Piano Bench Redo with Paint and Glaze

Today’s piano bench redo is so fun and easy, I can’t wait to give you all the details! As I was moving my furniture items out of Vendors’ Village I spotted this small wooden piano bench on sale at 50% off it’s regular price. Even the sale price was steep for my regular thrift store budget.

Thrift Store Piano Bench

Isn’t the piano bench cute? I think you would have had a hard time passing it up too!

Yep, I paid $14.00 for the cute little bench. It was tough to pay that much. Do I think it was worth $28 to anyone? NO! I do not.

Check out the address label inside the vintage piano bench! I blacked out some of the information in case Albert still lives at the same house with the same phone number. Guess who still lives where she lived in March of 1976?

Prepare old Piano Bench for Painting

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After taping off the metal feet with painter’s tape I was ready to paint this little guy with my Super Finish Max Extra.

My special DIY chalky paint primer was mixed using some off white oops paint and plaster of paris.

I prefer to start my projects upside down. That way when I flip them, if they mess up, it’s on the underneath side. With the turned legs on this piano bench it’s important to paint it upside down and right side up to get into the “rings” of the legs with a good coverage. I painted two light coats of the chalky paint primer in off white.

Here it is before I took the painter’s tape off the feet.

It’s nice, but I think you know what’s coming, right?

Add Glaze over Paint

Were you right? Did you guess what I was hinting about? Yes! I decided to add my favorite smoked glaze to the plain piano bench. But! This project would get the lightest coat of glaze I think I’ve ever done—just a hint of the gray glaze over the off white paint. As always I used a cheap chip brush to apply the glaze.

See?! Just a hint of the glaze, slightly dry-brushed onto the bench. That’s why I love this glaze so much, it’s so versatile!

I left the metal feet as I found them, basically because I didn’t know what to do with them.

The inside of the bench was left alone. I do think it would look really pretty with some paper on the inside. I’ll leave that decision up to it’s new owner!

But wait! How about one more small touch?

Embellish Bench Top With WELCOME

I chose a simple transfer from The Junky Chalker Store to use on the piano bench lid.

A thin coat of Minwax furniture wax was applied to the top of the piano bench.

I applied the transfer, lining it up with the edges of the bench top. A dab of chalk paste was spread on, then scraped off. I immediately peeled off the transfer and revealed the finished project! It really is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Well, step #4 is dropping the transfer into a pan of water so it can be cleaned and reused again and again!

Here is the newly refreshed piano bench in the living room. A piano bench like this one could be used in a front hallway or as extra seating or an impromptu coffee table in the living. I think this piano bench would also make a great end of the bed bench. Bonus! It offers a little bit of storage!!

Before you run off, won’t you pin it or share it? Thanks!

You can see Mindi’s French Inspired Piano Bench Makeover here. I did a major decoupage project fail on a piano bench years ago.

Be safe! Be productive!

gail