Head & Footboard Bench Tutorial

I'm so excited!

I have officially finished my first piece of furniture!

I've been seeing a lot of benches that people have made from headboards and footboards and I loved them...So I thought that would be a good project for me to start with.

I grew up watching my dad take old beat up furniture and pianos and completely restore them to absolute gorgeousness! (is that even a word?? lol..If not I guess it is now)

My brother and husband are also quite handy when it comes to building stuff, but I've never had the chance to try to build something myself.

My husband probably won't like to hear this, (so cover your ears, or in this case your eyes, hunny)...lol..but I'm hooked! Already I have ideas brewing for my next two or three projects...

There's just not enough time or money to get it all done as quickly as I would like..lol

So anyways..enough of my rambling...here's how I made my bench...

The first thing I needed was a solid wood headboard and footboard. I didn't want to spend much on it so I put an ad up on our local Freecycle and within one day I had a this set  for FREE!

I did the majority of the work on the bench myself...but I have to admit I had a lot of help from my husband...He did a lot of supervising and instructing since he was completely convinced I was going to cut off a finger or a body part of some kind. lol

He also helped in drawing up the plans..This is where me and my husband are completely different...I'm more of a pile it all in front of you, scratch out a design on a scrap of paper and start working on it, type of person...He's a little a lot more anal than that..That's not always a bad thing though..

He's a drafter and a planner...so instead of my scratched out design he broke out the AutoCad and made me a 3D picture  :0)

Every bench is going to be different since the headboards, sizes, etc will be different so I'm just going to show you how I made this one and you can adapt yours accordingly.

I made a base using 2x4's, with metal support brackets in the corners

Next we cut down the legs of the footboard.

I then attached the headboard and front legs (from the footboard) to the base.

 Next I used the bottom slat of the footboard as the back bench trim and attached 1x6 to the other 3 sides to match the back and to cover the 2x4 base. I then cut and attached all the top slat pieces.

We then took the two remaining tops from the footboard and cut them here

Then I attached the tops to the front bench legs so that the tops would match the back bench posts

Then it was finally time to start sanding, priming, and painting.
The sanding was by far the worst part of the whole process...
It sucked and it took forever,
but it was worth it.
Chandler came out before he went to bed and wanted to help put on the primer, and he did a great job!
He says he wants to help every time I have to paint something..lol

Here it is finished. 

It ended up a little bigger and a whole lot heavier than I had expected it to be, but I really like it. 

  

It's currently sitting in the kitchen..lol...(please ignore the chore board I haven't updated in a few weeks..the kids are still doing chores, I just haven't been writing them down...oops :0)

This is not going to be its new home, but I still have to do some rearranging first.

I also still have a cushion for the bench and pillows to make, but that will be for another day.

Hope the instructions made sense...If you make a bench using this send me a pic and let me know!

Hope everyone has a good night  :0)

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