I do. All the time.
So, needless to say my To-Do list is full of craftastic Pin-sational ideas. As a matter of fact, my camera roll is full of "before" and "afters" just waiting to be blogged about. So lets start with one of my most recent "I can totally do that" projects.
My pin boards are over flowing with Master bedroom ideas. As of late, I've developed an obsession with end-of-the-bed benches. Is there a formal name for those? Foot bench? Sitting bench? Anyways, love the look with pillows ever so carelessly tossed upon it. A nice throw draped across it.. (Only for a toddler to rip it down and drag it across the house, but hey I can dream right?).
Lets start with a few of my inspired looks
 |
| link to original pin |
Those pins lead me to this bench, $126 at Walmart, plus tax and/or shipping we were looking at a more realistic number of $140. And I must say, it was one of the cheapest options I could find.
So curious me, always looking for a deal, kept on looking. This time for a plain bench (first I checked second hand shops and I'll admit I might've been a little eager to look very long) I ended up finding a brand new black bench on clearance at Walmart. Oddly enough we already own the same exact one in white that goes with our kitchen table. So to see if the size was to my liking, all I had to do was move it in front of our bed and envision it being black and upholstered. Good enough for me.
Heres what I rounded up for this project
Bench - $44 brand new Walmart
staple gun and staples - already on hand
1 yard of fabric - $6 with a 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby
(you might need more, make sure to measure twice)
a roll of foam - $10 on sale at Hobby Lobby
a marker
scissors
duct tape or hot glue
adorable kids to get in the way helpers
I really only glanced at this pin and pretty much pretended I knew what to do right away, but I figured I'd include it for those of you who don't like to have meltdowns in the middle of projects. To each their own, right?
I'm not great at remembering to take step by step pictures but my included fabulous iphone pictures give you a little idea of the process anyways.
First things first, I took apart the bench and then measured and cut my foam accordingly. Then hot glued it on top of the bench so there was no sliding once it was time to start stapling.
I opted to use a thin batting -that I already had on hand- underneath my decorative fabric just to add extra work make sure the foam was nice and snug in place. And I could easily hide mistakes etc. if need be. I pulled the fabric taut and placed a few staples, repeating the process as I slowly made my way around the entire thing. I saved the corners for last and used a bunching method before placing those staples.
Repeat the same process again for the decorative fabric, though not needing to pull too tight this time if you used batting. Again, you can see the bunching method for the corners.
Before reassembling, I marked and trimmed the edges of the extra fabric so that they would be hidden under the black wood boarder once everything was screwed back together. And thats it! With just a few steps, it really was that easy.
 |
| Voila! A brand new bench for a fraction of the price. You can totally do that! |
*Currently a work in progress are pillows to add a little something more to the bench. Make sure to check back next week for another Sew That Saturday, featuring throw pillows!
