Simple Bench Makeover

Last minute projects are a typical back to school activity for me. I decided to sew decorative pillows the night before moving into college my freshman year. Now two years later, I'm moving into my first apartment in less than a week and starting on some last minute DIY projects. The first of which was giving a makeover to this little bench my dad found for me.

Bench Before

Supplies:

• Bench
• Screwdriver
• Fabric
• Staple gun
• Primer
• Paint
• Brushes

Steps:

1. Start by removing the seat of the bench by removing the screws on the bottom of the seat. Then your going to want to wipe the wooden base down with a damp cloth to remove any dust, cobwebs, etc.

Original Seat

2. To cover the seat, you need to stretch the fabric around the seat and staple it to the wooden bottom.

  a) I find that starting with one edge and then

      stretching the fabric tightly to the opposite

      side first allow you to get a very smooth seat.

      Pull the fabric tight to one of the short sides

      and staple it; don't staple too close to the

     corner.

Recovered Seat Bottom

b) Then you need to do the corners (which I find to

         be the most difficult part). For my corners, I

         looked at how the corners had been on the

         original covering and tried to emulate them. Be

         patient because it might take a few different

         folding attempts to get the corners to look how

         you want. When stapling for the corners, it is

         important to be aware of the location of the

         screw holes so that you can avoid putting a

         staple there.

Primed Bench Base

3. Next you want to prime the base of the bench to prepare it for painting. This doesn't have to be particularly neat, so don't worry to much about how the brush strokes look.

Painted Bench Base 

4. I painted my bench base with two coats of Dover White. When painting the round legs, to works best to paint around the legs, rather than up and down them.

5. The last thing to do is reattach the seat to the base. Line the seat up and put the screws back in; it is important to remember that you will be screwing through fabric. This means that you may have to screw through the fabric (making a hole) and the take the screw back out. This will help keep the fabric from getting wrapped around the screw and making it difficult to continue turning it.

All that is left to do is sit down and admire the new look for an old bench.

Bench After