Tuesday, February 15, 2011

DIY Bench Project Complete

I've been wanting a bench for the foot of our bed for some time. We actually need a place to throw a pillow or a pair of jeans when we get home.  Our room is a master from the 1950's which equals a tiny closet and no bathroom.  A couple of years back, we built an Ikea wardrobe to have a place for our clothes.  This causing us to lose about 2 feet of our already tiny room.  Our furniture in the room consists of our low profile Ikea bed, two tiny nightstands, and a hamper.  Hence, the need for a landing ground for clothes...or a bench.

Please check out my inspiration post, where you can see all the great ideas for benches out there. I drew my inspiration from each of these benches.  Including the idea of actually making a bench myself, to using an old coffee table, and to buying the wood at Home Depot. 
I found this table last week at a thrift store for $7.00.  I loved the mid century style legs.

I flipped the table over and took off the brackets/plates that were holding the legs.
They were kind of rusty so I attempted a rust remover and ended up just spray painting them black.
I love the warm tone of mid century pieces, but these legs were in bad shape.
I sanded them down.
Stood them up on the brackets and applied a bit of a darker stain to match my lamps.
One of the main reasons I wanted to make the bench myself, was because of the specifications that I needed. I wanted the bench to be 48 inches long and 12 inches wide or should I say thin.  I bought a 12 by 2 piece of wood and had the guy at Home Depot cut the length to 48 inches.
I wrapped it with the same batting I used for my upholstered headboard.  I used what I had, so 3 layers is what it got.  It could have been thicker, but I didn't want to spend any more money.
I stapled it all the way around, but left the edges unstapled so that we could add the legs as close to the edges as possible.
I ended up having to buy 2 yards of the zebra fabric because of the length of my bench.  I cut it using the design of the pattern as a guide. I folded the fabric in half to get the exact center of the design.
I stapled all the way around except for the edges.  You see the design in the center.
Mr. J helped me with the legs.  He pre-drilled holes into the wood.
Screwed in the brackets as close to the edges as possible. Being that the bench is on the thin side, I wanted the legs to be as supportive as possible.
Attached the legs.
Now, I had to figure out how to get all that batting and fabric around the legs. I cut off some of the inside layers of batting and rounded out the fabric a bit and just stapled as tight as I could.
Here it is.


This project was so simple and has made a huge difference in our room.  Our pillows are no longer on the floor.  I think I may do another pillow with some of the leftover fabric.  What do you think?
Total Cost Breakdown:
Table   $7.00
Wood  $8.00
Fabric $22.00 (But I have a ton left over)
Screws $1.50
Total    $38.50 (all other materials were already on hand)

Decorchick!

63 comments:

Rashon Carraway 2/15/2011  

What a great tutorial. A custom look at a great great price!

Mr. Goodwill Hunting

KLM 2/15/2011  

The bench look fabulous! Love the pattern you chose and it looks great with the pillow!

With the extra fabric I would make another pillow for sure!

Happy Tuesday! :)

mary 2/15/2011  

Ok, that is AMAZing!! Lovely! I almost cannot believe you made it! Love it! xox!

jeanette from everton terrace 2/15/2011  

Bravo! It's fantastic and looks great in your bedroom.

Anonymous,  2/15/2011  

Looks fantastic! Is it weird that it reminds me of Fruit Stripe Gum (remember that?)?

Dwellings by DeVore 2/15/2011  

This look awesome! I love the fabric that you chose and the colors. Great job!

Anonymous,  2/15/2011  

yea!! it looks amazing & that zebra worked out beautifully!!! :)

Unknown 2/15/2011  

Wow, I think that is fantastic! I really love how it turned out and that fabric is awesome!

Unknown 2/15/2011  

I seriously love that fabric!

Cassie {Hi Sugarplum} 2/15/2011  

I LOVE it!!!! Great job...and love the fabric with the dark legs! Yes on pillows!

LBB 2/15/2011  

WOW! LOVE THIS! That was the best choice of fabric.

Karen @ Joy, Junk and Juxtaposition 2/15/2011  

Perfect..what a great fit/ Make the pillow!

Courtana 2/15/2011  

Absolutely adorable! Goes great w/the pillows and bedding, too!

Anonymous,  2/15/2011  

hi ya!
stop by my neighborhood to see who got an award! ;)

Life, Crafts and Whatever 2/15/2011  

You did such a great job on this!

Joi 2/15/2011  

Get it girl! I love how you transformed it!

Ali Richardson 2/16/2011  

WOW! It's really beautiful, great job! I think a matching pillow would be great too! Thanks for your comment, it's good to know that other creative people are struggling a bit with this time of year too.

Cassie 2/16/2011  

Great job!! I'd love one of those beneath my bed, too. And even in the same fabric! I'm a sucker for zebra print.

I do giveaways pretty frequent--you'll have to drop in again!

Vicky 2/16/2011  

Look at you with your wild fabric and great idea!!! Fabulous. I love animal print too. Can't find that yellow here at crappy old Fabricland, but I did see a wild pink that I might have to invest in.

Thelma Frayne 2/17/2011  

This turned out so cool! Well done.

Amber B (Simple Dwellings) 2/17/2011  

Wow- that looks amazing! Great DIY project. :)

Carrie@221vision.com 2/17/2011  

So glad our bench tutorial worked for you!

Carrie & Angie@221vision

Michelle 2/18/2011  

So cute! Love how it turned out :)

Meredith @ Welcome to Heardmont 2/18/2011  

Great job! Thanks for the inspiration ... I'm going to be keeping an eye out for a bench we can recover for the end of our bed now, too! (Don't pillows on the floor just drive you NUTS?!)

Carol, The Answer Is Chocolate 2/18/2011  

You did a fantastic job with this! WOW. Thanks so much for linking it up to my "Open House"!

Haley 2/18/2011  

you sure know how to do some fabulous transformations with just some batting, fabric & a little paint!! love, love this :)

lindalou 2/18/2011  

Great job and a really good tutorial. I would love one of those at the foot of my bed. Keeping my eyes open for an old table.

Came over from "Chocolate".

extreme personal measures 2/18/2011  

Love this! Very creative! You are very talented!

Denise
Extreme Personal Measures

Trisha @ The Sweet Survival 2/18/2011  

I love the fabric! Super cute and so creative.

Vanessa@Lovin-Life 2/18/2011  

Oh my gosh, totally love this!!

Vivienne @ the V Spot 2/18/2011  

Fantastic! I absolutely love this!!!

Unknown 2/19/2011  

love the idea. and i have a similiar shaped little table and i think i will now turn it into a bench. i am a new follower

Michelle {Daydream Believers} 2/19/2011  

LOVE! What a great makeover! I love the color, the zebra, the style of the bench. Great job! :)

Emma 2/19/2011  

Amazing. I love the bench, but I also love your pictures too. It can be hard to take good looking tutorial pictures.

Pam 2/20/2011  

Great job.....it turned out really nice.

Honey I'm Home Blog 2/20/2011  

I REALLY like it. I've been looking for a small bench & it didn't occur to me to make one. Great idea.

Warmly, Michelle

Unknown 2/21/2011  

Great job. Love your choice of fabrics! It looks great w/ that pillow.

Cassie Bustamante 2/21/2011  

i love the bench, and the entire room surrounding it!!! gorgeous!

RenĂ© 2/21/2011  

What a fun little bench! Yellow animal print? Love it!

-Rene

Allison Shops 2/21/2011  

Looks great. I have an outdoor iron coffee table I want to make into a bench. Dropping by from How To's Day. Hope you'll drop by and see the informal picture wall How To I did for DD2.

Allison
Atticmag

MariaT 2/22/2011  

Totally make one of these for the end of my bed now. Thanks!! Oh and I love the pattern you chose.

Jen 2/23/2011  

Great job! I made a very similar bench recently too!
~Jen @ http://pinstripestopearls.blogspot.com/

Kimberlea@SaVvyDeCor 2/23/2011  

So cute! I love the pattern on the fabric. Thanks for giving the instructions. This will be a future project! I am grabbing a button!

Mary 2/24/2011  

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to feature your bench on my "Top Ten Fav Picks" this week at Boogieboard Cottage. The post will be up later today. Have a nice weekend! Mary :O)

Anonymous,  2/24/2011  

I love this! Grey and yellow is my favorite combo right now. The tutorial is great. I posted this to my blog. Thanks

www.justrestingup.wordpress.com

gail@My Repurposed Life 2/24/2011  

great job! I have an old coffee table at the end of my bed too. :)
gail

Jody 2/24/2011  

Love that! Must try!

The Polka Dot Closet 2/24/2011  

Great job! It sure makes sense to buy a cheap table with legs you like rather than buy legs as they are so expensive....Very cool fabric!

Carol

Allyson & Jere 2/25/2011  

Just stopping by from Better After. What a FABULOUS bench. I absolutely love it.

Anonymous,  2/25/2011  

Love! Love! Love!

Carrie @ Hazardous Design 3/01/2011  

Saw (and voted for) your bench on Saturday Mornings and just had to see more. I've always wanted to try this myself, and I'm so impressed with how yours came out.

Unknown 3/02/2011  

Great tutorial and I love the finished product! I'm a new follower:) Really enjoying your blog!

Pamma 3/05/2011  

Looks fabulous and great tutorial...followed you along all the way to the end. Oh, yeah, definitely a few pillows with that wonderful fabric.
~Pam
pamspaintparlor.typepad.com

Anonymous,  3/07/2011  

Hey, great job, I love the way the bench turned out, love the fabric.
Thanks for sharing, this gives me a great idea for next project.
I'm visiting from BNOTP,MM.
~Jo
LazyonLoblolly

Chris 3/08/2011  

Great project!!!

Jordan@the2seasons 3/08/2011  

Love this and I love the fabric. Thanks for showing us how to do this!

Jon'el 3/13/2011  

I love it! Pretty fabric choice. I probably don't need a bench but doesn't mean I don't contemplate building one.

MiriamR 5/06/2011  

I love this! I have these exact same legs!! I had two little side tables and my children used them as stairs to jump of the couch and broke them but the legs were good so I have eight and I need a thin bench for the entryway out of the garage door so I might just use this tutorial!! THANKS its perfect!!

Kendra Hardesty 5/10/2011  

amazing job. love the colors!!!

Emreen 6/13/2011  

The bench looks custom-made now.. Marvellous make over... Love the chosen fabric too.. Blends well.. in your room..

Connie @ Salvage Savvy 7/15/2011  

This bench is amazing, I want to make one right now!! I am featuring it tomorrow on Salvage Savvy so everyone can see how awesome my followers are :) And I'm your newest follower too!!
Connie

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