DIY Headboard to Bench

One of the many wonderful things about living in Spain is the amount of furniture you can find that people leave out by the garbage cans.  Don't get me wrong, it's all definitely FAR from tip-top-shape, but for someone who is extremely cheap, and conveniently addicted to Pinterest and full of inspiration (and a little bit of vino), it works out great!

We were walking home from the bars one night and found this awesome headboard leaning next to the dumpsters near our house.  I was obviously very excited because I think it's just so stinking cute, and Josh was obviously not because he knew he was going to have to carry it the rest of the way home with me.  You can probably guess who won that discussion... Lucky us!

Perfectly vintage!  I love the chipping white paint along the edges!  Don't mind the junk in the background, our garage is currently packed full with all of our outdoor furniture due to inclement weather.

Now, I'm not gonna lie.  It took me a few months to figure out what to do with this bad boy.  But after identifying a few empty spots in the house and spending way to much time on Pinterest for inspiration, I finally decided on making a headboard bench.  I picked up some lumber at our local home supply store (I've never missed Home Depot so much!), which was an interesting experience because they don't cut anything for you and I had to fit everything in my Mini Cooper.  But we made it!  So I began by building a basic rectangular frame for the seat, by cutting the longer two pieces the same width as the headboard and cutting the four short support columns to be 16" in length.  

Then I added wood glue to the seams and screwed it all together with an electric drill and the longest screws I could find locally.  Side note: I learned the hard way not to put your fingers ANYWHERE near the screw when trying to drill at an angle (duh).  I ended up with a pretty nasty hole through my thumb.  The pain ended up being worth it for the end result though!

Once that was complete, I added legs to the inside of the front two corners and was able to set it up against the headboard to check out my progress!

While at the hardware store, I found this funky accent piece so I hammered that on to the front of it to give it a bit of character.

Then I applied more wood glue and screwed the frame into the headboard.  After more wood glue, I laid down the wood for the seat portion, and nailed away!

A little white spray paint, a folded up blanket, and some pillows from Amazon and voila!  

A few weeks later I ordered some 2" foam from Amazon as well as this lovely gray and white trellis fabric and created a simple cushion.  I have to say, it is MUCH comfier than the folded up blanket!