Storage Bench Finished!

Y'all, we finished the bench!

Yes.  It is done.  I did end up ditching the milk paint for this project...

 ...although, actually, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad to finish with it...one of the really nice things about milk paint is that it's so flow-y, it really only requires a quick brush-over with fine sandpaper to bring it from feeling like total crap to feeling perfectly smooth and lovely.  And...

...while Behr Premium has tremendous coverage, it stinks to high heaven, especially in comparison.  It smells, truly, like formaldehyde.  So you suffer while using it, but you have to use a lot less of it.  Trade-off, I guess.  So I will be trying again with the milk paint, but probably not on any more bare wood.

I used my Christmas present for the first time!

 It is an oscillating hand-saw-tool-thing.  We shall call her The Angry Rat, because that's what she sounds like in operation.  That, and "oscillating"-anything is kind of a mouthful.  Remember how I filled a bunch of pocket holes with caulk and instantly regretted it?  Not on this one!  I used a proper wood plug, sawed it flush, filled the remainder with wood filler, and sanded it smooth.  And I only made one little gouge in the piece in the process! (It's that arc there, see it?)

I most wanted a couple beautiful strap hinges with which to finish the bench top:

But at +$15 a pop, I opted instead for the inexpensive and practical heavy-duty piano hinge:

 And there it is!!

Yay for a project that is finished!