Upholstery Bench? If I Can Do It You Can Do It Too!

Hinda
by Hinda
7 Materials
$50
1 Day
Medium

I saw on YouTube people making an ottoman or a bench by them selves and i always anted to to do one because i was sure its so much fun to make something like this. But i was scared to do it. That was just a mission impossible for me. When i was thinking that i have to dear with the upholstery, the wood to make the frame and the tiny details to make it looking perfect like in the store. Oh and without talking about the legs!! All this reasons made me always back off from this project until the day when i saw that i had all the material needed to make a bench due to other project leftover. Then i decided to try, because I’ll lose nothing all the materials were just stirring in my garage hhhh

but, guess what? i was nicely surprised. Making your own upholstered footrest bench is not that impossible as i thought! If i did it you can absolutely do it.

for more illustration, watch The video bellow.

Before

two years ago i had an upholstered sofa that i wanted to get rid of it. But before that, I opened it and took all the foam, sponge, and polyester filling to fill up my throw pillows. I had already a piece of velvet fabric, a wood board and some wood sticks to use them as legs.

The list of supplies:



  1. rectangular foam wrapped in polyester wadding 12x24 inches.
  2. Fabric (velvet)
  3. wooden board 12x24 inches
  4. wood sticks for framing and legs
  5. upholstery nails
  6. all purpose
  7. hot glue
  8. stables
  9. paint
  1. wrap the foam with the polyester wadding using glue
  2. glue the foam over the board
  3. lay down the fabric and put your foam and board in the middle of it, then measure the four sids the way that it goes 2 inches over the board. Cut the four sides.
  4. Use an upholstery staple, and start stapling one time each side. Pull the fabric very well inside to Tighten the fabric and finish stapling. The corners are little bit different, you have to fold them inside, staple, it trim the excess of fabric and then continue folding the rest of the fabric in a fan movement and stapling in the same time.

Bring 4 wooden sticks or bars and cut them in 45 degrees to make a frame.

i fetched in my garage some wood left over from my previous projects to reuse them as a frame and legs. Important to have the same thickness of wood for the frame and 4 same thickness of wood for the legs.

I drilled the frame half way, using a blue tape to mark where i have to stop, then inserted the screws. This technique allows to connect the frame with the board making holes to use a regular screws instead of a long ones. because as you can see, the frame is high so no need to have a giant screws for that.

The legs were challenging for me. I took this project as a challenge, so i made my own legs instead of buying designed legs. I wanted to get advantage of all the my left over materials to make a 0$ bench diy ;)

for that, i took 4 thick wood sticks about 1,5 inches thickness and cut them 45 degrees both sides like in the next picture.

Cut the wood 45 degrees horizontally both sides. And screw them with the frame, i added one more screw in the bottom to connect it with the board also.

I painted the legs with beige color, and them draw white like and wiped them to creat a vintage look. When i finished, i padded with the brown paint in some spot to creat a contrast.

With the same fabric, i measured the same measurement of the frame and cut it to four strips. Using a hot glue gun, i glued the fabric over the wooden frame. It looks much better then painting the frame.

I decided to nail it with upholstery nails that I’ve got from Lowe’s for 1.39$. For a small bench like that I needed approximately 3 packages. Because that was my first time nailing the upholstery, i damaged some nails until i get used to it and then the work was much easier. Practice is the clue my friends :D

using a measuring tape, i left 1 inch space in between the nails and start nailing with a small hummer.

That was so much fun hhhh

note: this is the only item i bought.

this is my footrest bench. Very proud of it. I finally stoped worrying and started working. I feel that I defeated my uncertainty and have to more trust my self. Nay next one will be definitely a bigger and more sophisticated bench!

I feel very comfortable in this chair, when i put my feet over this footrest.

My kids love to sit on it and me too! I use it now in the entrance to were my shoes or just to set on it nest to my coffee table.

Very cushiony and comfy my little bench.

After

The list of material here is just to help you know where you can find the supplies. But in my case didn’t bought anything except the upholstery nails that cost me 4 dollars.

Resources for this project:
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  1 question
  • Carole Ritter Carole Ritter on Feb 13, 2021

    where did you get your chair, how long have you had it are you pleased with quality of chair.

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