Slightly more yellow and bendy than I’d originally anticipated she’d look once positioned, but you gotta love her for sheer quirkiness! Our salvaged piece of Robinia timber was sanded down using a belt sander and fixed in place using some heavyweight screws on the original two slate end posts. I hate the striped slate which runs horizontally on the legs of the bench so we’re going to tile over them with a couple of solid slate tiles but that’s next week’s job.
We had some willow screening left over from the other (unseen) section of the terrace, so used this against the brick wall so it would be more comfortable to lean back on. I’m finally really pleased with this terrace which has been problematic since it’s construction. The tiling wasn’t done well initially and has now been completely replaced.
First we took up all the old tiles to find (not unexpectedly) that the whole area was sodden:
It was retiled using most of the original slate plus a few extra and the old tiled bench top removed. That bloody tarpaulin was up and down like a tart’s you know what’s in the persistent summer rain!
Once the tiles were brick acided and sealed, it was time to decide how to make the bench seat. Of course, I could have gone down the ‘couple of pieces of regular timber’ route but figured there must be a more interesting solution, as indeed there was after a quick trip to my favourite timber salvage place.
The chunk of Robinia was heavy, durable and perfect for a bench – she just didn’t look quite as yellow before her extreme makeover!
All in all, a much better end for her than being chopped up for waste or languishing on a woodpile – I hope the tenants are as fond of their new Banana Bench & terrace when they come back from their summer break in August š
Slate tiles : Topps Tiles
Willow Screening : B&Q
Table & chairs – Habitat *sob*
Bananas, it’s all gone bananas – Patio looks great now all you need is a G&T… perfect..