Weekend project recap

I have been looking for a new bench for our bedroom for a while now. West Elm and Pottery Barn sell some beauties, but you have to shell out $200-$400. I needed something in the near-free price range. Thus, Ben and I took a trip to Home Depot to build our own.

We were clearly beginners at the hardware store - not knowing which wood, screws, or wood stain to buy. But we swallowed our pride and recruited the help of Mr. Mike in the orange apron. He showed us the ropes and now we'd like to share some tips with you!

Tip #1) If you don't own a saw, plan ahead and make sure you have someone at the store cut the wood for you. We wanted a bench that was about 3 feet in length to fit in our pint-sized apartment. After lugging home five bags of goods on the Metro, Ben was off to work on the bottom part of the bench.

Tip #2) Buy pre-made legs. They are about $3.50 each at the hardware store and when you're painting your bench outside in front of your apartment you get lots of compliments like "those are beautiful legs you've got."

3) Paint outside. Whether you have wood stain or paint, do not paint inside. The fumes will make you go brain dead. But don't sit as close to the street as I did. That is also dangerous.

4) Use push pins (or thumb tacs) to turn your bench right side up when the legs are still wet. Ben and I started staining the bottom of the bench before the top. That meant that we had already painted the legs of the bench. To prevent the legs of the bench from sticking to the newspaper that we laid on the ground, we stuck push pins in the bottom of the legs, lifting the legs an extra inch in the air. Although you can't see the push pins in the picture below, the bench is very happy to not be stuck to the trash bag.

Tip #5) When nothing else will remove the wood stain on your hands, nail polish remover will! It was a life saver when I super glued my fingers together last year, and it was a life saver once again this past weekend when the sticky wood stain wouldn't come off of our fingers. Thank you, nail polish remover.

Stay tuned for a pic of the final product in use!