Entertainment Center Becomes a Great Upcycled Entryway Bench!

VintageRustVa
by VintageRustVa
$30
3 Days
Medium
So, there I was on Craigslist scrolling through all things furniture, and I came across this great older style entertainment center. I'd wanted to try a repurposing project and I knew it would be perfect to transform this old tired entertainment center into an entryway bench.
If you like this makeover - please visit this link and vote for us! http://www.fabfurnitureflippincontest.com/2015_12_01_archive.html
My business partner/bestfriend let me borrow her truck and listened to my vision for this little cutie. Then we heard about the Fab Furniture Flippin Contest for November.


The theme was "Take a Seat" and this month's contest was sponsored by Minted. I knew right away that this was the venue for my little project, so that's how I started down this little rabbit hole.


So, I drew out my idea and starting imagining how to get my vision to come to life. I enlisted the help of my furniture jedi, Molly, and my friend, John. John is much more savvy than I am with power tools. And decided to asked for some sewing help from my friend, Vicky. I wanted to showcase two of my favorite products, Wise Owl Chalk Synthesis and Unicorn SPiT's Gel Stain and Glaze in One(TM) and I wanted to depart from my normal pallet of choice - more soothing pastels.
Once I knew we'd been accepted as Fab Furniture Flippin Contestants, I went to our sponsor's website at www.minted.com to pick out some fabric for my little bench. I must admit that Minted is way more than just fabric, so I did get a little sidetracked a few times by pretty things. I was so impressed with all the unique fabric from so many different corners of the world. I really appreciated that I was going to be able to use someone else's art to enhance my own creativity. It took about 3 days to finally decide on a fabric, but Katherine Robert's "Watercolor Blends" fabric in Classic Cotton Canvas was absolutely perfect. It was the perfect jewel shades, a balance of light and dark colors, and it was interesting without be distracting. It just so happened to match the colors I was considering in Unicorn SPiT and Wise Owl. I was so impressed and excited when our fabric arrived. It was such soft and sturdy fabric, even more beautiful in person. It even included a note from Minted and the artist that created the design - what a great touch to really connect you to Minted's intent of connecting consumers with the creative artists that make the cool items available on their site!
I have to admit that I geeked out a little when I put all the SPiT colors, Wise Owl paint sample, and the gorgeous Minted fabric together. It was like they were made for one another!
So while I was waiting to get started on the full renovation of the piece, I decided I would get some Unicorn SPiT on those windows. I wanted to keep the watercolor theme in my chosen Minted fabric, so I chose the colors I thought would best fit. I went with Zia Teal; Blue Thunder; Purple Hill Majesty; Dragon's Belly; and White Ning and they matched the incredible colors in the Minted fabric perfectly. I prepped the windows by wiping them down with water to get all the gunk off of them. Then after spraying a fine mist of water I splashed and layered all the different SPiT colors until I was happy with the way they looked. I sprayed another layer of water and placed white trash bags over it. After the bags had "suctioned" to the SPiT, I used my fingers to lightly go over the bags to blend the colors and get the watercolor effect I was seeking. When I removed the bags from the windows and couldn't stop smiling so hard, because it was exactly what I had pictured in my mind, and I knew it would set off the Minted fabric of the bench flawlessly.
When it was time to get cracking on the piece itself, I learned that I am good at supervising while other people work with tools that can possibly remove fingers or toes. Bless John's heart, he listened to all my weird requests, and he went to work on giving this entertainment center new life. We cut off the upper right portion of the top shelf of the entertainment center and added some framing to hold the cushion on the bench, which also added structural support to the piece. We removed all the hardware and sanded the piece down and primed it. It was noisy and dusty and we had a lot of fun. (There may have been a double dog dare and a small paint assault in there too!)
Once the noise died down and my work crew went home, I couldn't stop wondering if I was making the right design decisions, but I certain I wanted to take a chance and see it through. The next day, after the primer was completely dry, I was ready to get it painted.
I used Wise Owl Chalk Synthesis Paint in a beautiful jewel tone blue called "Anchor." From the moment of the first brush stroke, I was in love. It was luxurious and welcoming, and was a complete tone match to the Minted fabric. The entertainment center was transformed - into just what an entryway bench should be. In between coats of Wise Owl, I stained the framing in "Early American" by Zar. I also redid the hardware a deep rubbed bronze to bring out the colors of the entryway bench. When the paint was dry, I used General Finishes, High Performance Top Coat in Satin to seal the paint.


While I was up to my eyeballs in Wise Owl and Unicorn SPiT (http://wiseowlpaint.com/ and http://www.unicornspit.com/) , our friend Vicky was working her sewing magic. The previous week she had been kind enough to give me a crash course on sewing, but I was too nervous to do my first sewing experiment on the beautiful Minted fabric. I'm not ashamed to say that I decided to ask Vicky to sew the cushion, in exchange for copious amounts of my famous Guinness Beef Stew. She did a fantastic job and mentioned how lovely she thought the fabric felt. She said it was great to work with. She did an amazing job! I'm so grateful to her.
Each piece of hardware I added, each screw I tightened, it was more and more extraordinary to see my vision come to life. I'm so proud of this little gem.
After waiting overnight for everything to finally dry, the sun was finally shining here in Virginia and I was ready to put it all together. I am eternally grateful to the support system that was there to help me get this done, physically and emotionally. I hope you love it as much as I do.
I had a great time participating in November's Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest... and now, I'm pooped and it's definitely time to "TAKE A SEAT." ~Erica
If you liked this bench makeover, please vote for us here: http://www.fabfurnitureflippincontest.com/2015_12_01_archive.html


You can check out The Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest's Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/fabflippincontest/timeline


Here is the full list of hosts:


Evey of Evey's Creations (Co-Creator) http://sweetsongbird.eveyscreations.com/p/welcome.html


Stacy of Anastasia Vintage (Co-Creator) http://www.anastasiavintage.com/


Charlotte of Ciburbanity http://www.ciburbanity.com/


Lynn of Fern Avenue http://www.onfernavenue.com/


Carrie of Thirty Eighth Street http://thirtyeighthstreet.blogspot.com/


Colleen of 58 Water Street http://www.58waterstreet.blogspot.com/



Check out their fabulous furniture flips for this month's Take A Seat theme - sponsored by Minted!
Thanks to Minted.com's sponsoring of this month's theme, especially for helping me pull everything together - there was no way I could go wrong with their fabric as the centerpiece to this bench!
VintageRustVa
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  2 questions
  • Christy Roppel Christy Roppel on May 09, 2018

    This is lovely! My question is this: why didn't you paint the brown areas? Just wondering about your thought process. Great Job :)

  • Ash33946212 Ash33946212 on Sep 05, 2018

    I too, wanted to ask about the brown areas; why didn't you paint them blue? This was a beautiful and creative work btw and kudos to you and your helpers! Absolutely gorgeous!

    Ash

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