DIY Desk To Bench

Hi its Jill from Reimajine! We named this desk/bench “Edward” This was my hubby Ron’s creation. I missed getting an actual before picture of the desks so I’m sharing one of the style of desk we used. Our actual desk was in pieces and missing the top and quite older than the one pictured.

by Medina

This DIY desk to bench project was submitted by Jill and Ron from Reimajine. They are both members of our Home and DIY Facebook group. All posts submitted by Jill and Ron can be found HERE.

A DIY desk to bench transformation

Hi its Jill from Reimajine!

We named this desk/bench “Edward” This was my hubby Ron’s creation.

Materials used

Reclaimed lumber that was salvaged from a barn built in the early 1800’s here in Massachusetts.
An antique desk
Headboard and door
Salvaged new old stock pipes
Vintage oak cabinet.
CeCe Caldwell’s Pittsburgh Gray and Vermont Slate.
Country Chic Midnight Sky
Varathane Gloss polyurethane.

How to:

I missed getting an actual before picture of the desks so I’m sharing one of the style of desk we used. Our actual desk was in pieces and missing the top and quite older than the one pictured.

Ron started by separating the side panels of the antique desk from the drawers. On the left side he used them in a similar fashion to their original build just wider to accommodate more storage.

On the right side he put the two panels back to back and joined them together. The top, bench seat and interior shelf were all crafted from the reclaimed lumber.

Next up he had to come up with a plan for the cabinet door opening. He decided to pull apart the original drawers and use just the drawer fronts, it would give you the feel of the original desk but with more usable storage.

He mounted the drawer fronts on a piece of wood he salvaged from an antique headboard.

Next up was deciding on the seat back since the original sides of the drawers were solid wood he decided to use those as the seat back. The picture below shows the seat back prior to paint.

He also still needed a piece of salvaged wood for the front of the seat bench. If you remember our door project he used a leftover piece from the antique doors we used in that project.

In this close up of the bench front you can see we saved the original paint in the antique door and this is how we chose the paint colors for this project.

We sealed all the reclaimed wood with Varathane gloss.

The space under the bench was painted in Midnight Sky and the body of the bench was base coated in Pittsburgh Gray and then Layered with Vermont Slate.