Wooden Bench

My sister just gave me this bench when she moved.  It is old and warped and unvarnished.  I decided to paint it and put it in my house instead of outside.  

This is the beginning product:

This is after I brushed off all of the excess dust, leaves, and debris:

I found a blog online that said that there is a concoction that you can use to clean unvarnished wood.  After looking at the ingredients, the only ones I had were Hot water and olive oil.  So I got a bucket of hot water and added a splash of olive oil.  This is what it looked like after the cleaning.  I know it doesn't look much different, but believe me, there was  A TON of dirt that I scrubbed off of it!

And to prove it, the pile of dirt was a portion that was swept off of the bench.  The bucket used to have clear clean water, but it is now black from all the dirt.

Here is a picture of the freshly spray painted bench:

And these pictures are of the bench after it dried and is in it's home!

It is right in our entryway!  I love it and only hope that it doesn't become a magnet for stacks of paper!

All in all, I am pretty impressed with myself.  I have never done a project like that by myself before!