Upcycling an old bench

We're dumpster divers for sure. When I see a pile of stuff in front of someone's house, I can't help but go over and check for some goodies.

It happened again last week when we were walking the dog and saw an old outdoor bench upside down. It was one of those benches that is part wood, part iron.

The bench was missing several wooden seat slats and was in rough shape overall.

If you've ever thought of upcycling an old bench, or any old piece of furniture, you can definitely do it.

How to Upcycle an Old Bench

We loved the look of this bench because it has the Palmetto tree and crescent moon, which are the state symbol of South Carolina. We started by breaking it down.

We tore out the three remaining seat slats and threw them out. Then we unscrewed the wooden pieces from the back and saved those.

We went to the store and bought new 1x2 slats for the bench seat and cut them into five 4-foot sections.

Once we had the new bench seats cut, we laid everything out. We spray painted all the wood navy blue (the same color as the state flag) and the iron work all oil-rubbed bronze.

Eventually we got rid of this bench, but turned the iron work into a wall hanging!

This was the first time we got to try out our new Rust-Oleum Comfort Spray Paint Grip that we got in our swag-bag from Haven.

It made spraying this many pieces a breeze and didn't break a finger!

Check out our Facebook Live video from when we sprayed the second side of these pieces.

After both sides of everything was painted, we put the bench back together.

We used all new screws and nuts and bolts because everything else was rusted out and I had even cut some of them off.

We finished it off by spraying sealant over the whole thing. Then, we put it outside behind the fence so we would have a nice view of our lake!

Upcycling an old bench or old piece of furniture may or may not be worth it. We've done many things like this before like when we upcycled a padded bench and an old sewing machine.

Depending on how bad of condition it's in, it might not be salvageable.

But if you see a nice piece of furniture that you think you can upcycle, go for it! If it ends up not working out part way through, oh well, you didn't invest much in it. So go upcycle and share it with us in the comments!