New Look For My Benches {Grain Sack Stripes}

I'm sure my mom is rejoicing to see I've redone these benches, HOWEVER, I'm sure I'll be getting a call from her 2.4 seconds after she reads this post!  

A sweet lady that lives nearby asked if I'd be willing to trade a couple chairs I had for these benches.  Benches were just the thing I wanted at my kitchen table!  So we made the swap.  Here's what the looked like:

I painted them white with a black harlequin stencil on the top.  My mom, however, was never very fond of them and hinted every chance she got that they just didn't roll with my decor.  Once I go to the work of something like a tedious stencil, I'm not in too big of a hurry to change it.  Okay, so harlequin isn't really tedious, but it still took time! Matching or not!  Plus, I liked the whimsy. I also got positive comments on them on the blog so hurrmph.  

She finally figured out how to get rid of my beloved harlequin.  "Oh I know, I'll use them to stand on while I paint up high!  Then I'll drip blue paint all over them... and she'll have no choice but to repaint them!  :)

It worked.  Although it wasn't real high on my priority list, so they stayed sloppy looking for a couple months.  Then suddenly, I was facing one to two hundred people coming to my house!  I started painting doors that needed painting, and other spots that I'm sure the couple hundred never would notice, but you know how it is!  Now, I'm one of those people that if I have paint on a roller.... before I wash it out I'm running around my house waving the roller going hmmmmm what needs a quick coat of white high gloss paint?!  Ah HA!  The benches.  High gloss was so perfect for these - easier to clean up when the kids dump their plate of spaghetti, or decide it looks like a great marker board.

 I just used simple painters tape to tape off my stripes and used a home made chalk paint in a dark gray for my first coat.  Then I used the gray paint without adding the plaster of paris for the top coat.  Perfect!  They've already held up under the studs and bling on the back of my little girl's pockets scraping over them.  Phew!  Here's a recant of how they've morphed:

And now I'll wait for that call from my mom...........

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My Repurposed Life