DIY Upholstery Project with the Int’l Bloggers

This month’s Int’l Bloggers Club Challenge is all about cotton.   Each month I collaborate with the other members on the same topic.   My first thought was to sew something using cotton fabric, but decided I wanted to do something different for the challenge and used cotton buffalo fabric to show you how to reupholster a bench.

Make sure to check out what the other extremely talented and creative ladies have made, you will find the links to their projects after mine.

This old storage bench is from an online auction,  it was inexpensive and unfortunately looks it.    The bench I made last year from a headboard sold, so I wanted a new bench, and bought this one to replace it.  The idea is to sit with my back to the warm fire on cold days,  and having a little bench is much nicer than sitting on the little hearth.    This quick DIY upholstery project is being done in buffalo check to match this year’s Christmas theme.

The bench has a top attached by hinges and wooden legs, and faux leather fabric.  The legs are the same colour as the rest of the living room furniture so they are being kept as is.

How to Recover an Old Bench

Dismantling and Preparing the Bench

The first step is taking apart the existing bench.  The bench has three pieces, a top that’s attached to the middle portion by hinges and the bottom leg base that’s attached to the middle art by screws.  Separate the bench and make sure to take photos of the placement of the hinges so you can refer to them when reassembling your bench.  (I remembered to take a before picture but forgot to take pictures of the hinges and delayed myself for half an hour figuring out which way the hinges were originally.)  I kept the faux leather on the bench, just wiped it off with Pinesol. Depending on your original fabric you may prefer to remove your original fabric.

Starting in one corner place the fabric so that the fabric meets in the corner where the two checks intersect.  Then mark the spot with chalk, the dotted line on the photo shows where I plan to cut the fabric to make the corner seams.

Placing the fabric on the cutting ma, using the mark as a guide cut out a square in the ends of the fabric.  Fold the fabric good sides together, line up the two cut edges and sew.  This replicates the little original seams in the corners of the lid.

Then take your fabric and place the sewn corner on the far end of your bench, mark the place where the next corner seam should be, cut out the two ends and seam.

Repeat this for the other two corners.

Fold the underside of your fabric and press with an iron,  place back on the bench fold over the edges and staple in place.  I suggest starting in the middle of each side and working towards the outside corners.  Make sure to notice that your fabric remains straight at you staple, with buffalo check the difference and curves will show.

Recovering the Middle of the Bench

Before starting on the middle section you need to match the pattern for the bottom fabric to the fabric on the lid.   Be patient and fussy.  In spite of fiddling with it for an hour, I was not able to sew the fabric first and wrap it around the entire circumference of the bench.  It was just too difficult to match the fabric in both directions and pin from the underside.  Giving up I went to a plan B no-sew method.

Place the finished top of your bench on top of the middle storage portion.  Starting with the end pieces match up the pattern of your fabric both top and end.    Fold the underside of the fabric over creating a seam and staple so that the patterns match.

Fold the front part of the fabric around the front of the bench.  Trim off any excess fabric, making the pattern match is the most important part.  Once you have the top done on one side of the corner, repeat the process on the other end of the fabric.  Repeat this process on the other end of your bench.

Once you have the two ends of the bench covered. Take another piece of fabric and match up your pattern with the top of the bench and with the horizontal pattern of the fabric on the sides.  Staple in place at the corner.   Work the pattern down to the other end but don’t staple it.  Match the second end of the fabric, fold under and staple.  Then add the remaining staples.

Once I figured out to do it one side at a time matching the patterns top and side was quite easy as the pattern stands out and if its wrong its easy to notice.

Once you have the top of the fabric stapled to the bench, flip your bench over.  Trim any excess fabric you have at the bottom of the bench and staple in place making sure the outside corners are crisp and the folds are neat.

Repeat this on all four corners.  While stapling your fabric you may require a staple every couple of inches to keep the horizontal pattern straight.  Remember not to pull the fabric too tight keeping the horizontal lines of the fabric is more important.

Once the fabric is on, add the undercoating fabric back on with staples.  place the upholstered bottom onto the ledges and reattach using the original screws.   Finally, reattach the hinges for the lid of your bench.

I am busy trying to get some of the DIY projects I need to be finished before I actually start decorating for Christmas.  The list is very long this year.