Things I Make - Telephone Bench

Here's a little make-over I've had on my mind for a while now.

BEFORE

This is a telephone table.  Back in the day, a telephone was plugged into the wall, Children. And it rang like this "Brrrrrrrrring."  It did not take pictures or play music or connect to the internet or that nutty thing called texting.   It was only for making phone calls and you could only use it in the place it was plugged into the wall.  You were limited by the length of your cord and if you were lucky you had a really, really long, curly cord so you could crawl under the kitchen table and hide from your siblings a little bit while you talked to your boyfriend.  But I digress.

AFTER

The telephone table was nicely designed to hold not only the telephone, but also telephone books.  Children, those are the things that are in plastic bags that get dropped off at the end of our driveway that we put straight into the recycling bin.  OH!!!!  the Children say.

Nowadays, this little bench lends itself to new uses.  Like a bench by the door to put on shoes. Or a kid's bedroom where they can sit on it and.... text (ironic, huh?)  Or they cover it with clothes they try on, decide not to wear and ultimately put in the dirty clothes pile. 

I spray painted this after taking off the wooden pieces with a screw driver.  And it took way more spray paint than you would think because of those round tube surfaces.  It required all of the partial can I had on a hand, a trip to the store, and another can to finish it.

Then with the cushions, I used a little stack of fabric book samples to make a patchwork cover. That took about as much time as the trip to the store.  Obviously, it would be simpler with a single piece of fabric to cover the seat and arm-rest, but I am trying to use up what I have on hand. Charleigh really like the part when I stapled the covers on.  She shot a couple of the staples into the seat for her contribution to the project.

The spray paint was nice and dry by the time I finished sewing the covers, so I just screwed the pieces back on and it's done.

(Find this little gem at the Fayetteville Trading Post very soon.)