Little Black Bench: A Makeover Story
I am SO excited to finally get to share this with you all today! I can’t believe it finally happened!
So, back in June, I bought this little cherry bench off Facebook Marketplace, or rather, my Father-in-Law picked it up for me and my in-laws ended up making it my birthday present (thank you both!).
It sat in the garage for a long while, because…
…once I got the layers of dust off it and my husband saw how pretty the wood was, he didn’t want to let me paint it! This was actually like a full-blown marital disagreement! I will admit that I wasn’t expecting it to be in such excellent shape, and I had no idea from the listing that it was solid cherry. Based on the photo and the price, I was expecting a rough old bench!
I was actually experiencing some major “wood guilt” about painting it as well. However, it was much too red for my taste and it completely clashed with our floors and everything around it! What good was that?
My line of thinking is this:
Something can be the nicest piece in the world, but if it doesn’t meet your needs and fit your tastes, it doesn’t do you much good!
Now obviously I could have just painted it in spite of my husband’s protests and been done with it, but for the sake of marital harmony, and because I too was having doubts, I decided to sit on it (haha, get it?) for a while and be sure it’s what I wanted to do – and give hubby time to come around to the idea. And he did. š
Sidenote: The listing photo was very cleverly taken to hide the fact that the bench’s legs were completely crooked! It wasn’t mentioned in the description or anything. I had no idea that the bench was going to need repair until my Father-in-Law brought it to my house. (He was not aware that I didn’t already know about the legs being crooked.) Thankfully, my husband is handy and was able to pry the legs off and re-glue them all, but man was I annoyed! Please please please, if you’re selling something online, don’t be deceptive like that!
I mean, look at how crooked it was (please ignore the poor photo quality):
And the bummer about FB Marketplace is that once the seller takes down the item, you can’t leave a seller review. The seller took the listing down as soon as the bench was taken, so I couldn’t leave any feedback! Ugh!
*Deep breath*
Moving on… š
My husband very kindly fixed the legs for me, and I gave it two coats of Fusion Mineral Paint in Coal Black. Just like that, the bench was transformed, and I couldn’t be happier!
Amazing what a little paint can do, eh?
I had originally considered painting the bench a charcoal gray, but when I saw Lauren at Bless’er House paint a darling vintage desk with Fusion Mineral’s Coal Black, I was sold! What she said about every room needing a “little black dress” is so true!
Oh, and if you’re wondering about those botanical prints on the wall, you can get them for free here on the blog! š
Do you have any fun FB Marketplace (or Craigslist, etc.) stories? I’d love to hear them! Drop me a comment below!
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