How to "distress" a bench

I made this deacon's bench in Grade 9. It was in pretty rough shape so I decided to paint it. Because it was already dented and scratched I thought it would work well to "distress" it. I called my sis-in-law Heidi to figure out how to do it. It was quite easy and a lot of fun. I started after I got the kids to bed and cleaned up, so I didn't finish until about 2am, but it's done!
Here's the steps I used to make it:
1. I rubbed liquid sandpaper all over the bench. It cleaned and supposedly roughed it up, but it still seemed pretty smooth so I sandpapered it a little more.
2. I painted it apple red with latex paint and let it dry for about an hourish.
3. I sanded all the edges and sanded a few areas on the wood to make it look more antique-y.
4. I rubbed walnut stain all over with a rag and let it dry for a couple hours.
5. I put just one layer of clear varathane on (it could probably use more)
6. All done!

Here's the finished product! It looks better in real life.

Hadley took these pictures of the couches we got, so I thought I'd put them on. We are getting reimbursed for them. I found them on Kijiji for $850, but we ended up getting the set for $750. They are black leather. I love them!