A while back my friend Cathy offered me a vanity bench.  I initially thought it would work with my stenciled vanity/dressing table.  However, when I put them together, they just didn’t suit each other.  The bench is too wide for the vanity.  Nonetheless, it is a fabulous little bench, and I’m sure it will find a good home with another vanity, or maybe just on its own at the foot of a bed.

I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Trophy, and then reupholstered it in a simple linen with a stencil added.

This is so simple to do, and the linen stencils beautifully.  Here are my tools.

A stencil, some craft paint, a stencil brush, paper plate, paper towel, some new batting and some plain inexpensive linen (not pictured).

The original seat to the bench is underneath my supplies.  As you can see, all that was left was a remnant of the original fabric.  I ripped that off, and then cut my linen about 2″ bigger than the seat all the way around.

Now, this next tip is important, so I hope you are paying attention.  You should stencil the fabric on a hard flat surface before you upholster the bench.  You won’t get crisp lines on your stencil if you try to stencil over the batting.  I’ve learned this the hard way.

I just laid my linen flat on a table.  I squirted some paint onto the paper plate, swirled my brush in it, and then blotted it on the paper towel.  You don’t want your paint to go on thick and goopy or runny.  You could tape the stencil in place, but I like to live dangerously, so I just hold it in place.  Then, just stipple the paint on.

The Martha Stewart paint I used dries pretty quickly.  I probably only waited about 10 minutes before continuing on to staple the fabric over a couple layers of new batting onto the seat.

The trickiest part of this process was being sure the design was straight before I stapled the fabric in place.

I just came to the realization that I did a pathetic job staging this one.  I meant to go back and add in some accessories, but I got distracted by laundry and then some gardening.  With the end of daylight savings time, it was getting dark out before I remembered and then it was just too late.

Let’s just imagine there is a lovely rug under this bench instead of my dirty photo cottage floor.  Or maybe a cute pair of shoes stashed under there.

Try to focus on the pretty upholstery and paint job, OK?