A Hand-Me-Down Bench

A little fact about me; I LOVE learning about my family's history.  I could look into genealogy all day long and never get bored.  I'm the girl that could sit and listen to my Grandparents for hours talking about their parents and their childhood.  I jut love all that stuff.  So when I get an heirloom from one of my grandparents I treasure it.

Well, several years ago now I inherited an heirloom of sorts...my Gramma gave me a sewing bench/stool....even though I didn't own a sewing machine.  So as you could imagine the little bench just sat and sat -- it moved from room to room and then house to house.  I always had it in the back of my mind to redo it, but never did.  Well now that I have a sewing machine (thanks to my ultra sweet hubby!) I for sure wanted to use the little bench.  Especially when I found out the bench used to be my Great Grandma's, and then my Gramma's and now mine.  I thought about all the little things my Gramma had sewn for me over the years and imagined her sitting at the same bench working away....and then I imagined her mother using the SAME bench.  Maybe not exciting for you -- but for me -- I couldn't be more excited!

But the little hand-me-down bench needed a little recovering -- it was just looking a little plain and well, a little sad.

The coolest thing about this bench is it opens up and has tons of storage for spools and bobbins and such (sorry no pictures!).  I began by removing all the staples that held the vinyl fabric onto the bench.

Now this is where it gets interesting.  As I removed the fabric and pulled it off the frame of the bench....a picture of five children fell out.

Hmmmm....who are these people?  I honestly have no clue -- but I'm SO excited to bring the photo over to my Gramma and Grampa's to find out.  I seriously felt like I was in a movie..or a really bad soap opera -- well, minus all the glamor.  I was in the hot, dirty garage in my paint clothes, hair a mess and listening to my husband's cranked up music while he washed his car.  I'm guessing had this been a scene in Hollywood, I would have been in some hot-off-the runway, impractical outfit; hair just perfectly styled; neatly taking my fabric off of my bench, in my immaculate workshop/craft room...oh, and some strings playing in the background.  Not one thing in that kind of scene is like me -- my projects are usually include a disaster area that looks like a tornado came through.  Although, I must say, I much prefer real life!

So for now I have no idea who these people are -- even my dad didn't know.  So it's a mystery for now.

But back to the makeover (that is of course why your reading, yes?).  I decided to recover the little bench and paint the legs.  I scored some FABULOUS savings at Joanne's on my fabric -- I found a remnant that was just perfect for my bench and the best part is -- it was $3.49 -- oh yes, that's right -- $3.49 for some wonderful fabric -- I love a good deal!

Reattaching the fabric was pretty easy -- I just stapled the fabric on the inside and pulled it taut.

Didn't it turn out perfect??  I'm LOVING my new bench -- I can't wait to use it! 

Total cost for the whole thing?  $3.49 for the fabric and $2.10 for the elastic around it.  $5.59 total (plus I get a hopefully interesting story when I find out who's in that picture!)

I'm linking up to these parties today.