DIY Bench

So, first I have to say that all of the materials I used I allready had in the house. So this was a very budget friendly project. So here' s what you' ll need.

1. A fabric of your choice ( I used a really old bed sheet )
2. Wood planks ( mine are 5 x 10 cm and 2 x 5 cm ) that I used to make the base and a 25 x 75 cm plank for the top
3. Poly fill ( I used stuffing from old pillows)
4. Stain of your choice
5. Paint ( optional ) - for drybrushing.

First I cut my fabric. I made 10cm wide stripes. Since I knew that my bench would be 75 cm long, and 25cm wide, I made 3 long stripes, and 8 short. All you have to do is sew a strait line down the edge. You can do it by hand. You don' t have to be precize, couse that part will be facing down, so it won' t show.

Here you can see that mine are all different. And it really doesn' t matter 🙂

Next is to fill in the tubes. Really stuff them to be nice and puffy!

This is how they looked all stuffed up. Don' t bother closing the tubes, cause we'll be stapling them to the plank.

I stapled this fabric on to my base.

Then I stapled the tubes on. 3 long ones on the long side of the plank, and 8 short ones across.

Now the braiding. You can see the pattern... But basicly, you take your tubes and pull one over, and the next one under the previous. If the previous was under, the next will be over that one. It' s not hard once you get the idea how it works. Now, make sure you really pull them and make them tight, cause the next thing is stapling them down to the bottom. You will probably have some leftover fabric, so you can cut that off, once you stapled it.

This is how it looks when it's finished.

Now the base. I cut 22cm long 8 parts, and 4 parts that are 65cm long. Out of the shorter parts I made 2 squares, so that would be the legs of the bench. And added the long ones between, to join them together.

This is the finished base. Now, I used thinner planks on the top, and thicker ones on the bottom, as you can see.

Now the staining. I always do it with some old cloth. It gives such a fine finish.

I did some whitewashing over the stain, and then some drybrushing as well, using some acrylic paint in brown and black.

Look at the colour 🙂🙂

And the final touch would be attaching the top of the bench to the base. And..voila 🙂🙂🙂