I was beyond tickled to have an opportunity to use and review the HomeRight Finish Max Fine Finish Paint Sprayer: however,  I was not paid for my opinion and it is entirely my own.  I will only share those products that I really find useful and have had a positive experience with. Please see my entire disclosure policy here.

With a Little Paint and a Little Fabric, this Old Bench gets a New Lease on Life!

Back in January, Kate and I went shopping at some local salvage stores.  We had a ball perusing all the bric-a-brac that these stores had to offer…it was quality mother/daughter time. This trip yielded an old window frame, which I used to make this Paisley Shell Wall Art, and a very sad old bench whose fate I’ve been pondering for the past 5 months.

I was all over the place when trying to decide what to do with this old bench.  I know it needed a new coat of paint and the ‘cushion’ that you see is really nothing more than a piece of thin, cracked wood with some very thin padding. No matter what I ultimately decided, I knew that the base of seat would need to be replaced.

For a period of time I thought of replacing the cushion with a hard surface and making it a nightstand or side table, but really just didn’t know what to do with it. This little bench has been roaming between my house and my garage since January until I figured out it’s fate.

And aren’t you curious why and how certain ideas pop into your head?  One day, an idea popped in my head and it went something like this:

“Hey, you know that ugly little bench that has been floating around your house for almost half of year? Well, why don’t you try to do a crewel vine pattern on linen in a tone on tone color for the cushion and then paint the wood in the same color? If you can pick up one of the colors in your bedding, it really would look lovely at the foot of your bed.” To which I responded to the voice in my head, “You know, you’re right! Have I told you lately just how brilliant you are?“
So I had a plan! The first step was to stop at my favorite fabric store and grab some linen in a green/gray tone that works with my bedding. While there I picked up some 2″ foam and some batting.

On the way home from the fabric store I stopped at a wee little embroidery store and found some silk embroidery thread that was just a shade darker, but in the same color as the linen. Feeling that the creative kismet gods were smiling on me at that moment, I hightailed it Lowe’s and found Valspar Eucalyptus Leaf  (in a flat sheen) paint which matched everything perfectly.

Truly, pondering what to do with this guy for the past 5 months was the hardest part of this whole process. Once I had what I needed for the transformation, everything else was easy.

And, as icing on the cake, I was tickled, or more like giddy, to use my brand-new toy, I mean tool, a HomeRight Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer!

If you’ve been a reader for any length of time, you know that I will paint just about anything that doesn’t have a heartbeat. My family just shakes their collective heads now when they walk into the garage and discover my latest foray into repainting ‘stuff’.

Heretofore, the tools of my vice have been paint brushes and cans of spray paint. So, when an opportunity arose to add a new tool to my paint arsenal my response was an overwhelming “Ooooh, Goodie! Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you! Is it here yet?”

And since this paint sprayer has garnered great reviews, I was truly bursting with anticipation to use it.

HomeRight C800766 Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer

How I Transformed this Sad Little Bench to a Stunning and Proud Bench with a Little Paint and Little Fabric

• The first step was to take the bench apart. I knew it was in bad shape, but it wasn’t until I took it apart that I realized that the wood support was cracked in half and I had to duct tape it together just to be able to use it as a pattern for a new base. The existing ‘cushion’ was really nothing more than 1/2″ of compacted fabric. 
• I took the ‘cushion’ to the fabric store and they used it to cut the foam for the new cushion.
• Terry used the board that had been duct-taped as a guide for the new base.

  

• Once the new base was cut, I used my kitchen electric knife to cut the notches in the foam to match those on the back of the base.
• I wrapped the foam and base with batting and secured everything with my trusty staple gun. Here’s a little video showing one way to wrap the batting around the corners to avoid big bunching. After you’ve secured the batting with your staple gun, you can trim away the excess.

• Since I wanted to embroider a vine pattern on the cushion, I used my trusty white chalk to mark the outline on the fabric showing the bottom of the cushion as I wanted the vine to extend down the sides.  This let me know the area I had available to embroider.

  

• Then I used my chalk again to draw a vine pattern on the linen.

N&N Tip: Basic white chalk is so handy to have in your craft store. I use it frequently to draw patterns that I will be painting or drawing over.

• Then I threaded my needle with three strands of the embroidery floss and began working in a stem stitch.  When the chalk would start to rub off, I’d go over it again. Once that was done I set it aside while I worked on the wooden structure of the bench. This little video ditty (its a ditto!) is more for fun than for ‘education’.

• I was chomping at the bit to use my HomeRight sprayer, but before I did I lightly sanded the surface and wiped it down with deglosser. The enclosed instructions are very detailed and assured me that this was going to be a very easy tool to use. I did thin my paint a little bit to get the desired ‘run-out time’ as detailed in the instruction booklet. I set the spray pattern to ‘cone’ and the flow to medium and went to work. This was SO easy.

• I let the bench dry, which took about 30 minutes and then went over it again. The instructions advise to retest the spray pattern if you stop spraying for more than 30 minutes, so I did double check that. 
• I waxed the wooden base of my bench with Valspar Clear Satin wax which gave it a lovely soft sheen.
• I ironed the embroidered linen and covered the cushion.
• I used the original screws to attach the cushion to the stool base, stood back and admired the fruits of my labor.

Some of my observations on using the HomeRight Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer to paint my bench:

• Very detailed instructions and very easy to use. Some of the HomeRight tips that I employed to make my project successful were:
  • Kept the sprayer 4-10 inches from the surface
  • Made sure my wrist was stiff and not arched, especially at the beginning and end of each stroke.
  • I made sure to start and stop the sprayer off of the surface I was spraying, which prevented any dripping.
• The paint dried easily in 1/2 an hour, allowing me to put a second coat on then.
• I am a notoriously messy painter, despite my best efforts.  I usually end up with my hands covered in paint and even a few flecks in my hair. Imagine my surprise when I finished all my painting without a drop of paint anywhere on my body! 
• Clean up is a breeze. I used the Rapid Clean kit to clean the sprayer, which again was very easy to do. By simply connecting the enclosed hose from my spigot to the Finish Max and turning on the water, I was able to clean the sprayer in a matter of minutes. As much as I really do love to paint, I.DON’T.LIKE.TO.CLEAN.BRUSHES! As such, my brushes are typically in really poor condition and I end up buying new ones frequently. Imagine a world where I can paint and not have to clean the brush…yup…that world arrived in the form of this paint sprayer!
• I used latex paint for this project, but the HomeRight sprayer can be used with oil-based paints as well as stains, primers, sealers, and varnish! We need to repaint our oil- painted doors and see this sprayer making that job much easier, as well as more efficient and effective…i.e. NO DRIPS!
• While spray paint now is available in quite an array of colors, being able to customize your paint AND spray…now that is a very wonderful thing.

So all in all, I am now a convert to the HomeRight Finish Max paint sprayer. Anything that lets me paint without brushstrokes and without drips is a plus in my book. But when you add in the benefit of not wearing my most recent paint color and the ease of clean-up, this paint sprayer is now an indispensable tool in my painting kit.

And I am really am happy with the ‘after’ of my little bench. It does look great at the foot of my bed like that little voice knew it would…looks like I need to listen to it more often.

Thanks again for spending a few minutes of your busy day with me today. Know that you are appreciated and that I welcome each and every comment that comes my way. If you want to make sure you don’t miss future content, pop your email in the beige box up on the right or click here.  I usually send out 2-3 emails a week, so I won’t inundate your inbox…believe me, I’m sensitive to an overflowing email inbox!  

Printables and knit patterns are available to all of my subscribers in the Subscriber Benefits Library.  I will continue to add patterns and printables to this page as we go along.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!