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Hi all, thank you so much for your sweet comments about my master bedroom reveal from earlier this week.  A couple of you guessed the DIY project in the room.  It was the benches at the end of the bed.

My clients and I agreed from the beginning that we wanted to use benches at the end of the bed.  They are both functional and pretty at the same time.

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This lovely from Ballard Designs was the look we wanted, but $1000 for 2 was not going to work for our budget.

 

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We came across these at Target and a light bulb went off.  Although, DIY is not my specialty, I really thought I could pull this off.

 

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With the help of Annie Sloan’s chalk paint in graphite, both the clear and dark wax and my fabulous upholsterer, we were ready to go!

 

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This was the bench after 2 coats of paint.  Remember chalk paint requires no primer.  I literally just painted directly over the shiny faux cherry finish.  While it did look 10 times better, I decided to take sandpaper to the edges to give the benches a bit more rustic, vintage look.  Once the sanding was done, I added a coat of clear wax and then a bit of dark wax to accentuate the sanded areas.

 

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This was the result.

 

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Add the reupholstered seats.

 

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Here they are in the room.

 

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And a closeup of the finish.  To say we were all pleased was truly an understatement.  This was an incredibly easy project that ended up costing just over $200.  Remember the Ballard benches were $1000.  I’ll take an $800 savings any day.

 

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One last room shot, with the finished benches.  What DIY project have you tackled lately?

Tomorrow, I’m headed to Design Blogger’s Conference in Los Angeles.  I am so excited about it and I can’t wait to share it all with you.  I’ll be instagramming and tweeting, so be sure to follow me @Lmayinteriors on twitter and LoriMayInteriors on instagram!  See you next week!