I'm going to take you on a full-circle journey of a thirty-plus-year-old sentimental wooden tete-a-tete bench transformation. It went from aged and weathered, to brand new, and back to aged and weathered again.

You may be wondering why on earth would we do that? Well, we wanted the look of an old piece of weathered outdoor furniture without the rotting wood. So we made brand new spruce wood look like it's been out in the elements for years. And we did it within an hour!

Outdoor Tete-A-Tete Bench Makeover

This ole tete-a-tete has sentimental value because my father (who is no longer with us) built it and it sat on the deck of our family cabin for well over 30 years. There were two and I was thrilled to be gifted one of them.

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Several years ago I decided that the wooden bench for two needed some color. So I painted it in the color New Life and that was exactly my intention, to give the tete-a-tete a new life. The paint is Americana Decor Chalky Finish, and the color is one of over 20 vintage inter-mixable colors.

Then we made the mistake of not covering it through a few brutal Canadian winters. We stored it behind our repurposed louvered door fence and forgot about it.

Early this spring we decided to clean up the disaster zone behind the fence and unearthed our poor tete-a-tete. I asked our daughter if she'd like it for her deck and without hesitation, she said yes.

The paint was peeling and it looked terrible but I figured I could easily remove the peeling paint with our power washer. Then I'd give it a sanding and stain it back to its original glory before taking it to her house.

Boy was I wrong!

What we discovered after removing most of the peeling paint was that two of the wooden legs had rotted, same with some of the uprights, and some of the bolts were rusted and stripped.

But I promised the bench to our daughter.

I figured we could replace those rotting boards and the old bolts and it would be good as new after a fresh coat of paint. Then I came outside and found this.

The verdict? Mr. Frugalista declared the tete-a-tete too far gone to simply replace a few boards. So now what?

Our daughter was thrilled to be getting her grandfather's handmade bench.

We had a lot of scrap pieces of spruce lumber from previous projects in our shed. Mr. Frugalista figured he could use the old tete-a-tete pieces as a template for building a brand new one. All it would cost is the price of some new carriage bolts.

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous about the success of this build until I came outside and saw this.

I was so impressed with what a great job he did replicating the old bench, my eyes filled with 🤑. I figured maybe we...ahem...He could make more to sell. But I got the evil eye.

I did some research anyway to see what wooden tete-a-tete benches retail for. They start at $250 and for something with the equivalent quality they average $400-$600. My 👀 saw more💰💰

So our daughter got a brand new tete-a-tete and we got to practice building one at a fraction of what they cost retail. We decided that next year we're going to modify the original design and build two more for our deck!

We'll keep the original dismantled tete-a-tete to use as a template for the new design. And when we're done we'll dismantle the original sections and salvage the useable wood to build matching footstools.

What You'll Need To Build The Tete-A-Tete

If you are an experienced woodworker or DIYer, you may be able to figure out how the tete-a-tete is constructed from the photo below. If so, I've included what lumber you'll need to make it.

Stay tuned for proper building plans and a tutorial of our new design next summer. We'd make them this summer but the price of lumber is way too high, especially considering we plan to use cedar.

Supply List

4 each 2 x 4 (seat frame, legs, arms, side supports)
3 each 2 x 2 (arms, seat, back, and table supports)
1 each 2 x 3 (anchors for back and table)
6 each 1 x 3 (seat, back, table slats)
16 3 1/2" long x 3/8 carriage bolts, nuts, and washers

This is the part where we made it look like it has been weathering outside in the elements for a few decades. Crazy, I know! But our daughter wanted that old rustic tete-a-tete.

Okay, maybe it was us who wanted her to have a rustic tete-a-tete so we could play with this new to us product.

With our well-used paint sprayer, we applied the brown Varathane Aged Wood Accelerator. I have my sights on the new paint sprayer model. The wood accelerator comes in weathered gray and charred black as well.

It takes thirty minutes to one hour for the acceleration process to finish. First, we sprayed the underside of the bench and watched the magic happen.

Then we flipped it over and sprayed the top side of the bench and watched the magic happen for another thirty minutes. Only one coat is all you need to get the rustic patina.

It is recommended it dry for at least two hours before applying a clear topcoat.

I know this rustic patina isn't for everyone but if you want new wood to look old, it's amazing!

Will we use this same finish on the new tete-a-tete benches we build for our deck? Probably not. Nor will I be painting them.

If we don't use cedar they'll probably get stained the same color as our Adirondack furniture that used to be on our deck and now seating for our DIY backyard fire pit. If we do use cedar, they'll probably just get a topcoat.

So what is the takeaway from this full circle tete-a-tete transformation? I guess a few things.

1. Something doesn't have to be old to look old.
2. You can save yourself a lot of money by making it yourself.
3. Instead of the landfill, salvage what you can and recycle it into something else. Kind of like what we did with our old 80s wall unit and our old china cabinet.
4. Instead of trashing it and replacing it with something brand new, use it as a template and build one.
5. Or this takeaway that I took for myself. Don't leave your dang outdoor wood furniture unprotected from the elements to get ruined. 😒

Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by the evolution of our sentimental wooden tete-a-tete bench.

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