French Bench

Materials:

Sultan Luröy, 6 slats for the seat, 4 slats for the construct
Sultan Lade, several remaining pieces for the construct
2 Chairs Jokkmokk
Screws
Jig Saw
Colour & Wax

We had 2 old Jokkmokk chairs which were very unsteady in the meantime. So what to do with them? I didn’t want to throw away old furniture or wood and I always wanted to have a nice window seat in the living room. So the chairs were meant for creating a bench.

First of all I disassembled the chairs because I only needed the back of the them and 2 feet. The back will be the new armrests and the 2 feet will be needed in the middle for stabilisation because I used the Sultan Luröy slats with 140 cm length (and this is really very long for the seat).

FrenchBench1

FrenchBench2

I started (with some help from my husband!) with creating the box for the seating. Therefore I screwed together 3 Sultan Lade slats (cut in the needed length) and 2 Sultan Luröy slats. For cutting the slats I simply used a jig saw, for screwing them together very long screws so I could be sure that it wouldn’t break down when someone sits on it.

When the construct for the seating was finished I realised that the bench needed more stabilisation. So 2 feet from the chair gave more stabilisation in the middle of the bench AND 2 more slats at the bottom in the front and on the backside. Now the construct was ready for painting. I used Annie Sloan “primer red” and “chateau grey” and finished with a little bit sanding for the shabby style.

FrenchBench4

FrenchBench3

The 6 slats for the seat had already the right length (140 cm) and I stained them with grey and middle brown for creating an aged look.

After screwing the slats and the wood on the bench I finished with 2 coats of clear wax. My new bench was ready as our new window seat and I love it. I still have more old chairs stored in the cellar… maybe I will have more benches in the future?

FrenchBench6