Trash to Treasure – Bench

If you have followed me for awhile then you know that it is usually my husband that finds me good furniture in the trash (that I then turn into treasure). However, this month a friend of mine who is a realtor and just sold a house in her neighborhood, texted me a picture of a huge pile of nice furniture that this client had put out for the trash. Good stuff too. She knows I like to makeover furniture so she said she thought of me immediately.

Some of these items were not run of the mill junk you usually find out for the trash. So my husband and I went over there and took a bunch of things. Most were fairly decent pieces that won’t need much work. However, this Pier 1 bench needed a good makeover, as you can see from the photo below. Here is how I gave this Trash to Treasure Bench a coastal farmhouse makeover.

NOTE: you can see all my past Trash to Treasure projects here.

Step 1, Sand…

First, I started by sanding the top. This was the longest step but it really didn’t take me too long. Maybe 45 minutes or an hour total. NOTE – please make sure you wear a safety mask and googles when sanding.

Step 2, Clean…

Next, you need to make sure you clean up all the dust after sanding to prep the area for painting.

Step 3, Paint the Legs…

Then, using some painters tape, I taped off the top part of the bench and then put some scrap paper on the top to protect it from the paint. I had a can of white spray paint with a built in primer so I used that.

At this point, you could also choose to stain the top. I really liked how the natural wood looked so I chose to keep it as is.

Step 4, Top Coat, Polycrylic…

Lastly, after the paint dried, I used a polycrylic as my top coat. I prefer the MinWax. I applied 3 coats to the entire piece.

The finished product…

And here it is all done….This was one of my easiest makeovers and it looks so much better with a fun coastal farmhouse look. Thankfully I was able to sell this on Facebook Marketplace fairly quickly.