This year, I really wanted to make our porch into the perfect relaxation/hang-out space for our family. In order to do this, I decided that we needed a bench so that we would have more room for everyone to sit. So I headed out to The Project Pile… Did some digging… And this is what I found!

This super-old headboard that has probably just been hiding out there for like maybe three years now!? I had picked it up from a local thrift store hoping to someday make a bench out of it — and that day had finally come!

We ended up having some two-by-fours and plywood on hand, leftover from the garage shelves that my husband built for us. I decided that these materials could work perfect for our new bench, and then set to work!

I measured, marked, and cut all of my two-by-fours so that they would sit inside of the head-board and foot-board. 

I ended up with four long ones for the length of my bench, and four little ones for the width of my bench.

I then fastened my two-by-fours together to make each of the frames of the exact same size.

My husband Matt, helped me fasten my frames to the head-board and foot-board.

Can you believe it?! Matt and I built something together and we are still alive to talk about it! I’m not saying that it went smooth as ice or anything, but we did it, and it turned out great! 

Here’s what it looked like at this point… Not too pretty, but getting there… Maybe?! Oh and ignore the giant mess in the garage, in the background of this photo! There’s chalk dumped everywhere and toy-tools mixed in with ours. Quite the disaster area! 

But sometimes that’s what it takes to keep my two little helpers fully occupied for the entire time that it takes us to DIY something! We always try to keep Miss Lacee Grace busy with drawing or painting, or whatever works, and we always keep a play pen in the garage so Miss Soffia Rose can hang out and nap out there with us!

Now, back to the bench… Matt and I next measured our plywood and used our table saw to cut it. Then we fastened it to our bench.

We could have just called our bench done at that point, (other than the painting part), but I really, really wanted to add some arm rests to it, so we used some more two-by-fours and devised what we could!

Finally, it was time to paint! Yahhh!!!

Of course our three-year-old wanted to help with this part…

And she did such a good job! 

Here are some pretty photos for you to enjoy of our new bench:

The nice thing about this bench is that it looks great without cushions…

And great with them, as well! Super versatile!

I couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out, and I think that it’s safe to say that Miss Soffia Rose is pretty impressed too!

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Here are some other posts from The Project Pile that you might enjoy:

Hutch Make-Over with Chalk Paint!

Chalk Paint Tried and Tested (I finally did it!)

A Rustic Fall Front Porch, using Some of my Favorite Antique Pieces!

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