DIY Bench

 

Since we moved into our new house I have been dying to get my hands on a project again. I've read so many blogs of very creative people and collected so many ideas, I just had to get started on something!

So I decided I should make a bench that will live in the garage next to the shoe racks so we can sit there while we put our shoes on.

At first I wanted to get some pieces of wood and make one from scratch. But then since I have never done any DIYing before and had no skills at all I thought let's start small.. so I dragged my hubby into the local recycle centre hoping to find something I can use to make my bench.

I came across these really ugly white side tables.. there were 2 of them and I managed to buy them for $5 each! Score!!!!

Here's what I bought. They were dirty and I hated the handles and the trims. In one of the cupboards there was a design on two of the draws and the other one didn't have them. I saved the other one for another project and started with this one to make the bench.

I cleaned the cupboard with disinfectant to start with because it was very dirty. My darling hubby got all these fancy power tools which I am not quite sure how to use. Thought it's time to learn so I got him to show me how to use the sander. The cupboard was made of particle board which and did not really need sanding. I gave it a light sand anyway to get rid of any loose paint.

I only wanted to use the first drawer so I got rid of the attachment of the second and the third.

I had some left over paint from painting the house so I used it to paint the draw and the sides of  the cupboard. It was a bit of a cappuccino colour. Love it!
I also got rid of the ugly drawer handle. Since I am using only one drawer I am not going to attach any handles on to it.

I also had two pieces of square particle boards lying around which came with the packaging of the side tables I bought for my bed room.  I saved them hoping they will come useful and here's their moment :) I cut one of them it into the size of the top and used it to make a cushion to sit on.

It was quite easy (not very neat though). I used some wadding in and stapled the fabric into the particle board. I bought the wadding for $6 and 1m of fabric for $19.99 from Spotlight. I needed less than half a meter for the cushion so saved the rest for something later.

When I was in Spotlight I saw various cuttings of words and bought the word "create". I painted it black and glued it to the first draw. I used the second particle board painted in black as the base of the bench so it all co-ordinated. I glued and screwed the cushion on to the top and after putting everything together here's what I got!!!!

Buying the word 'create' was quite spontaneous but it made the bench pretty!

The single draw is used to store all the shoes related stuff like shoe polish etc etc.. the bottom shelf can be used to store shoes.. 

Can't be happier with the outcome. Aren't we pretty? :):):)