A Couch Potato, A Piano Bench and A Plan

I have become a couch potato.

Every day, I come home from work, cook supper and then sit on the couch until bedtime. My weekends aren’t much different.

Yes. I live an exciting life. 😉

From my perch on the couch, I have a view of this ugly, old piano bench.

It has certainly seen better days!

Last Saturday, I’d had enough of my laziness. So, I decided I’d give this unfortunate piece of furniture a makeover –

– with MEN’S NECKTIES!

If you followed my daily SMILES in 2017, you know that I love men’s neckties. I collect them for such occasions as this.

It’s a little weird, I know. But there’s something about taking all these different ties – some wide, some thin, some elegant, some down-right ugly, some pristine, some worn – and putting them all together to make something new, fun and beautiful.

I think it reminds me of what God does for us. He takes our brokenness, our ugly qualities, our talents and our uniqueness and molds us into a beautiful reflection of His glory, a new creation with new purpose – if we let Him. (But that’s a blog post for another day!)

Back to my poor neglected piano bench. I was actually excited about this project because I hadn’t used my ties for anything in quite a while. So, here we go.

Step 1: Gather supplies – a staple gun, a screwdriver, scissors, material and a pile of ties.

Step 2: Remove seat of bench from legs and remove old covering (or what was left of the old covering.

Step 3: Cover seat with material. Cut enough material to wrap around the seat and staple underneath. Trim any excess material. By the way, the color of the material really doesn’t matter. This is just a base layer. The ties will cover it. My husband saw the material I was using and asked, “You’re going to use that?!?” Apparently, he did not like it!

Step 4: Lay out your ties and arrange them in whatever order suits you. Be sure to alternate the direction of the ties with one tie having the fat end at the top, the next tie having fat end at the bottom and so forth. Once arranged, flip ties over so the fronts are facing down.

Step 5: Place the seat of the bench upside down on the ties. Staple each tie to the underside. Be sure to pull the ties tight but not so tight that you cannot weave the top layer of ties through. Once stapled, cut off the excess.

Step 6: Flip the bench over and begin weaving additional ties, or excess cut off from the ties you already used, through the first layer of ties on the bench seat. After the weaving is complete, flip the seat, staple the ties to the underside and cut off the excess.  Be sure to pull the ties taut.

Step 7: Now for the corners. Rather than staple the ties on the corners to the underneath, I cut enough of the excess to leave a tail that could be tucked underneath the other ties. It was a painstaking task but worth the effort.

Step 8: Screw the seat back to the legs.

Voila! A beautiful creation from a hodgepodge of men’s neckties and the perfect reminder of what God can do with our lives!

I may be tired and my back may be telling me that I’m not as young as I used to be but the view from my comfy seat on the couch sure has improved! 😉 😉

And it absolutely makes me SMILE!