Paint Wood Furniture Ideas : The Church Pew

Poooooor poor Tim. Here’s how the saga of the church pews went down…

K: Honey, let’s go for a drive with the kids.

T: Sure, where are we going?

K: Oh, let’s just toodle around downtown.

T: Alright.

K: Oh, can you just pull in here for a second?

T: Why?

K: Brian (my dad) is meeting us here to pick up some 8′ long church pews.

T: CHURCH PEWS? Jesus Christ Kylie, WHAT are we going to do with 8′ long church pews…? (sorry for the sacrilege there, but it is authentic.)

Yes, I bought 2 – 8-foot long church pews (and entirely underestimated how big they REALLY were until I got them home. Oh well, too late now!

I decided that one of them was destined for Maggie’s room – which will be a project for down the road. The other one? Definitely for the dining room…

The bones were there but make no bones about it – the wood would not stay!

So, I decided to try something new this time. It’s frickin’ cold out and I didn’t want to haul it outside, so on the advice of a Home Depot dude I gave it a rough-up with a green scrubby pad (which etched it but produced no dust) and applied Behr 2 in 1 eggshell paint.

And now…

I distressed it (150grit sandpaper to the edges and wear areas) and applied chocolate brown glaze to it (then wiped it off to produce the aged effect)

The result? Well in most spots it distressed quite well, but there were a few spots that ‘peeled’ when I distressed them – meaning the paint didn’t really sink its teeth in and I should’ve scrubbed a bit more with the green scrubby. Overall, I’d say it’s successful though as the paint will only get harder over the next few weeks as it cures.

Now I have a great spot to store my vintage suitcase (another of Tim’s favourite things…not) The salmon coloured stripe on it ties into the church pew perfectly!