Last year I was contacted by the owner of a Tutoring Club here in my town. He sent me pictures of a bench that has been outside his school for years and wanted a quote for me to give it some TLC and repaint it.

He gave me freedom to decide what to do, by suggested that I could use our town High School colors, which are orange, black and white, and I loved the idea!

This is how it looked before:

Exactly. It had a zebra pattern. Our High School mascot is a Tiger, so I decided to keep the animal theme, but now with a more appropriate one.

This guy took a LOT of preparation. I don’t usually strip painted pieces that are in good condition, but I had to strip this one completely. It also took a lot of sanding and wood filler to make its surface ready to receive the new paint.

This is how it looks now.

I primed the entire bench with Rustoleum Primer Spray (white), then painted it in sharp cheddar by Benjamin Moore.

I bought a cool Tiger Paw stencil from Etsy and I think it gave it a super nice touch.

To do the black and white pattern on the sides and legs I cut up a piece of cardboard in a triangular shape and drew the entire pattern using a pencil and my cardboard shapes as a guide. Then I painted it with a thin artist brush. I used my green frog masking tape to cover the orange areas I didn’t want to touch.

Finally, since the bench will be outdoors most of the year, I applied four coats of polyurethane for more durability. I hope it will be enough!

This project was hard work but a lot of fun! I’d love to hear what you think.

Thanks for reading!

Patricia.