Mud-room, Kitchen, Foyer . . . Maybe?

My Mother bought me this neat little bench that was made from an old twin bed. It must be a common style because I've seen many of these benches at flea markets and antique stores. My goal was to make this one very unique! It took quite a while to come up with the idea of what I was going to do. then, it hit me . . .

I live in Tennessee where there are many farms, horses, and of course our neighboring state is Kentucky (I'm actually about 45 minutes from KY). It just made sense to create a rustic, farm-house-style bench that could be used in a mud-room or a kitchen, even an foryer would work. 

My Mother painted a beautiful pastural scene on the back of the bench with horses, green grass and rolling hills. I added a plaster border of leaves around her artwork and then painted the border with a dusting of slight bronze. The next step was to paint the entire bench "Black Raisin," a very pretty, soft, brown, Sherwin Williams color.

The finishing touch was the delightful cushion that one of my sisters made out of chocolate and cream mattress ticking. The cushion fit the bench like a glove! She even made little notches on each corner to accommodate the corner posts! What neat work she does!

Thank goodness for a talented Mother and sister! I will be taking it tomorrow to a wonderful shop near Nashville to see if some of their shoppers may be interested in buying it for a Chirstmas present. Wish me luck!