Craft:

1950s Dressing Table Bench

I picked up this little 1950s Dressing Table Bench at an estate sale last weekend here in Vancouver, Washington.  It was in the basement, dirty, covered in paint splashes and sporting rubbed off spaces.  The seat cover was made of upholstery fabric that looked like carpet.  I paid $5.00.

I cleaned it up a bit on Sunday and popped the top off.  After I removed the carpet/cover, the cushioning material was actually in good condition with no spots or holes and it didn't smell bad as I'd expected it would.  I decided to keep the original padding.  

I chose this fabric to cover the seat.  I got a pretty big piece of it, about 2 - 60 inch yards, at a store closing a few years ago.  

I sanded the wood and gave the piece a once over with white primer.

While it dried, I stapled the fabric to the seat top.  I got confused with Mr. G's stapler and put a row of stables along the middle instead of along the edge before I realized where the staples were going!  Once I turned the stapler around I did fine, pulling the fabric snug and stapling all the edges.  I folded the corners so they are a little unsatisfactory but they are holding well.

In all I gave the wood two coats of primer and then two coats of this green paint.  I had a quart of it in the garage from one of our forays into a hardware store where we picked up a can or two of "oops" paint (mis-mixed paint) for $1 a can along with our planned purchases.  

I like my little bench. It took me one day to finish this project.  I was lucky and got a sunny day or it would have taken much longer! 

I think I'll use it as a footstool but still not sure.  It's kind of tall for that purpose.  It took only $5 + items I had around the house.