A Bench and a Chest

We're not woodworkers but every once in a while it's nice to tackle a project.  Nothing too complicated but fun and useful.  When we were working on our house, we decided we needed a big farmhouse table.  My husband made one from some leftover floorboards and legs salvaged from an old table.  But then we realized that we were going to need lots of chairs to go with it.  We had a few chairs that would work until we could find enough antique wooden chairs to go with the table.  So we decided to make a Shaker style bench for one long side of the table. 

We eventually found 14 antique chairs at a super affordable price if we bought the lot. We had enough for our big table and have found homes for the extras around the house.  But our good old bench is still a favorite, great for extra seating indoors and out.

Some friends of ours are seriously into French and Indian reenacting.  After spending over a week at Colonial Williamsburg with a homeschool group where everyone dressed in colonial clothes everyday,  we decided to try our hand at reenacting in a camp, too.  But, we needed a wooden chest for storage because everything about our camp had to look the part.
Well, we're creative homeschoolers, right?  The girls and I decided to have a woodshop day! We gathered some lumber and set to work.  Our chest would need to work for seating, too.  And it should have cleats or something to keep it up off the ground, especially in rainy weather.  Once we figured out what it should look like, we had a blast building it and distressing the paint to make it look like it had been around for a while.  What we ended up with was a blanket style chest that could be used as a bench in our camp.  When it's not being used in a colonial camp, it makes it's home in my living room!

Good times and good memories!

Pondering my meanderings with love,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

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