Rustic Stamped Bench PB Knock Off

My hubby finally had Thanksgiving off, I was beyond excited!  He works weekends so when he told me he had FOUR whole days home, I begged him to build me a Pottery Barn bench!  We are huge fans of Ana-White.com.  Nate built these beds for our boys  [which I have yet to paint but that's a post for another day] so he figured this bench would be a cinch.




Love it!!  It's one step closer to getting my dining room completed.  I just want to sit at the table with all 4 kids every meal, it's a simple request.  Right now they're on the bar stools, we're at the table.  [Anyone else out there not sitting at the table with your kids?? I hate it...]


Here's a small glimpse of where I was on Monday...

See how much seating we'll finally have for our family of 6??  With the bench, we can eat together in close quarters.  

Here's a full shot for the fun before/after affect:

Bonus: it matches the 4 bar stools I recently re-did:

[Before: 2 black, 2 red, non-matching. After: 2-Tone: Stain/Blue]

A quick DIY on painting these bar stools [same as I did for the bench]:

Step 1) Sand. Step 2) Stain seat. Step 3) You may need up to 3 coats depending on preference.  Step 4) Paint and glaze legs [this was taken before I glazed, fyi]. *Don't forget 2 coats of poly!!


I love the bar stools.  I got the 2 red ones from Ross years ago [$20/ea] but was never able to find 2 more to match [for my 4 kids]. Then we moved and they sat in storage.  Once we got into this house over the summer, I found 2 more on Craigslist [$20/total].  I finally have a matching set on the cheap, whoot!


Okay I'm off task, back to the bench...soon the matching dining room table and chairs will be completed.  Oh!-did you see the patterned wall in the background in the first pic?  Consider that your sneak peek of my fully finished dining room... hint: a giveaway for the pattern may or may not be included upon final reveal early next week...

Of course I had to customize my bench.  I wanted a bigger statement than just 2-tone stain/paint.  I thought a post mark would be cute so I got to thinking and came up with a custom stamp for the corner, just a subtle little reminder of the man who built me this beaut.

To create the stamp, I altered Graphique's French post mark image. [We received 25 images total from them as a prize when we won Season 3 of the American Crafter competition]  Cute right??  We simply saved it as a jpg, imported it into our vinyl cutter program, altered it and came up with this:

[Graphique's French Post Mark / Lolly Jane's Marriage Stamp]

Get it?-The place we got married + our wedding date.  ;)  

Start with your bench. Brush on 1 coat of stain. Apply vinyl stamp. Press as hard as you can. Apply 2nd coat of stain. Peel off vinyl. 

I thought it was a fun way to dress up the bench.  Something more than plain ol' stain ;)

Next week I'll post pics of the dining room set all finished up with a custom twist as well.  And of course, that crazy yellow wall!

ps: Want your own stamp? Available for purchase HERE.
pps: Linkin up here.