Life gives you lemons, you make a pretty little bench. Or something like that ...

Often times, when I get the idea for one of my projects, I see an old, or discarded piece of furniture and it appears in my mind in the finished state I want to craft it into. On rare occasions, items fall into my lap where the art of beautifying them becomes cathartic. This is one such story.

My husband and I sold a home we owned on a land contract. When the contract was up, instead of getting a mortgage to pay us off as agreed upon, the buyer walked away and gave us back the house. The entire place was a disgusting nightmare that we had no choice but to clean from top to bottom, and air out, before we could even think about selling it. It took an entire weekend to empty it out, and clean it up. During the process, we found a few items that the occupants had simply left behind. One of which was this bench.

It wasn't pretty, by any stretch of the imagination. But, I did like that the two top pieces come off to reveal storage within, and there are trays underneath you can flip over to use as an end table. It looked like a dog had gnawed on one corner, which we were able to fix quite easily by hot gluing a chunk of foam into that spot before we reupholstered it. 

Here we have the beautiful finished product! You guys, this one was so easy! We bought the fabric, pulled it taunt, and stapled it into place. That is quite literally ALL we did. This beauty took us all of about forty-five minutes, and it is one of my favorite decorative pieces in my living room! 

No, the situation under which I acquired this wasn't ideal. It was a tense, stressful time I wouldn't wish on others. That said, I view this finished bench as a visual reminder that even in ugly times, beautiful things can emerge.