DIY Rustic Farmhouse Bench

And now we have a place to sit...

One afternoon I came home from work and there was a bench ready to sand & stain...

It took him just a couple of hours to build. He used plans from Ana White's site just like we did last month when we shared our DIY Farmhouse Table.

It's perfect.

Actually everyone who comes over now says "it's so big!" Well, who wants to have half your butt hanging off the bench while you are having dinner? (we do not have tiny buns in this house...) Not me, so we made it larger than the plans called for. And longer, because our dining area is a pretty large area.

Right now we have kind of a hodgepodge of chairs going on. I sort of like it, but have a few changes in mind, and am on the lookout on craigslist & auctions.

I wanted chairs on one side and also on each end. Do you think we need a bench for the other side too? I vote chairs. Adam votes bench. Scout also votes bench.

Close up shows the slight color difference.

It took us about an hour to sand & stain it. Then of course a few coats of poly.
To stain it, we used a mix of Classic Grey & Jacobean by Minwax. Although, this time I added a little more classic grey...so the color varies from the table by just a tad. Oh well.


What have you built from Ana White's plans? 
Do you think we need a bench for the other side or stick with chairs? 
Do you mix your stains to get the look you want? If so do you always measure correctly? I just kind of throw stuff together. oops.