How To Make: Recovering a Old Bench

Good morning ya'll!

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for my absence as of late. Work has been crazy and I'd love to report that I was just crafting it up left and right. But I can't :(

Because you've been so patient, I wanted to share with you this little lonely bench I found at Goodwill. She was so sad and ugly. $5.99 later and off we went!

Now, I know ya'll know how to do all of this already and because you love pictures, I'm going to sort of spell it out for you. Bear with me.



The fringe was killing me. So with a pair of needle nose pliers, I popped out all of the staples.



If you actually look at the paint job on this sweetie, you'll see whoever painted this, actually took a lot of time to paint and stress it. I sort of hated to repaint her, but the pea green had to go.



Here she is bare nekkid! I used a all purpose spray primer in white. Just a note, and I feel like I can say this since I use spray paint almost on a daily basis. The RustOleum "Painter's Touch" Ultra Cover is the best. I've used the Valspar spray paint from Lowe's and have been completely disappointed. Not only does the Valspar spit and spattle everywhere, but it doesn't cover half as well as the RustOleum.






She had this awful piece of foam for a seat. I just went to JoAnn's and bought another piece and cut to fit. I didn't want the cushion to be completely square, so I hacked off the edges a bit. I used a tad of my trusty spray adhesive to give the bottom of the foam some stick. I wanted to be sure, at no point, this foam was going to be sliding around.



Recognize this fabric? Yeah, I sort of love it and bought 5 yards of it.

I set the fabric on top of the foam cushion and just cut around where I wanted it to end. Keep in mind when you are cutting, that you'll be pulling on the fabric. So you might have more left over than you anticipated. That's OK, nothing some scissors can't take care of!



If you're in the same sort of mindset that I am, {the "I can redo anything just give me spray paint!"} or even trying to just make some cute stuff for your house, you need to invest in a staple gun. I got mine at Lowe's for about $20.00. I have a friend however, that bought a electric one that does staples AND small nails. She paid $7.00 more than I did for my old school one and I'm sure she is enjoying her hand not cramping up.



Make sure your fabric is centered on the cushion if it's printed. I started with one staple at each end. I didn't want to start on one side then realize that the other side was lopsided or didn't have enough fabric. Take your time and make sure the fabric is pulled tight.

Now we can't just leave the edge like this can we? You've got a bunch of choices for finishing something like this off. You can use furniture tacks and create the edge that way. You can use fringe {like it came with} you can use ribbon, you can use pillow edging, or like I did, lace.



Hobby Lobby had a way better selection than JoAnn's did {if you can believe that!} and it was super cheap. Make sure you measure all the way around the piece and buy accordingly. Once you get the fabric on, staple the edging over the fabric. You know the drill.



I found this darling ruffly edging a while ago and set it aside. It goes perfectly! Since this is going to be the last layer of edging, we need it to look nice. I first pinned the edging on, then went back with a glue gun to secure it.





And here she is! All pretty and new! What do you think?