DIY Farmhouse Bench

Hi everyone! I'm so excited today to be sharing a DIY Chase & I just did yesterday! It's been a long time coming but we finally got around to completing the bench for our dining room table! I shared our DIY on the table a few posts back so if you missed it, just click here to see that and get the plans. My dad and Chase built it about it 6 or so months ago and we have loved it ever since!

We got the 4 dining chairs from Target and I was stuck trying to figure out whether or not we should get two more or just build a bench but if you have kids, you know why we picked a bench ;) I've had to scrub the dining chairs multiple times for spills but my love of white runs deep so I just can't get myself to pick any other color. Thank you God for Scotch Guard though! 

The bench is also made from Ana White plans (love her!) and is absolutely perfect! The project estimates for about $15 bucks if you have most of the tools already. Chase and I discovered a wood pile that's open 6 days a week that's wood from shipments (hello pallets!) and just extra wood from construction that they end up composting so you can take as much as you want. I mean, is this real life? So thanks to that, we have an endless list of new projects but that is where we got our wood from for this so essentially this bench was FREE! The piece on the left is what the wood looked like when we got it & the right is after the nails were taken out and it was sanded down.

Chase says the plans are relatively easy and you can do it all in one day. I just stained it this morning the same as the table but did a matte polyurethane finish so the colors between the table and bench vary slightly but I actually really like it. The color we used was Minwax Early American which is a bit darker than it shows on the can so I'm happy about that! 

Check out the plans for the bench here. These would be so nice outside too! Have you guys used any of Ana White's plans before? Let me know what you think about the bench and table :) I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving - remember,  calories don't count ;)