Old Chest to a Perfect hose House

I bought this lovely old chest about 3 years ago at a yard sale. Yes, I know it's not in the best shape, but I love the olde charm it has. The raw wood, the planks pieced together and the exposed nails. So what if it has a few holes:) I'm pretty sure the hubs rolled his eyes at me when I unloaded it from the van that day....

Over the last few years I've used it various places in my house. As a bench in the hall, under the window in the family room and in the kitchen. It housed many different things- blankets, shoes and family games..... But none of those fits were quite perfect???

In the mean time I'd been wanting to build a bench for the front porch. And as I began a plan to work on it I became increasingly frustrated with the fact that the ugly hose was in the way... And I have to have my hose cause I love me some flowers:) so that wasn't going to go away. I thought the chest would make the perfect fit on my porch. I thought for sure my hubs would veto it cause wood + water = disaster and he is a LOVER of wood- seriously:) But he didn't- he jumped on it- probably to get the ugly thing out of the house- but heck, it's in pretty rough shape anyway, I don't think the water's gonna hurt much.

Once I got him involved it really started happening. Because of the faucet location on the house it was hard to figure out where to put the chest. I considered cutting a hole in the back of it to fit the faucet but then my husband came up with a brilliant idea (as he usually does- love him). He thought that since the hose goes down it would be easiest to thread it up from the bottom. So we drilled a hole in the bottom and cut of the spindles from the reclaimed banister I had and made legs. So we put it right beside the faucet- PERFECT!

At this point I still needed to paint the spindle legs. Um what color? Something that blends or something that stands out? Ultimately I decided on something that blends- rustoleum espresso.

Here it is completed with the pillows I made from some vintage fabric I've had for oh, um, 7 years.. I love it and have been waiting for the perfect project for it- I think I found it:) I even added a fabric rosette pin I made, just for a little pizazz. AAhhhhhh, I'm so glad I found the perfect place for this beaut!