Being Resourceful

Recently, at a garage sale, I spied a white shabby table far back on the edge of the driveway at the sale. I had to ask the owner if the table was for sale as there were many sale items sitting on it. He told me, "yes." So of course, I asked, "how much." I was surprised when he said, "$1." I took it of course!

When I got the table home, I thought that it would be a nice size for a little picnic if the table had some benches to go with it. So, being resourceful, I decided to build a couple of benches. Had I EVER built benches before???? Nope. But I had been looking at some Ana White building plans, and I did know how to use a saw, a drill, and a hammer. Obviously, I could pull off some simple benches.... or at least I was hoping that I could. After writing down some directions off Ana's web site (our printer isn't compatible with my new computer - yep, another story), I took a trip to the local lumber yard, where I bought the boards for 2 benches and some extra boards just in case I happened to ruin a few.

Here's the result:

I was pretty pleased with the first bench, but I could see that this bench was too large for the small table. So I changed some dimensions and built two more benches. Here they are:

I decided the benches needed to be stained, then painted, then distressed. Well, I couldn't get the white ones as distressed as the table as you'll see in the picture. But I LOVE the look of the worn table so I'm not changing that.

I've decided that building stuff is a lot of fun and that I'd really like to do some more building.... I have another project in mind already. You'll just have to wait and see if I get it done. I'll post pictures if I do.

A Different Use for a Coffee Bean Sack

Last summer some friends and I traveled to Texas for a huge flea market that is put on monthly. It's called First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. I did a blog post on it. On that trip, I purchased quite a few burlap bags. I've used almost all of them so I guess I'll need to take another long drive to Canton. LOL Here's what I did with one of the coffee bean sacks.

I started with this chair:

Then I added the linen upholstery fabric to the seat portion and the coffee bean sack to the seat back. The back side of two coffee bean sacks was needed to cover the back of the chair.

The chair is now for sale at Restoration Emporium in Kansas City MO.