The first Mother’s Day after Winter was born, I told my husband I wanted a Mother’s Day gift. I wasn’t sure what I wanted at first, but then one day I saw something in the grocery store ad. The grocery store had a teak glider bench for $100. My sweet husband bought that bench for me and put it in our garden.
We learned that teak needs to be oiled, and so after a few years I started oiling it. The harsh sun and the strong winds left it needing to be oiled twice a year.
Over time, it started to fall apart. My husband was able to fix it and I continued to oil it each year.
Last year I couldn’t get any teak oil at the store. It is a seasonal item, and no one was carrying it. I never did get around to oiling the bench, and it was looking worse than usual.
I decided not to oil it this year, but to sand it and paint it. I wasn’t sure if it would take the paint, but only a couple of spots on the bottom still had any oil residue. I gave it two coats of a light gray that looks like white most of the day.
It really stands out in the garden now, and I love seeing it out there every day.
I’m really happy that I’ve painted both of my garden benches within the last year. (You can see the other bench that I mended, sanded, and painted here.)
That is so pretty! I hope you get to relax and actually use and not just look at how pretty it is. 🙂
That bench looks so beautiful in your garden.
I’m a fan of wood myself, but that is gorgeous and will save you oiling it twice a year 🙂 Nice change, Brandy. Very pretty!
That looks lovely, Brandy, & it does look white! I do believe I have one of the same pots as you have beside the bench – small world. Mine came from freecycle.
Lucky you! I bought those at Sam’s Club about 9 years ago. I have 5 of them. At my last house I had trees in them, now those trees are in the ground here. The other three are in the front yard and hold a camellia, a flower carpet rose, and a cherry tree.
The children use it a lot more than I do; they spend a lot of time reading here. When I do use it, it instantly becomes full because the children come sit in it with me.
I love gliders!! It’s lovely in soft grey!Have you inspired any of your neighbors to plant fruit trees or gardens? Your garden spaces are so beautiful and I was just curious if you started a #growfoodnotlawns revolution in your neighborhood. KK @ http://www.preppypinkcrocodile.com
My neighbor across the street and I have been talking about planting a pomegranate and an apricot tree at here house (she planted 6 fig trees years ago and she also has a mulberry tree–planted by birds! They are an older couple and the ground here is very hard (you have to soak it for days in order to dig). I told her I would help her plant them 🙂 I do have people in town come and get ideas at my garden tours. I had a couple over this week (my son’s Scout leaders) and they are already planning a big garden (I went to their house to help them with some ideas) but they had not seen mine yet. Now they are thinking about adding some passionfruit vines to their garden.One thing that I love is that I am using less water to water the front yard now than I did before when it had that kidney shaped piece of grass, and I’m watering herbs, flowers, and 9 trees.
Gorgeous! I think a lot of that garden furniture today is made to be disposable–manufacturers hope you’ll just buy a new one every few years. Kudos to you for making it last :-).
Beautiful! Did you use indoor/outdoor paint? Flat or enamel? Did your husband put in the concrete base the bench sits on? So nice to not have grass under it. Thanks for all of your inspiration. You are a blessing to so many!
Love the grey! Was the paint new or from another project?~Adriana
I had bought it to paint the front urn originally and it turned out to be too light once I had a single coat on that, so it was leftover paint.
It is a satin finish from Valspar that says it is a paint plus primer for indoor and outdoor. My husband did make that concrete piece years ago, but the dirt has settled to one side (fallen! Even though it was packed down with a backhoe and water) so the bench leans now. At some point he will have to fix that problem, but it is not high on the priority list.
Brandy, you never cease to amaze me. The average person would have thrown the bench out and bought a new one, but you absolutely transformed it. Your husband and children are very blessed to have you! Thank you again for your example.
Just what I was thinking, Mari. She needs time to actually sit there and relax in hr garden on that lovely bench.
Very nice. I see roses and foxglove…what are the white and blue flowers? Spring is on the way for sure here now as we had our all state tornado drill this week. My tulips are almost 6″ high now.
The white ones are snapdragons and the purple ones are larkspur.
OK I can see that now. My picture view is pretty small as I use the kindle.
Beautiful!