Just like me... colorful, and kinda worn out

I'm absolutely giddy over how this bench turned out. I love the shabby, worn down look, and the bright red color, and the bird silhouette. If this bench were a man, I'd marry it.

The bench started as a bunkbed. We only needed one bed, the second half was taking up space in my son's bedroom. So, at my request, my husband turned it into a bench. Isn't my hubby sweet? The headboard is the back of the bench, the sides are the footboard, cut in half. It was originally painted white, and much too glossy for my taste. I don't have a really great "before" photo, so half a picture will have to do.



It took a LOT of coats of red paint. Yeah, I should have started with a tinted primer, but I didn't want to buy another can of paint. Here are a couple of my helpers.





After I'd gotten the whole thing painted red, I attacked it with the power sander. Ahhh.... I love that thing. In a matter of minutes, my perfect paint job was destroyed. You should have seen the head shaking by my husband. Next I added a brown antiquing medium over all the exposed wood and around all the edges. A little more sanding, a little more paint, a little more antiquing.



Finished it off with a bird silhouette from Uppercase Living (added more antiquing medium to that too). And ta-da! My perfect, absolutely divine bench!



And, I think it's growing on my husband. Perhaps I'm making progress.