Refinishing furniture has become a sort of meditation for me. After finishing the art deco blanket chest and piano tables I repainted a small bench I made some years ago.
I made this out of garage scraps of 2x4 boards, utility carpet. We needed an intermediate stair next to the bed for our dogs to get on and off the bed. It's also a place to sit in our bedroom to put on shoes or whatever. It was pretty ugly. The boards were different colors and stained with various chemicals. After 7 years of this functional but ugly furniture in our bedroom, it was time to act!
I painted it with primer and 2 coats of a matte, dark purple paint we've had for years. I made two flower stencils to paint onto the 2 forward legs and free-handed some vines on the rear legs. Finally, 2 coats of polyurethane to protect it.
It took about 5 hours. Paint dries very fast in Utah, making these projects much simpler to get done in 1 day.