Restoring an OLD Church Bench

Amazing Grace !
by Amazing Grace !
3 Materials
$58
8 Hours
Easy

Bought this old Church Bench on Craigslist and when I went to pick it up, I realized it was in bad shape and not very appealing. But, I bought it anyway. In an attempt to remove the seat and back cushion, there was some type of horse hair looking stuff inside it and after just a couple minutes whatever that was in those cushions I was highly allergic to it and literally had uncontrollable sneezing! Like 200 or so sneezes, couldn't stop.


Disgusted, (mainly for wasting $50 bucks on an ugly duck) I abandoned the project and left the bench outside for almost a year in the Florida heat, humidity and rain. Finally, a worker I hired to replace my screens in the lanai removed the foreign looking stuff (apparently he was NOT allergic to it) Still not trusting it to bring it in the house I let it sit outside for another 3-4 months.


My original intention for this bench was to use it at the bottom of my bed so I could pull off my heavy bedspread and also have a place for my way too many pillows. So, I finally decided to work on it but I was going to use it as an outside bench by my front door. So after filling in the nail holes, and lightly sanding it. I used the technique of sponge dabbing different colors to make it look almost like a marble or granite. It was a no brainier, no special skills were required after I got the look and colors I wanted I used Polly-stain and the results were amazing. It is now in my bedroom at the bottom of my bed, and being used as originally intended.

That is the stuffing used in this bench, It was from a Church in Georgia and approximately 80 years old. If anyone knows what this material is, I would love to know.

Yuck! Achooooo!!!

Started dabbing on my colors.

I outlined the edges in black to give it some depth, let it dry overnight.

Still thinking I’m going to use this outside....

After two coats of Polly Stain, It looked so sharp I decided to use it for the original purpose.

I had this in my linen closet, and it fit perfectly. Used staple gun to secure it to the bench.

The colors came out amazingly perfect and matched my colors nicely.

Perhaps I just have too many pillows?

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