Better late than never

So I had a couple hiccups in my bench project. I spent more than I wanted to on the supplies and so I sat looking angrily at them, not wanting to start the project. And it's a good thing too. Because a woman in Scottsdale put an ad on craigslist for an upholstered bench that had the exact legs I wanted. And some hot legs they were. Except it was upholstered in pink chenille. So I returned the unused supplies and paid a nice lady 40 bucks and saved myself way more time.

All I had to do at that point was reupholster it in the stripe. I bought some muslin fabric at Hobby Lobby and textile medium at Michaels. I'd never used a medium before and didn't know it really worked. But it was super easy. Two parts paint to one part medium. When I use regular paint it leaves the fabric hard and plastic feeling. The medium made it soft and washable. (side note: the paint leaks through the fabric so put plastic or something underneath it. My poor kitchen island had a bad case of stripes...)

I started by mixing the medium with the paint and taping off the stripes. Blue painters tape works the best when painting on fabric. When those were dry I threw it in the wash and it came out this nice washed out vintage looking linen.

I pinned the fabric inside out on the corners and sewed them. I didn't do anything to the legs, just stapled the fabric to the bottom. I ended up spending around $45 total as opposed to Pottery barns $399. And it looks pretty dang close to the original.

Tomorrow I'll have two postings for you and a few more pictures of the bench. (Update on my husband for those who care: he is back in the states and will be home on Wednesday night. Yahooooo!)