DIY: Upholstered Bench

I have recently finished working on a client's new home, and one of the rooms that I decorated was for her young daughter. You can see the complete room reveal here. Her room has a perfect niche under the window that was in dire need on a seating area. So, a DIY upholstered bench was born.

This is actually the second bench that my husband and I have made. The first one we did was for our master bedroom.

Here is a tutorial if you want to make a bench like this... (sorry for the lack of in-progress shots).

1. You'll need to measure how big you want the bench to be. You can do a longer bench for the end of a bed or under a window, or you can make a one-seater bench. The process is still the same, just the measurements will change. We made our bench 48" long and 18" deep, out of 3/4" pressed wood. As a tip, you may want to make sure that the fabric you've selected works with the size of the bench, or vice versa. This fabric is 54" wide and the pattern runs in only one direction, so we had to make sure that the bench was shorter than the fabric.

2. Next, you'll want to cut your foam to fit. The foam I used is 2" thick. I used a spray adhesive on the board so the foam wouldn't slip once it was glued. This is a life saver when it comes time to upholster. (Foam is expensive so try waiting for a sale or a coupon to use).

3. Once your foam is glued down, cover it in a thick batting and staple underneath.

4. Now you are ready to upholster. Iron your fabric to get rid of any creases and lay your fabric down on a large surface pattern-side down. Make sure your fabric is where you want it to be (ie: pattern placement is in the middle of the bench, etc.) Now, pull the fabric and staple. Continue this all the way around the board while checking the fabric as you go. The corners can be tricky - try your best to pull the fabric around the corner and staple as you go. This way you won't end up with a big fold at each corner.

5. Since the seat of the bench is all done. It's time to focus on the support. We chose ready to use legs from Lowes. For this all you need is to choose the right style leg - we chose a simple straight leg - and the proper height. Ideally, the leg should be about 14" tall since you'll be adding height with the board, foam and batting. You'll also want to pick up four top plates for the legs to screw into.

6. Position the top plates at each corner of the bench and screw into the board. Next, screw your legs into the plates. For added support, we cut a 3"x3/4" board to size (to fit between each leg) and attached these pieces to the legs with L-brackets.

7. Test out your bench to ensure there is no give and it feels fully supported.

8. Painting time! Unscrew the top plates so the legs and supports can be removed as one. We chose white, but any colour of the rainbow would do.

9. Once your painting is done (and all is dry), just screw the top plates back into the board and you have yourself a bench!

You can also add extra details like tufting, trim, or nailhead (like we did for our bench in our master bedroom).