Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the fairest one of all? My kitchen bench! I got an idea for an awesome, high back, leather tufted kitchen bench awhile ago, which visiting friends in New York last fall. We had stopped into Cafe Ost in Manhattan and that’s when I saw my future kitchen bench:

I couldn’t quite get the image or the idea out of my head for quite sometime, and decided to recreate in the VIB kitchen. Now ordering anything custom like this is going to cost quite a bit of money, so I was trying to see if I could come up with something that I could make myself. Being that this was going to be the focal point of the kitchen, I wanted something that wasn’t going to look DIY.

One day, I was scrolling craigslist  with a keyword tufted, and I could hardly believe my luck when I came across a post advertising  three tufted panels  “Bought from second owner who bought it from Gimbel’s [department store] before they closed for good.” These were used as portable mirrors for the dressing rooms:

The longer panel has dimensions pretty much of what we need for the length (76″) and depth (22″) of the seat. The two other panels are slightly shorter (72″ length 22″ width) and would go on the wall.

After a short drive to VA and $300 bucks later these babies were mine!

Now these aren’t leather, they are Nugahyde. And the color is not exactly what  I was looking for. But for saving me the trouble of having these custom made or attempting to make these myself I would say the screen panels are spot on. Plus these have some interesting history to boot!

The mirrors, by the way are beautiful. And will be repurposed elsewhere in the VIB domain.