Scavenger Chic

DIY Bench from Reclaimed Wood

• By Joan
• June 26, 2024
• 5 Comments

DIY Bench from Reclaimed Wood

I have a new scavenging spot I’ve added to my weekly thrift store rounds.  It’s Black Friday Daily Deals in Laurel, Maryland.  The store is mostly filled with Amazon returns and other overstock.  Starting on Friday, everything in the store is $10,  $8 on Saturday, $6 on Sunday, $4 on Monday, $2 Tuesday, and $1 Wednesday.  On Thursday the store is closed for restocking. 

Lots of sealed boxes you aren’t allowed to open.  Many holiday returns.  Things that were returned broken or had pieces missing.  There are also a lot of treasures.

For a scavenger, this is a perfect place to hunt for that next project.

On $4 day, this is where I found the beginnings of my next project.  A pair of black steel bench legs.

While I loved getting these legs for  $4, the original cost at Amazon is only $ 27.  You can find them here.

Now I just had to raid my stash  of wood and find the perfect bench seat.  And there he is sitting right in front just waiting for me.

It was really easy to figure out how long to make my bench, I just needed to cut off where there was a hole drilled and a notch was taken out of the wood , leaving me with a bench 50″ long and 12″ wide.

In a pinch I could have inserted a dowel into the hole and patched the notch, but 50″ was a great length.

I started with 120 grit sandpaper but quickly switched to a rougher 80 grit when I wasn’t noticing much smoothing action.  On a softer wood, a 120 grit should do the job.

You can tell a lot from a piece of wood by looking at it’s side.  Those nail holes were from plaster lath.  The white lines are where the plaster would have squeezed thru the gaps in the lath. The black tinged wood was either from dirt or perhaps coal dust which many of the old houses were heated with.

This piece of wood is also a true 2×12, unlike current wood pieces which are milled to 1 1/2 x 11 1/2.  My wood was cut some time before 1964.

Back to sanding.  My goal is to sand off most of the dirt and those white splotches.

After  45 minutes of sanding , I got kind of bored and whipped out the electric planer.  My kids gave it to me as a Christmas present several years ago and sometimes it’s the perfect tool. 

I took off a thin layer with the planer then finished up once again with 120 grit sandpaper.

This is a before and after of my bench seat.  I took off all the splintery bits you wouldn’t want to sit on, but left  the markings from the old saw cuts to look like it really was an old piece of wood.

The bench seat was finished with 2 coats of wax.  The first coat was just clear wax, painted on and the excess wiped away.  Let dry.

The second coat was more clear wax with a couple strokes of antique wax.  Paint on the wax, wipe off the excess and once again let dry.

Once the wax is dry, buff with a fine steel wool to pull out the shine of the wax.

Screw on the legs.

Add pads to the bottom of the legs to protect your floors.  These were included with the legs.

Enjoy.

Until next time, stay inspired.

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