Gossip Bench Recovered

I decided to recover the gossip bench last week on the sunny day that we had. You have to seize those opportunities in the winter so that you can good pictures, you know? I haven't had a chance to get to the refinishing of the wood. It's also pretty shaky after decades of gossiping, so that will have to be addressed as well. In the meantime, here's the quick little facelift it got that made a big impact.

I started by taking out the menagerie of staples, thumb tacks (why?), and upholstery tacks holding the fabric down. It surprisingly only took about 15 minutes. I put all of the things I pulled out into a 501 so that I wouldn't have to search for them in the carpet later.

The padding in the seat was a really loose cotton. I didn't have the foresight to think of replacing the padding, so I didn't have any on hand. There wasn't really anything wrong with it other than it's a little gross to think about how many people have sat on it and all of that... The old material was really gross.

I think I originally bought a half yard of this outdoor fabric to recover my sewing chair. I had enough left over to recover this seat as well. It is a really wide fabric! This seat had a few tricky notched corners that allow it to set inside the bench without much movement. Whoever previously recovered it didn't screw the seat back onto the frame. I haven't done so yet either because I still have to refinish the wood, which looks pretty rough up close.

Not only did I have enough fabric to recover the seat, there was also enough left over to make a little pillow. Zero waste, every scrap of this fabric was used! BJ was worried that with a dark gray fabric, Annabelle's hair would really stick out and I'd have to clean it all the time. Since I used an outdoor fabric, it is very easy to wipe off! There you have it, part one of the gossip bench re-do done!

Tonight I'm off to Menards to pick up some paint for our booth shelving. We're going down to my mom's house to make it with the help of her carpenter friend so it should be as amazing as I've been dreaming it will be!

P.S. I just can't stop picking up furniture. There is a dressing chair setting next to me that will probably get the same fabric treatment because I'm really in love with the design and it will look great with the chairs coloring. That means a visit to Crafty Planet is in order, and that can be dangerous!