After finishing up Kristen’s Bedroom Makeover last week, we have finally gotten back to some furniture makeovers! We have a couple of new brands of paint we just received and are trying out on new furniture projects. This sweet little bench was restored and restyled using Fusion Mineral Paint. After my initial prep work of cleaning with a degreaser, lightly sanding with fine grit sand paper, and wiping the dust off (which we do to every piece of furniture no matter what the paint) I applied a coat of Fusion Paint in Homestead Blue.

And Wow! I was soooooo impressed with this furniture paint. It literally glides right on. And just one coat of it covered so well that I couldn’t see any of the fill spots I had just done. Typically I would need to do at least 2 coats in order to cover fill spots even remotely well. But with this one coat I couldn’t tell at all where they were! Yes, ONE coat. It was so impressive.

However I decided to do two coats of paint just for added durability even though it didn’t need it for coverage. Fusion paint has a built in topcoat (Ummmm yes, that’s amazing!) so by applying two coats it makes that built in topcoat a bit stronger.

And the crowing touch to really make this bench something special was to replace the single board slab with planks of cedar for a unique look. I love the different look of the planks running from front to back rather than side to side. It just gives the bench that little extra zing!

I did have to shore up the structure by adding a few boards underneath the planks by using our kreg jig. It was a pretty simple addition to make it stronger and the added boards underneath just helped us even more when adding the planks to the top. We were able to attach the cedar planks not only to the front and back, but all around on the added structure. The cedar was then stained with THIS stain and sealed for a durable finish.

And I absolutely love how this little bench turned out using the beautiful color from Fusion and the new cedar planks. I picture this being used in an entryway, a covered porch or even a sunroom or three season room! It sure looks good on my porch with all those pretty flowers surrounding it!

Stayed tuned with us this summer as we will have a bunch of new furniture makeovers for you as we are trying out these new paint brands. We have some seriously amazing projects planned including an industrial apothecary cabinet, more upholstery pieces, and some very neat colors! Kristen and I can’t wait to share them all with you!