Faux Metal Benches X Three

 Happy Sunday!  I've had it in my mind for awhile now that I wanted to build a bench for the foot of my bed.  Mainly, because every time Janie jumps off the bed, I feel her joints getting damaged.  My bed is abnormally high- I have to lift myself up to get on it myself.  So every time she jumps off, I cringe, knowing it's a long way down for her little legs.  My thoughts were if I could build something half the height of the bed, she'd take "steps" down, alleviating some of the force when she lands.  

I went searching for inspiration on Pinterest and found this.  

I knew right off the bat that I didn't want tufted.  But I liked the simple base of this bench.  I also knew I could make if for far less than $312.  I could actually make THREE of them for less than $312.  Boom.  

Last weekend I headed to the store to get the wood- ended up needing ten eight foot 2 X 2's.  Then I picked up gold spray paint.  

Once home, I made all of the cuts- sixteen 36" pieces, sixteen 15" pieces, and 36 14" pieces.  The end bench would be 36" wide, 19" tall, and 18" deep.  Roughly.  

I didn't take a photo of the sixteen 14" pieces- but you get the idea.  

Then I started assembling them.  

Then came time to wood fill the screw holes and wait for that to dry.  Then I sanded and did another pass through with the wood filler to get each little bit filled.  Then I sanded again.  After that came time to spray them.  

I thought I got the gold that I normally get.  But I didn't.  

This one was way too yellow.  I had a little bit left in a can of my normal gold.  That's the below.  

I definitely liked this gold better.  So searching all around town I went.  Seriously- I went to 4 different stores and none of them carried this brand and color anymore.  Whomp whomp.  I ended up buying a completely different gold and I like it.  It's not my favorite, but it looks like gold.  After 3 coats, letting them dry for a few hours in between coats, I started on the seat.  

I have a lot of extra pieces of plywood in my garage of various sizes so I knew I wouldn't have to go get a sheet for the seats.  That saved me about $50.  Yesterday I went back into the garage, found three pieces that were big enough and cut them down to 36" X 18".  Then I sprayed them with adhesive spray and put the 2" foam padding on them.  

Then I wrapped them with batting and stapled it onto the bottom. 

Then I did the same with the remaining gray velvet curtain.  

And then I attached the seat to the bench.  

Here is one of the benches in my master bedroom.  

And here are two of them.  

Isn't she adorable?  Now to get her to actually use them.  

The third one went into my front spare room as Janie sits on that bed during the day when I'm working upstairs.  

It's actually going to stay off-centered because there isn't a lot of room between the foot of the bed and the dresser.  

Total cost- wood $118, foam and batting $78, plywood $0, spray paint (4 cans) $16, and one panel curtain $30.  Grand total- $242 for all three.  Now if you had to purchase plywood it'd cost you a bit more.  But not too bad, right?  

Now hopefully they don't turn into the dumping ground for my laundry.