Our Hopeful Home: Pottery Barn paint palette

I swear I've read about a thousand blog posts about how to paint furniture. What paint to use. Whether or not to sand. To prime or not to prime? Brush versus roller. Distress? Wax?

IT'S TOO MUCH INFORMATION, PEOPLE!

Am I the only one who feels this way? My mind has pretty much imploded with the plethora of information out there. So I finally said to myself for crying out loud enough is enough and

JUST DO IT!

I mean, even Miss Mustard Seed must have had a first paint project, right? (Okay, so she was probably born with a paint brush in her hand but I choose to kid myself on this.)

Enter the bench.

I've painted other, much smaller things, but nothing this big. We've had this bench for 8-10 years. When we first bought it it was to go in the kitchen (in our last house). It matched the wood of the cabinets and floors perfectly so it was a no brainer. I loved it there. Then we moved into another house (in another state with another kitchen) and it just never found that same perfect place, you know? Then I got the itch. I mulled the idea around for quite some time, a bit too scared to take the plunge. (Listen to me, you'd think I was talking about something really life-changing or something.) Finally I said what the ---- and put that baby out in the garage for a redo. Mr. CBD was a doll about it, despite how long it took.

Here it's open, cause I wanted you to see that it has storage and I love that about it! I primed the whole thing (except for the inside of it, don't tell anyone). Of course I later came to the conclusion that I really didn't need to prime. Oh well. I also learned that lattice work is a real pain in the butt to do. But I really did want some contrast since the overall color was not very adventurous. (Maybe next time?) Oh, and where there's a liftable bench seat involved, look out -- you need to take the seat off and THEN paint it. And then ~~have Mr. CBD~~ put it back on without messing up all your hard work. And I really am glad I did it, although it took me WAY longer than I thought it would! After priming, I applied two coats of Clark & Kensington Paint & Primer in One (hence the no need to prime first!) It's the new paint from Ace Hardware and I got it FREE with a coupon during one of their latest promotions. I actually brought in a paint card from Pottery Barn's latest palette and they matched it perfectly!

So here she is.

I really love it even more now and think it just fits better into our current decor, if you know what I mean.

I'm not sure why the color went wacky on this photo. I just wanted to show you the detail up close.

I harangued over whether or not to wax it, and finally decided to go ahead and use clear wax. Frankly, I'm not sure what the big deal about waxing is (other than for protection) as I really didn't think it looked any different after I was done. Of course, I may have totally messed it up without even knowing it and that's why! (Again, way too much info online about waxing, it hurt my head to try and figure it all out.)

Although my family wasn't thrilled that I painted it (not happy with change, I think), I'm happy I did it. I'm just a bit less eager to start the next paint project now that I know painting furniture is not as easy peasy a job as many bloggers say it is. Or maybe it will become easy for me, the more I do. Ssshhhhh, don't tell my family I said that.

I hope you all had a blessed and happy Easter. We had a beautiful day that began with an egg hunt, then church, then a nice afternoon in the sun. Back to the grind tomorrow. And putting away all those Easter decorations.......

Hope you all have a great week!

xoxo