Today we will be enjoying some nature themed benches that are available in our Create-A-Bench Auction. If you see one you can’t live without, you can place your bid HERE before 3pm on October 20. If you can somehow live without one of these beauties but want to share your opinion on which deserves Best in Show you can vote HERE.
Nature
by 8th Grade Art Students from Greece Olympia
What a great opportunity for these middle schoolers to learn about working together, helping others, and of course, art. Students from Greece Olympia collaborated on this bench titled, Nature.
Using acrylic paint they worked together to depict classic symbols of our natural world. The seat back shows a broad blue sky with a glowing sun and peaceful cumulus clouds floating by. The seat itself is painted a bright spring green that almost seems to smell of freshly mown grass when you sit down. Don’t sit on the carefully painted flowers, butterflies, or bugs though!
Each side, also painted green, sows a variety of flowers in more springtime colors and you may spot a ladybug or 2. The sky blue continues over the top to the back side of the bench and is sprinkled with spots and swirls that might make you think a breeze is blowing through. Lastly, the front edge of the seat is patterned in coordinating spots that bring all the colors together and finish the seat off nicely.
What a perfect bench for a covered porch even in the fall and winter to remind you that spring will come again. Maybe you would like it in you child’s bedroom or family play room as extra seating. It would be just right for storybook reading with little ones.
Time Flies
by Colleen Krawskic from Fabulous Flowers
Flowers are what Colleen does, and her bench was made to match her daily life. Bright red and yellow dominate her bench, Time Flies. The seat back is custom cut and extended to create 3 giant sunflowers in full autumn bloom with their stems and leaves spreading across the seat. The black at the center of each flower is mirrored along the edges of the arms tying it together.
Instead of simply continuing one color around to the back, Colleen has created bold red and yellow vertical stripes that make her bench a statement from any side. Being a florist, no job is complete with out live flowers. Both ends feature glass vases with lovely bouquets from Fabulous Flowers in autumn colors also found in the painted ones.
When you bring this bench home you can swap out the bouquets when they begin to fade. Maybe you have a garden of your own and enjoy bringing your blooms indoors throughout the year. Then this bench is perfect for you as it will be a constant reminder to “take time to enjoy the flowers.”
She Believed
by Peterson and Clark Soccer Team Friends
You would recognize one of the soccer team friends from the bench she did on her own, Photo Inspiration which we visited on day 1. Rhana encouraged her team to do a bench together as a donation but also as a memorial for a lost companion.
They gave the bench a wonderfully rich painted finish using at least three colors and a dry brush technique. The combination gives the finish a textured stone look but it is still quite smooth. The cream and greys are so universal this bench will match almost anyone’s decor. Even yours. They choose to fill most of the seat back with the phrase “She believed she could so she did” a powerful encouragement for all women.
The outlined butterflies that adorn the seat back as well as both ends were handpainted in black bringing a softer feel to the stone look. The butterflies seem to be drawn to the 2 larger silk sunflowers growing on one side of the seat back or perhaps to the flowers in the vase on the other. The glass jar vase is securely attached to one end and currently has a bouquet of silk daisies, but the new owner can swap out for real flowers and fill the vase with water.
The finishing touch to the team’s bench brings all their hands together on the back to form a larger butterfly in grey. What a powerful reminder of what friends and women can do if they believe in themselves and each other.
Fall Leaves
by Roseanne Zinni and Jennifer Morris from 2 Designers
Keeping with the nature theme today lets move from flowers and spring to Fall Leaves by a team of 2 friends. When Roseanne and Jennifer are not giving a much need makeover to benches for charity they are floral designers in the area. Maybe those flowers your husband had sent to your office were arranged by one of them. You never know.
The 2 Designers decided to keep the original pale yellow of the bench for their base coat and it complements the rest of their work wonderfully. They collected real leaves from their own yards to use as masks for the first layer. Arranging the leaves they used gold, burgundy, and toasty brown spray paint to imitate the brush of wind across the bench.
Once this dried they repeated the process to darken the first layer giving the bench the pattern of leaves in a variety of subtle crispy autumn shades. They then used some hand cut leaf stencils to paint more solid leaf shadows in deep green, burgundy, and dry leaf brown.
Lastly, using a gold paint pen they added the shining details tracing some leaf edges or spines in tiny gold dots. Don’t forget to peek at the back of Fall Leaves before moving on. Carefully hand lettered in gold is a thoughtful saying. “While cares will drop away from you like the leaves of autumn.”
ReHouse Blog 