From hope chest to bench - A before and after

I have wanted to refinish a piece of furniture for a while and my hope chest was the perfect candidate.  Carl got me this one year for Christmas after we had dated for a while.  I absolutely loved it and filled it with all kinds of wedding things.  Several years ago it got damaged during the move into our home.  I still used it for storage and hated to get rid of it because it was very special to me.

But, I desperately wanted a bench for the foot of my bed.

So, I used the top of my hope chest, a few dollars worth of fabric from JoAnn's

And some legs from Lowe's

I just turned the fabric upside down over the bench, pinched the corners down, and pinned with a safety pin, removed the fabric and put a few stitches in with a needle and thread

cut off the excess fabric, and just slid it back over the bench.  Then screwed in the legs.

That's it.  Done!  I love the texture and how sheep-skin-ee this feels.  And I love how super soft it is.  And I still have a part of my hope chest that I love!