Building a Bench Seat

As you all may know, my sweetie and I built a "what I call" window wall a few years ago from some old windows my brother in law brought to me.  It gives separation without cutting off light and making our open concept seem smaller.

I started out with no curtains, then to shades then to shades and panels.  The panels hid the feet but it always seemed a little busy to me.  You all know how that feeling of things just not being "perfect" gnaws at you?  Well, that was me.

Plus, I felt like I needed something like this table in front of it.  But that could have been because I have too many pieces of furniture, lol.

So, one night, I went down to the garage and cut some wood we had left over from redoing the stairwell.  Hannah and I propped all of the wood up to see if I liked this idea and then it was on like Donkey Kong.

I took off the feet and used the brackets as corner braces on each end after attaching the legs.  I used "L" brackets to attach the whole piece to the window wall for support after taking off the feet.  Using wood filler, I filled all of the holes and waited until the next day to sand and paint.  I'm happy to announce that Hannah and I built this all by ourselves as my sweetie slept.  I see a great future for that kid!

I used Valspar paint and primer in one with a satin finish for the bench.  I had originally thought about making curtains below the bench, but after I finished painting, I loved the simplicity of it all.  

I was using the island to make Hannah a skirt and sat the planter on the bench to get it out of the way.

Well, I loved it there, so I left it.

Still enough room to sit on each side too!

(P.S. Hannah loves her skirt)

Doesn't it look better with this bench and without the curtain panels?!

See how it divides the two spaces?  Without this window wall, there was so much dead space and no definition.

Thankfully, we have plenty of room to be able to do this.

And I love how the scroll on the "H" peeks through on the other side.

I then had the dilemma of figuring out what to put in the planter's place on the island.  I have silk flowers on the bench, the mantle and the counter...I knew flowers would bee way too much so I used this jar carrier.  I painted it white, and then painted the lids to the jars a pale pink.  The little pink polka dotted cup holds a topiary to add some green paired  with the little rooster.

After all of that work, I decided to open the windows since it was so nice out and air the house out.

Then I played with Lucie...

She's growing like a weed and loves to roll in the hay.  We are having so much fun with her!  She has definitely helped keep us from dwelling on losing Gabe 2 weeks ago.  If we didn't have her, we'd still be crying.  I think God knew we needed her and I am so thankful she got to meet Gabe before he had to say goodbye.

Can you believe Easter is this weekend?  And right after that, Hannah turns 17!!!  Man, the time is flying faster and faster!