DIY Clawfoot Bench

For the last 4 months or so I’ve had these dusty, old clawfoot wooden legs sitting in our garage. My mom actually snatched them up for me at an auction and since then they’ve just been tucked away, living a sad little life. Every time I walked by them I felt like they were just staring at me, begging to be brought back to life. I couldn’t take the judgement anymore, so I finally dug them out a few weeks ago and got to work. Today I’m excited to show you what we created!

Pretty, right?! Let me show you how we did it. Here’s the legs in their natural state:

These babies are suuuuper heavy–solid oak and very old!

For the bench of the seat we used a 2×10 from Home Depot and cut it into two sections, each 4 feet long.

The hardest part of the entire project was cutting down the clawfoot legs to be short enough for the bench. The curve of the leg made this crazy hard to do while keeping them all exactly the same height. It was definitely a lot more difficult than we all expected it to be. Thankfully my husband and father-in-law did this part. Thanks guys!

For staining the seat of the bench I first used the Mixwax Pre-Stain Conditioner to prep the wood. I have never used this stuff before, but it made the application of the stain go very easily. I went with 3 coats of the Dark Walnut stain.

And as usual I painted the clawfoot legs with Annie Sloan Pure White.

For the detailing on the front of the bench I used this wooden accent from Home Depot. This is the Birch Acanthus Accent. How cool is that?! I’ve never used one of these before, but it was super easy and I think it adds a lot of farmhouse charm to the bench.

Ta-da! I painted the accent with Annie Sloan Paris Gray. I then distressed it very slightly and used Annie Sloan dark wax to give it an old, antique look. I simply used wood glue to put it on this thin piece of wood we nailed to the front of of the bench. Super easy!

Cue happy dance! I seriously love how this turned out and it fits perfectly at the end of our bed.

If you’re curious about the cushion, this is my trusty cushion from Pier 1. I love this guy and I use it all over the house. You can find it here.

So there it is, a vintage clawfoot bedroom bench. This took a lot longer to put together than I thought it would, mostly due to cutting those legs down to size, but the end result was worth all the effort. I love the fact that those clawfoot legs are super old and authentic, they just give this bench so much more charm and character. I tell ya, projects like this remind me why I love vintage so much. Bringing old things back to life is my absolute favorite things to do. I’d love to hear what you think about my little bench. And please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

As always you can find me sharing all the things on Pinterest, Facebook & Instagram. And you can also find me on SnapChat at lilvintagenest, where I over-share really random snippets of my daily life. Thanks for stopping by my friends! xoxo