I know I promised the full living room reveal today but best laid plans means that there are a couple of little things I need to do yet!  Weekends always go by so much faster than the rest of the week and all the little jobs didn’t get done.  So I’ll try to wrap that up as soon as I can and hope for some sunshine so I can get decent pics.  Gotta love the British Summer!

In the meantime, I do have a little before-and-after to share with you…

You may remember from this post that we found a ratty, broken bench at the back of the garden when we first moved in.  She had been neglected, missing her seat almost entirely and decidedly unusable.  There were bushes growing through her when we found the old girl but she still had good bones.  We both knew she would be worth saving for a little extra outdoor seating.

This is after the new seat was created so she was actually in  worse condition previous to this pic.  If you can imagine that…

And save her we did.  She got a new seat thanks to a few floor boards that were ripped out of the living room plus some nails and wood glue so she was sturdy again to fit two giddy 30somethings who sometimes like to just sit in the evenings outside facing the back of their house wondering how they got so lucky.

We sanded off the grime and the bird poo and wiped her down.

And brought her back from the dungeon cellar so she can get a little sunshine while she was given a new coat.

I then applied a bit of left over (suitable-for-outdoor) stain used on the living room floor.

She’s looking pretty good these days and she’s got a new home at the end of the garden.

Cost of this makeover?  Nada.  Nothing.  Zero.  Zip.  My kind of makeover.  We had everything we needed so it was only time.  And to be fair, all in, it only took a few hours to transform her completely.

Gok Wan, eat your heart out.

Have you had any ready-for-the-skip garden furniture brought back to life with a little bit of lovin’?  Tell me about it in the comments…