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!

DIY Decor | Jewelry Box Metallic Makeover

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A few months ago, I worked on giving new life to an old Jewelry Box (check out part one and part two for the prologue!). The project was a huge success and it is one of my favorite pieces. In particular, I’m a huge fan of the distressed look and the metal top (which is actually just a serving tray… check it out here).

In its initial makeover, we took it from this...

to this...

Pretty good, right? Except for the cork knobs...

Unfortunately, the cork knob idea just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. When I saw a set of new knobs at Hobby Lobby for just over a dollar each, I was sold. Or they were. To me.

The knobs are checkered white (which is the color of the box) and gold. Yes, I know the top of the piece is silver. But, because there are no additional colors on this piece, I decided silver and gold could play together with white. They played quite nice, indeed.

I know what you're thinking. The answer is yes. Yes, I did allow my boyfriend to hold a drawer with his feet as he drilled these holes. All in the name of blog photography. Don't judge me.



We drilled new holes through both drawers, from the inside out, then screwed each knob onto the front. When doing this, it's important to choose carefully with regards to the length of your screws. If they're too long (which may be unavoidable), you may end up having to add a few washers to avoid the piece moving around too much or being loose, which is just, well, obnoxious.







With the knobs good-to-go on the two drawers, the top hole was a bit more difficult.  Of course. How could it be a project if something didn't go awry? It's like... Newton's Law. Or Carly's Law.

What's wrong with the top hole? Well, it is not actually a pull out drawer, like the other two. Instead, it has a metal piece inside, so we couldn’t just drill through it.






Instead, we decided to spackle the hole and let it dry, then superglue the knob on (since it won’t be used for pushing or pulling, anyways).

We used a C-Clamp to hold the knob on as the Superglue dried.

Aaanddd... drumroll please...

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So let's review the three stages of jewelry box life, shall we?

 

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Rustic Hardware & Faucet Coat Hanger

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Justin and I quite recently gave his living/dining room a makeover. After putting so much effort into such a small space, it quickly became apparent how important tidiness is. The simple act of dropping my coat and bag on a chair when I walked through the door was enough to somehow unbalance the beautiful room.

And thus, the need for a coat hanger was born.

After various discussions about purchasing a coat hanger (we were seriously considering purchasing deer antlers and painting them white or red to mount as hooks), some real, genuine, bona fide inspiration came my way. As I strolled down the aisles of Ace Hardware, a Boiler Drain (yes, you read that right) jumped out at me. Yes, it jumped. Out of the basket and into my hands (and heart, oh, the drama).

Thirty minutes, two sales associates, and 5 picture messages later, my arms were filled with two Boiler Trains, a piece of wood, and a Sink Faucet.

After deciding on our hardware, the good folks at Ace Hardware gave our wood a good drilling (and cutting, oh my). We walked out with these goodies...

Our first consideration was to make sure our "assemblage" strategy would work to secure the Boiler Drains to the wood.

To assemble the pieces in a way that solidly and dependably attaches the Boiler Drain 'hooks' to the wood, we needed a "nipple" that screws into the back of the Boiler Drains, goes through the hole drilled in the wood, and then screws into a pretty thick washer on the other end of the wood.

Once the Boiler Drain was attached, we simply screwed the center "faucet" into the wood. Because the threading on the faucet was on the outside (as opposed to the Boiler Drains, which were threaded on the inside), the initial hole in the wood was drilled to be just small enough so that we were able to hand-screw it in, creating threads in the wood as we pushed it through.

Because the wooden shelves lining Justin’s walls are a much darker wood than what Ace Hardware had on hand, the first order of business was to stain the wood to match (or at least pass for matching). We un-attached the Boiler Drains and faucet and stained the wood using an old can of cherry wood stain.

After staining the wood with an old brown washcloth, we left it to dry for a full day (which is quite an accomplishment for someone this impatient...).

Post-staining, we hand screwed the faucet back into the wood, silently praying the wood wouldn’t splinter any more than it already had. We then screwed nipples (yes, that’s actually the technical term) into each Boiler Drain and added the bolt on the back to secure them.

We're hanging it this week! Will keep you updated :)