Piano Bench Makeover — The “Before”

by Katy on December 5, 2012 · 24 comments

I don’t plan on  Goodwill shopping on a daily basis. I assure you that I do hold down a job, and that I’m more likely to be found puttering around my own house than wandering the aisles of Portland’s myriad thrift shops.

The beautiful, beautiful thrift shops . . .

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes. Being defensive about how often I go thrift shopping.

However, my younger sister was needing curtain fabric for her school bus/home and it had been awhile since we’d hung out. We figured that her best bet for cheap fabric was to hit up the Goodwill Outlet, where the tonnage of merchandise is priced by the pound and the furniture is cheap, cheap, cheapity cheap.

My sister ended up only buying a single curtain panel and some clothes, but I gleaned a basket full of Tinkertoys for my niece’s Hanukkah gift, (My older sister was the 1972 Oregon state Tinkertoy champion, and had suggested that Tinkertoys would be a good gift for her daughter) as well as a vintage style spice tin to upcycle into a pencil cup for the fridge, (I’ll glue a magnet onto the back) and a couple of 78 records for my father. (Cole Porter and Gershwin.)

But my favorite find was this incredibly sturdy $5 piano bench. Which of course, is totally begging for a makeover. Cute paint below and snazzy fabric above and this girl will be headed to the ball, with or without a fairy godmother.

And today, I will not go thrift shopping.

Probably.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }

Heather December 5, 2012 at 10:37 am

I am a goodwill junkie….I love it and hate it all at the same time. I have to set a budget and really focus on what we need or have been looking for. I need to work on the fix up and resell options. We move often due to my husband’s job so we try hard to keep a minimalist kind of attitude!

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Katy December 5, 2012 at 10:43 am

I’m pretty good about only bringing stuff home that I have a plan for, (use it, gift it, sell it, fix it up, etc.)

We haven’t moved since 1997, and have no plans to move, so we don’t have that over our head. Maybe we should.

Katy

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Barb @ 1SentenceDiary December 5, 2012 at 11:14 am

Wait, did you say, “State Tinkertoy Champion”?! I haven’t got teh foggiest idea what that means, but it sounds so cool!

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Katy December 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm

She has a cool engraved wall plaque, which she treasures.

Katy

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Julia Park Tracey December 5, 2012 at 11:33 am

The first step is admitting you have a problem…

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Katy December 5, 2012 at 12:01 pm

No problem here. 😉

Katy

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Chris B December 5, 2012 at 12:34 pm

I envy you your Goodwill store and thrift shops there. I don’t know whether it’s because we’re in Florida where so many retirees got rid of all their excess “stuff” before they moved here or because so much of our economy is lower-paying service oriented jobs so either no one has good stuff to donate or the few good pieces disappear before I get there, but I don’t see half the interesting things that you seem to. 🙁

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dusty December 5, 2012 at 1:12 pm

I agree with you Chris, I never see anything good. I’m in a small town in central Florida so the thrift stores here I think are mostly full of junk. I am going to start going over towards Orlando and maybe the stores will be different there, due to a younger more affluent population. We’ll see.

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Su Mama December 5, 2012 at 2:51 pm

Dusty, several years ago, my sister and I did an extensive tour of central Florida thrift stores, and found the pickings mighty slim. It’s probably the times. The thrift stores in Memphis, a very economically depressed city, had like NOTHING — cracked plates, really worn-out clothing and the like. Like Katy says, your best bet is often in upscale areas, where the cast-offs of the wealthy are often terrific.

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Katy December 5, 2012 at 2:06 pm

You should have seen all the crap I didn’t bring home!

Katy

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Stephanie December 5, 2012 at 1:39 pm

I thought maybe you were kidding about the tinkertoy championship but I see from your comment you aren’t – too funny! I think the key to getting nice things from thrift shops is shop frequently and with a flexible wish list.

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Lois Field December 5, 2012 at 3:51 pm

Nice bench can’t wait to see what you do with it. As for tinkertoys, I remembered how much fun they were and was going to buy a set for my grand kids, then I saw they are made from plastic today. What happened to the wood ones?

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Danyel December 5, 2012 at 3:56 pm

OMG she lives in a bus!?!?!?

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Diane C December 6, 2012 at 8:58 am

Funny, my reaction was: “How cool is that??? I hope Katie and her sister will be telling us more about it soon!”

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Alison December 5, 2012 at 4:48 pm

I am really looking forward to seeing how you transform this Katy, as I too have a rickety and squeaky piano bench that I was going to replace with a new one, but have never gotten around to it. If I can learn from you how to fix it, I may just keep it!

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Katy December 5, 2012 at 6:11 pm

This piano bench is really sturdy. I would not have bought it if it was wobbly.

Katy

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Alison December 8, 2012 at 5:45 pm

Not so much wobbly as creaky 🙂

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ani mia December 6, 2012 at 6:13 am

If you end up needing a different bench to replace the rickety one, you should check with piano sellers that take trade ins. My sister bought a used piano and her tuner told her half the time they end up throwing away the trade in pianos because they are beyone meaningful repair, but hey have benchs left over.

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Diane C December 6, 2012 at 8:56 am

Seriously? Get a screwdriver, turn bench over, tighten screwheads in a clockwise direction. Amazing how often that effects a complete cure. Takes longer to find/put away the screwdriver than to fix the problem.
If yours is not assembled using actual screws, you now have an excuse to shop for a “new” one at Goodwill.

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Rachel Gillespie December 6, 2012 at 12:58 am

I can’t wait to see the finished product.

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Kylee December 6, 2012 at 2:18 am

I discovered this blog the other day. Absolutely gorgeous restored recycled furniture. If you aren’t sure what to do with the stool, or you have a few hours to spare, there is lots of great before and after photos.

http://www.voodoomolly.co.nz/

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Margaret Ann December 6, 2012 at 1:46 pm

Hi Katy–I’ve been wondering for a while how you paint during the winter months in Portland (basement? shed?). I’m in Seattle (amongst the most amazing thrift stores in the universe) and while I frequently see items that I would love to repaint, I always assume that one has to do it in the summer if one lives in the NW. Where do you do all your paint projects, and how do you get them to dry properly in the damp weather?

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Katy December 6, 2012 at 5:04 pm

I only paint on mild dry days, which surprisingly do appear here and there. I just take what I can get, which is rarer and rarer these days.

Katy

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Margaret Ann December 11, 2012 at 5:14 pm

Thanks!

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