Ding Dong, The Piano Bench Is Here

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Once upon a time, we had an empty entryway. This wasn't the end of the world, at first, because we were working on our new home and still trying to decide what to do with it.

But then the real Chicago winter reared its head, and we realized something: Sometimes, you need a place to rest your bum as you wrangle your poor chilly feet out of your huge winter boots. And, especially during a real Chicago winter, you cannot sit on the floor (read: wet booty). Not to mention the fact that you need a place to drop your bags that's elevated from the floor, where they can get wet or snowy or salty. Just... yuck.

Also, we needed something to go underneath the vintage map of Europe we swiped off of Etsy a few months ago.

We had our eyes on an old bench Justin's father made when he was a kid (furniture design is kind of his thing and he must have known early on, because the bench is absolutely gorgeous and very solid). Unfortunately, we were in a bit of a rush to put it all together, because really, truly did need something there, and we couldn't make it out to Michigan to retrieve said bench from a storage unit.

So, we turned to another great place for finding treasures: My parents' basement. Half of their basement is finished -- the other half consists of about two thousand square feet of stuff. Everything from Christmas decorations to old sewing tables to electronics to piano benches.

So, we swiped a dark wood piano bench to serve its place in our entryway. We weren't sure if we'd leave it as is or perhaps stencil a print on the top.

You can definitely tell that this bench is an oldie (but a goodie?). It's slightly crooked and there are more than a few dings in the wood, itself. We're planning to take a good old walnut to the surface to fill in the dings, then work from there.

I mentioned possibly messing around with stenciling the top... but we're also considering turning it into a backed bench. If we can find pillows to fit, the bottom (where the sheet music would be kept in a typical piano bench), we may be able to use it as an open bench.

What's your vote? What do you think? If only the good people from YoungHouseLove would stop in and give me their advice... :)

P.S. Momma got a new wide angle lens and some wonderful flashes (with flash accessories to boot) for Christmas. What does that mean? More and much better interior/DIY/decor shots and posts to come! Get ready for some real beauty, friends!