Making a pine ottoman into a bench

As a surprise for my mum we decided to make her plain pine ottoman into a bench.  She was away for a week which gave us the perfect opportunity to work on it.  We had managed to get hold of 2 ends of a pub bench which were perfect for this project.  (Typical of me I started the work without taking any before pictures).

We started by sanding the ottoman down using the electric sander (a tool which I was new to but love using now).  It didn’t take too long and was quite easy.  The bench ends however were a lot more work.  They were covered in years of grime and paint from the pub.  After many hours of sanding they were ready for paining.  We painted the ottoman a bright pink and the bench ends black.  Those colours really look good together.

To make it a bit more interesting I painted the border of the front panel of the ottoman black.  I then had the idea of putting a lace pattern onto the front panel of the ottoman.  I found a big piece of lace which I stuck onto the ottoman using masking tape.

Once the front was protected I used black spray paint and covered the lace using light coats.   Not having regularly used spray paint it was quite difficult for me to judge when I had used enough paint.

Once I felt there was enough paint on there I carefully peeled off the lace (making sure I didn’t smudge anything) and was really pleased with the pattern that it had created.

We then attached the sides to the ottoman which required a bit of reshaping.  We had bought a piece of MDF which had been cut down to the required size (a useful service provided by B&Q).  This was painted in the pink paint and was then attached to the sides to make the back of the bench.

I really enjoyed making this and can’t wait to see what project happens next.