Tutorial Tuesday: Upholstering a Bench

Happy Tuesday, all!

This weekend, I finally got around to finishing my window seat by the fireplace:

Just for good measure, I'll remind you of the 'way before' picture:

And here's the 'just before' picture:

Sometimes I need to look at those, "this is where we came from" pictures to know that we have made a huge dent on our project load.

I scoured Pinterest for good tutorials on 'easy' upholstering, I didn't find much. So, I winged it. My methods worked really good for me, but I recommend doing a little research and maybe some practice before you embark on your own upholstery project.

I started out by measuring my bench size. I figured I needed about 1" of foam space on each edge, so I had my Dad [thanks, Dad!] cut a piece of 1/2" plywood. Then, I headed over to Joann's equipt with a 60% off coupon [don't ever buy anything there without a coupon, highway robbery at its finest] and bought a piece of 3" foam that would give me about 1.5" of room around my piece of plywood. 

Then, there's fabric and batting [batting is cotton-ey stuff that you put in a quilt, you'll need some high plush batting.] I measured my fabric to have at least 3" of room around the plywood. More is better, you could always trim. but, my fabric was expensive, so I rolled the dice

Just as an example, here are my dimensions:

• Finished size needed to be 18x64
• Plywood size was 16x62 [think, 1" less on each side]
• Foam size was 19x65 [think, 1.5" room on each side of the plywood]
• Fabric and batting size was 22x68 [think, 3" room on each side of the plywood]

Your foam doesn't need to be perfect, just close.

My stuff before the cutting

 Once you have everything cut, layer your fabric [right side down] then batting, then foam, then plywood:

Make sure you space everything evenly, this will make your next job easier:

Don't pay attention to how dirty my carpet is...

Now it's time to grab a staple gun. I bought a manual one from Harbor Freight for about $6.99. You just need something strong enough to punch into plywood. An electric one would be even better, but that one cost $20 and I'm cheap.

Start on one of your long ends. Pull your fabric and batting tight over the foam, paying attention to what the side of your bench is looking like. Once the side looks tight and not lumpy, staple that thing. Staple every 3-4" or so. Then continue down that end, but don't staple the corners yet.

When you're stapling, make sure to staple on one side of your fingers and not in-between.
If you staple in-between your fingers you'll get odd pulling marks on your fabric.

 Now, do the other side. I liked starting in the middle and moving down.

Now, do the short ends:

By this time, your arms are probably pretty tired. This was quite the work out. Take a break, drink a glass of wine, you deserve it. Come back for some creative corners.

Now flap out your corner like this:

Take the top of that triangle and staple it tightly into the plywood.

Now, fold the other legs of the triangle over so it looks like this:

Do all four corners, flip that bench over, and jump up and scream.

You did it!

Thankfully, my measurements were spot on and this bad boy fit perf.

The worst part of this project? Taking pictures of my one stenciling mistake over..and over...
and over...

I'm still figuring out the long-term pillow solution for this spot, but our couch cushions look pretty darn cozy up there!

Next stop: Window treatment, pillow solution and a big ol cup of tea while re-reading the Hunger Games.