As a blogger, there’s nothing more satisfying than receiving an email from a reader filled with photos of a project they had completed that was inspired by one we posted on HomeJelly (cue: horn tooting). What’s even more enjoyable is to brag about how fantastic they did!
See (and read) now, how Bill and Janet Schlegel took a page from our Wow! Up An Old Park Bench post and did the same to theirs!
HomeJelly Readers’ Wow’d Up Park Bench
Janet: We’ve had the bench and table probably 20 years and cannot remember where we bought it from, probably someplace like Lowe’s. In the past, my husband just put a stain on it until we saw your pictures and decided to paint it. Here are the before and after pictures of our bench and table project inspired by your pictures.
Park bench “Before”.
I was going to use a mouse sander but my husband took the bench and table completely apart and sanded them with his bench sander. It probably made it easier to paint, but was tricky to get it put back together. Definitely needed two people, but it made the bench and table much more sturdy with his tinkering.
Breaking it down to the “studs”.
Removing the cast iron to sand down the wood.
He said the sides and back of the bench are a cast iron. We had some Rust-Oleum primer so we first sprayed the metal with that, and then with the Rust-Oleum white gloss.
Spray painting the cast iron.
Wow!
Wow! Bench “After”.
Side view of rehabbed bench.
I bought the pillows at Lowe’s and that was what decided on my wood colors for me: Fountain blue and Aubusson vine Dutch Boy satin exterior. We are going to put the urethane coat on but have not done that yet.
Preserving the bench’s provenance.
Bench side table “Before”…which, btw, could double as a footstool!
Super cute bench side table “After”.
Added pillows add a whole other level of design and comfort…well done!
For the full how-to on how to rehab (and Wow! up) your park bench, visit our Wow! Up An Old Park Bench and get DIY’n!
Now It’s Your Turn!
What do you think about our readers’ rehab? Please leave a comment below to let them know! Thanks y’all!
All photography by Bill and Janet Schlegel for HomeJelly
