DIY

So, this is my first DIY post of what I hope becomes many!  I am always dreaming up projects I want to do around my apartment, but actually getting around to doing them is a different story.  I've just finished a DIY that ended up being SO easy and fun and I love the way it turned out.  This may be motivation to do more projects soon!

Remember quite some time ago when I wrote about my love for the X-Bench?  And I mentioned how I wanted to buy the Target one and recover it?  Well, I bought it well over a year ago.  I was very impressed with it when I got it - it is well made and actually looked better in person than it did on the internet.  I've also enjoyed having an extra spot to set stuff on or to use as more seating when I have lots of people over.

I liked it the way it was, but I still wanted to spruce it up a bit.  It took me over a year to actually commit and get it done, but I finally spent the past couple of weeks working on it.  Picking the fabric was a tough choice and a process that I started months ago.  I knew I wanted it to be green because that would go with my bedding, but I was really nervous about how bold or not bold to go.  I ended up pinning a bunch of fabric images to Pinterest so I could look at them side by side.  From there I narrowed it down to 4 choices and ordered swatches so I could see them in person.  I was  leaning heavily towards a green chevron stripe from the beginning, but it took a while to pull the trigger!  I got the fabric about a month ago and finally got to recovering the top 2 weekends ago.  I am so glad that's the fabric I went with.  Even though I started to wonder if I was too far behind the game on chevron stripe.  Then, this week Emily Jones posted how she still loves the chevron stripe, so if she's still using it, I certainly can, too!  Her post definitely reaffirmed my choice!

After recovering the top, I sanded, primed, then painted the base with 2 coats of white.  I didn't like the sanding part very much, but the priming and painting were super quick and easy.

And here is the finished product!

I love, love, love the way it turned out.  It's exactly what I wanted.  In fact, I like it so much and it was SO easy that I kind of want to do it again!  Target doesn't sell this exact model anymore, but they have another x-bench (that I found for even cheaper at another store online).  I'm seriously thinking about buying that one and painting the base black and recovering the top with a pink or blue fabric (preferably pink AND blue, but I'm having trouble finding that) for my living area - as an ottoman/coffee table in front of my couch.  We'll see if I ever get around to it though!!

Oh, and I had to get rid of the rug you see in my before pics.  It never really went well there anyway, but now it really doesn't fit in.  I'm trying to sell it on craigslist, but no luck yet (but I did sell a printer for $30 last weekend that I got for FREE when I bought my laptop!!).  I'm hoping to replace the rug with something that goes better and that I like better soon!