porchswings n' honeysuckle: Shabby Chic Entryway

As I type this, I am in one of my favorite places of all time. I am sitting out on our back deck, surrounded by crickets, tree frogs, Cicadas, toads and other musical little creatures singing their hearts out. It is pitch dark around me and everyone is in bed but me. I love times like this. We are so blessed to be able to enjoy God’s wonderful creation. He could have made everything less beautiful, less musical, less colorful, but no, he chose to create amazing things for us to enjoy. It’s hard to imagine, but we know heaven will even be so much more than what we have here!

I’m having a lot of fun these days working on things around our home. I also have a few pieces of furniture waiting to be refinished that people dropped off, but nothing that needs to be done immediately. (which is always nice) :)

I woke up one morning recently with an idea for an entryway bench/shelf combination in my head. Now don’t judge me, but I sometimes dream up ideas. Literally, during the night. I know it sounds weird, but I do. For years I never talked about it, but lately I’ve come to realize this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s like getting two birds with one stone. You sleep to get rest and “think” up something to create at the same time. This is saving time since the “thinking up” part sometimes takes longer than the creating. :)

Anyway, I got this chest of drawers at my aunt’s garage sale recently…

Using a skil saw, I cut the bottom drawer and legs off.

Here it is all sanded and ready for paint.

I also had plans to turn the broken drawer into a wall shelf. Nothing goes to waste in my shop. :)

I painted both pieces with chalk paint that I made. So far I haven’t gotten around to posting on here how I make my chalk paint, so if you want to know, you will have to buy my book. :) In there I share three recipes that I’ve tried out and found to work quite well.

So, after applying two coats of chalk paint, I topped it with Annie Sloan clear wax. I love the feel of a waxed surface!

Unfortunately I didn’t do a very good job of taking pictures as I went, so we’ll jump to the final result..

I spray painted the pulls on the drawer and made a seat out of old barn wood, all sanded and varnished.

The cushion cover I had made several years ago out of an old sweater, so I just added the word “hello” to give it an entryway appeal. I cut out the fabric letters, using stencils. I then hot glued them onto the cushion.

For the drawer shelf, I added a header and a hook board to it. I wanted to instill a shabby chic/ vintagey look to this shelf, so I cut out a rectangle section of an old sheet and glued it onto the back. I then placed chicken fence over that, using small nails to hold it into place.

I was impressed how well the real Hydrangeas match with the printed ones on the sheet!

I dug these cardboard boxes out of storage. I had originally painted them black, so I used Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg Blue chalk paint and repainted them. I distressed them and added little vintage labels. The design on the labels is from an an old check that came from my great great grandparents. I added the flowers, using Microsoft Office Word.

The hat comes from my Grandpa, who just recently passed away at 95 years old. Mom said her and her sisters used to wear it when they were working out in the fields years ago.