Four Seasons Garden Bench

After you’ve finished building our DIY Garden Bench, you’ll need to weather-proof it. This painted design not only preserves the wood and keeps out the elements, it also brightens up the garden and never looks out of season! Winter is represented twice on our bench because we live in Wisconsin.

Materials:

  • Weatherproof paint. We bought weather-resistant house paint in green and white for ours, but you can use whatever colors you like. We bought a gallon for the green and a quart for the white, but we had a lot left over.
  • Large Paint Brush. This will paint the main coat.
  • Set of Small Angled Paintbrushes. These will be used for the design.

Instructions:

  1. Paint a base coat on your bench using the base color of your choice (I used green). You will need to do this in two sections to get both the top and the bottom. Let the first section dry for 4 hours before moving on to the second one.
  2. The next day, paint a second coat. You will need to wait four hours between the two sections for this one, too.
  3. On the third day, look over your paint job in good light and paint any spots you may have missed. (Missed spots can lead to moisture and insect damage!)
  4. On the fourth day, you can paint a design! You can paint your own design on the bench or use a stencil, or you can copy the design I painted.

To Paint the Four Seasons Design:IMG_2237

  1. To Make the Pine Bough:
    1. First, paint two curved lines, one short and one long. This is the branch.
    2. Using the wide edge of your small angled painbrush, paint short rectangles to represent the scales of a pine cone. Pain them in such a way that they come to a point at the end for a conicular shape.
    3. For the needles, paint long, faint streaks using the thin edge of your paintbrush.IMG_2238
  2. To Make the Tulip:
    1. Start with the flower head. First paint a teardrop shape in the center, then paint two long triangles above it to either side. Finish the flowers with two small triangles in between the three existing points.
    2. For the stem, paint a long, straight line down.
    3. To make the leaves, paint a large tear-drop shape on either side of the stem. Connect both teardrops to the bottom of the stem to complete the leaf shape.IMG_2239
  3. To Make the Sunflower:
    1. First, paint a large circle near the top of the plank.
    2. To put petals around this in an even way, first paint four long petals on opposite sides of the circle. Then place one petal in each space between the existing petals. Continue this until the circle is completely surrounded by petals.
    3. Paint a wide line to the bottom of the plank for the stem.
    4. Paint one tear-drop leaf on either side of the stem.IMG_2240
  4. To Make the Oak Branch:
    1. To make the branch, draw two crooked lines that connect to each other. The lines should be angular rather than curved.
    2. To make the acorns, use the wide edge of the angled brush to paint a wide rectangle for the top and a triangle/ cone for the bottom. Be sure to put the acorns in pairs so that they reflect nature.
    3. To make the oak leaves, you’ll also use the wide edge of the brush. You’ll paint one square for the base, and then two long rectangles, Two upward-angled rectangles, and three small points using the narrower edge of the brush at the very end.IMG_2241
  5. To make the Holly Branch:
    1. Draw one thin line for the branch with a mild curve.
    2. Put the holly leaves in sets of four, except for the top (which is a set of three). The shape of a holly leaf is roughly two wide “w”s smushed together. For the leaves that are behind other leaves, remember to leave a little bit of a border between them and the front leaves unless you are using more than two colors.
    3. For the berries, load the tip of your brush with paint and put round blotches of paint at the centers of the leaf groups. Make sure that you are using enough paint that it gives them a 3-D effect.IMG_0074
  6. Enjoy!
Posted November 14th, 2015 by Admin
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2 Responses to “Four Seasons Garden Bench”

Kitty On November 16th, 2015

Such a cute idea! Love it! :]

Mary Dexter On November 29th, 2015

Very pretty!

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