sell more successfully on Etsy. Estate sales here I come!!!

Love the Beasts,

Emily

Recent Thrifty Finds

I wanted to share with you some of my little thrift store finds from last week.

A New Century Dictionary from 1952 and a beautiful edition of The Favorite Works of Mark Twain  from 1939.

A small rectangular wood frame with an art deco style border and a gilt frame mirror tray (both in the back).

And finally a silverplated tray and a big brass-framed pentagon glass box. I had a smaller version of this box that I made lovely with an old print and modpodge, but I still can't show you the "after" because it's a gift that I still haven't shipped yet. I had been looking for another box for the longest time though. Can you believe 20 trips to thrift stores and yard sales came up empty? Finally last week, probably on my 21st thrift shopping trip, I got this big box for a great price. It has ugly flowers carved out of the glass on top, but that's okay because I've already covered them up. I'll show you what I did with it later this week!

Until then, Love the Beasts!

Emily