Repurposed Church Pew

My parents church decided to sell off the old church pews from the old church.  My younger brother bought one, my older brother bought one and well we didn't want to be left out so we bought one too.  The price was whatever you wanted to donate. So for a wonderful $100 we had this beautiful church pew.

Now what are we going to do with an 8 foot long church pew you might ask.  WELL we figured it would be GREAT seating for our deck out back.  Ryan picked it up and brought it home on the weekend and we put it on the top level of our deck as extra seating for the table.  Our dining room walks right out onto the top level of our deck which the previous owners 'smartly' put a gate on to keep their 2 year old up there. I LOVE THIS!!! On the weekend we opened the french doors and Norah had a blast running inside and out visiting Daddy (while he worked in the yard) and Mommy while she cleaned the house. I loved it because I didn't have to worry about her falling! She was gated in!!! Plus the bars and close enough together there is no risk of her falling through or getting her head stuck (you hear about that happening a lot haahaa).

 But back to the pew! I was VERY happy about its positioning as it didn't interfer with the french doors (like the patio chairs did) and it looked great up there! (can you spot Norah having a snack in this photo??)

So we put it there Saturday and it rained Monday... so Tuesday I came home to Ryan in a panic. I took one look at the pew and went AHHHHHHHHHHHH @#$*@&%@@#&.  I knew we would have to put an outdoor sealant on it but I didn't think that after one small rain ALL of the old finish would come flaking off!! Yes FLAKING! To add to it the joints are all splitting apart!!!  We have covered it in a tarp until we can deal with it on the weekend.  The plan is to sand it down and put an outdoor stain/sealer on it. Its supposed to be GORGEOUS this weekend so I don't have a problem doing it!

The ultimate plan is to make pillows/cushions for the bench so it is a little more comfortable. I ran off to Fabricland on the weekend and picked up this pretty outdoor fabric to make cushions out of.  It goes nicely with the brown cushions we have for the patio chairs too.  I think I may have bought WAY too much material but at $4/metre I didn't mind. If I have extra I may recover our dining room chairs (that currently don't match at all... we have 4 with white vinyl seats and 3 with a flowery red/cream material that we got at an antique shop.... )

This weekend I plan to sand/seal the church pew, finish painting my chair from last weekend and bbq!!!! Stop on by for a bbq this weekend!!! :-)