Table Into Bench & A Rast Hack

Did you see the Dwell with Dignity Apartment Reveal?! Yeah, still talking about that. I have a couple of quick projects to share that went on in the master bedroom. Neither of them are new to the hardcore DIY’er or pinner out there, so I’m gonna spare you a full tutorial and just smash two things into one. They’re both super easy projects. Here we go.

The nightstands are the mandatory campaign rast hack and the upholstered bench at the foot of the bed used to be a coffee table.

Just a quick run down on the night stands:

Put together the box part of the Rast dresser and leave the drawers un-assembled. Fill the hardware holes with paintable/sandable wood filler, let dry and then sand all surfaces with 150 grit sandpaper followed by 220 grit and wipe down with tack cloth until particle-free. Prime the dresser to keep the wood knots from showing through – I use Zinsser 1-2-3 Spray Primer.  Paint the box and the paint the drawer fronts, let dry, sand with 220 grit paper, wipe with tack cloth then paint again. Repeat that process until you have your desired finish. Mark on the drawer front the spot you want your new hardware and pre-drill your holes. Use the first drawer as a template for the following drawer fronts. Add flat corner braces (we didn’t even measure for that part). Complete assembly. Done,

The paint color used is Royal Flush by Benjamin Moore in latex high gloss enamel. The pulls are Martha Stewart for Home Depot – 3in Bedford Brass Canopy Cabinet pull. The corners are 2 in x 3/8″ in flat corner braces from Ace Hardware. For some reason, they don’t have the gold ones listed on their website, they do have some in their stores, but you gotta do some calling around first. You can also find these at HD but the gold is splotchy, but nothing a little Rustoleum can’t fix.

 The upholstered bench used to look like this:

The GordonDunning duo were telling me that they needed some sort of long skinny bench built and painted navy for the master bedroom. I had this guy sitting in my garage. I made it for Hubs’ man cave when we moved to Georgia. It was just too much for me and now the industrial thing lives there. Anyway, I squealed and told them I had the perfect thing to upholster in my basement. Love it when things work out like that! (ps. HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS?!)

I grabbed some 2 inch foam from Joann’s, cut it to size using a large, serrated knife, attached it to the bench with some hot glue and flipped it top side down onto some fabulous Duralee fabric that was donated to the Dwell with Dignity project. I pulled it taut all the way around, starting in the middle of each side, working my way out and leaving the corners for last. Square corners like this are super easy to finish using the military corner technique. After it was all wrapped up and the corners were finished, I added 2 brass upholstery tacks to both sides of each corner just to finish it off.

Boom! Two super easy, thrifty projects to make over your room!