Old Chairs into New Bench

See! Fun!

I picked these up last year on the curb for our city’s spring clean up. Obviously one spindle was missing, and the seats were…well UGLY, and gross.

I have made a promise (to my husband) to clean off the back patio, which is filled with free furniture I have collected. I sold a bunch for dirt cheap last week and saw these poor little chairs and decided it was time to make them awesome.

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After some thinking, I decided that since I couldn’t replace the missing spindle, I would cut them all out and do something else in their place. I used my Roybi Sawzall and they were off in seconds. Then I gathered some scrap boards to make a bench!

The top board was also added with pocket holes. I originally was going to use a piece from an old crib, but I accidentally cut it too short (figures), so I traced the pattern on a scrap 1×4 and used it, I liked the slight wave it has.

I then cut slats for the back of the chairs/bench and drilled pocket holes. This wood was a left over shelf support board from my Master Closet Makeover, glad I kept it!

It was getting so hot outside that I decided to build in the kitchen. 🙂  I glued and screwed the boards in place, trying to keep them level and even. One chair was a little askew so it is not perfect, but hey that is ok! I have long since learned that perfection in projects is almost NEVER, and I am just fine with that.

I filled all the cracks and holes with spackle, and brought it outside to find boards for a seat. A few months back I scored some reclaimed wood from a 1940’s garden/nursery in Boulder, I took as much as I could! I used a couple of 1×6’s from that stash and a 1×3 I had in the garage. Then I cut them to size.

I had a spindle left from the crib I mentioned, I thought it would look cute in the front and help bring the piece together. You might recognize this spindle… I used some on my Repurposed Hook shelf into Book Shelf which happened to be my first contributor posts here. Using my Roybi air strike nailer I nailed it on using 2 inch nails, from the sides of the legs, right where the arrows are pointing.

The boards got some stain and poly. I guess I am still stuck on the dark wood…I did almost use the weathered gray that I used on my Old Deck Wood Laundry Crate, I tried a sample of each stain on the back of the boards, but I liked the dark better.

While the poly was drying I did some spray painting. I stared with the bench upside down, and then ended with it standing upright. I used about 1 and a half cans. I was in a hurry and painting this bench by hand would have taken forever…so this bench was about $8 total, that is the cost of spray paint, with a half a can left, not bad!