Great idea and fantastic job! I love seeing old or discarded objects recycled into something new. Even better if you can use it in the garden!

Susan

What an adorable bench! It looks very professionally built.

Wow Cindy, that's fabulous.

Cindy,
What a fantastic bench!
Great combination of creativity and skill that you and your DH have.
Margaret

OMG, when hubby gets home, I have to show him your bed bench, both DH and I are antique collectors and I'd bet he'd love this idea!

Sharon

Cindy,
That is so cute! I'm going to print out a color picture - we have a couple of those old bedframes stored away. Great idea!
Connie

Gorgeous bench Cindy - you and the DH work well together! :)

-Colleen

Genius! Love it!

Ever nice! We have an old iron bed at the lake, but we sleep in it there so i guess we won't be cutting that up! LOL

Thank you so much for the lovely compliments. I'm really glad you all liked it, we're very pleased with how it turned out. I read all your replies to DH and he's grinning from ear to ear - he's pretty proud of himself now, lol.

For those of you who mentioned that you might want to make one feel free to post here or e-mail me if you have any questions. With all the different bed frames out there, each one would be very unique. I would LOVE to see pics when you're done.

Oh, I almost forgot I wanted to ask a question! We used cedar for the seat of the bench and we're not sure if we should treat it with something or just leave it untreated. Any suggestions?

Thanks again,
Cindy

I'm not sure about the cedar, Cindy, but i think some stencilling on the panel part would look great. I've often thought about doing it on the bed at the lake, but as usual, thought is about as far as i go. :)

I want one! Your hubby did a great job with your idea. I would never of thought of that. I do have a bed-frame like that but it is use in the spare-bedroom. Guess I'll have to go looking for one. Hmmm maybe my parents have a spare.

Syreeta

Cindy, cedar left outside will age to a grey colour and kind of a furry texture. If you don't mind this, it's ok to let it weather. Otherwise you could probably treat it with a stain or varnish - I'm not sure what's good but I need to figure it out fast because my new fence is all cedar and I don't want it to go grey!

A spar varnish would work great as it was made for outdoors and has U.V. protectors built in to it. I am including an article about all types of varnish which includes Spar varnish.

By the way I love the bench!! It really has lots of style and should outlast everyone. Sure beats the junk that you buy in the store.

Here is a link that might be useful: Varnish

I agree that the stuff you buy in the store is junk...

I purchased a garden bench at Canadian Tire 2 summers ago. My DD and I put it together and set it at the end of one of my paths in the landscaping. Two weeks later I looked at it closely...all the varnish was peeling off. They must have used an indoor varnish or a very poor quality varnish to finish the bench with. I took it back to Cdn Tire and they gave me my money back.

By the way...love your bench.

Lots of benches in the Garden Junk Forum to look at also that I have been seeing. I have my wooden headboard and footboard from the bed I used when living at home, 25 years ago, saved for a future bench.

Headboards and footboards can also be used as mini fences in the landscaping. There is an excellent thread on that in the Garden Junk also.

Brenda

I used to work in a paint store for quite a few years and I would recommend staining rather than varnish because even marine varnish must be redone often. When the sun shines on it the wood shrinks under it and it starts to peel. Stain is easy just make sure you do all sides. When it fades you just sand and recoat.