Mudroom in Progress {No Sew Bench Seat}

In an effort to beautify my mudroom, I painted stripes on the main wall, added some baskets, and decided to make a seat cushion for the bench.

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I could have agonized over the fabric for days!  I actually did go to Hobby Lobby three times, Joann’s three times, and briefly scoured the Internet.  Can you believe I’ve never bought fabric before??  It was a whole new wonderful world for me:)  I bought about ten samples but ended up deciding on this, (which, by the way, my husband said was too “floral”).  It’s from Joann’s and was on sale for $5.00 a yard.

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To make the bench seat, I used these tools/supplies:

Lumber (2 @ 55 x22 inches)

Fabric (4 yards)

Saw (only because we had to make an extra cut in the wood due to a weird corner in our bench)
Poly foam (3 inch)
Batting
Wood glue
Scissors
Serrated knife
Staple gun
Iron

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Step 1:  Measure the bench to determine how much wood you’ll need for the seat.  My bench is really long (111 x 22 inches)!  So I decided to make two bench seats.

 
Step 2:  I went to Lowe’s and they cut two pieces of plywood for me.  We have an annoying angle in one corner, so my husband had to cut a corner out of one of the pieces for me.

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Step 3:  Cut the poly foam with a serrated knife to fit on top of your wood.  My project required 2 full (22×22 sheets and a half) per board.

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Step 4:  Use wood glue to glue the poly foam to the wood.


Step 5:  Once the glue is dry and the poly is secured to the wood (I didn’t wait that long), cover the foam with batting and trim to fit.
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Step 6:  Use a staple gun to staple the batting to the underneath side of the wood.  Be careful to smooth the batting before stapling so that the fabric can lay smooth and flat without wrinkles when it’s time to cover.  Trim the excess batting.
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Step 7:  Iron the fabric to remove any wrinkles or creases.

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Step 8:  Lay the wood, batting side down on top of your upside-down fabric.

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Step 9:  Pull the fabric taut and staple to the wood.  After stapling the first side, I stood the wood on it’s side so that I could smooth the fabric very well before stapling the second side.

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Step 10:  Fold the corners and staple closed.  I folded mine like a gift because I’m good at wrapping presents.  I’m sure there’s a better way to do this.

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Step 11:  Trim the excess fabric.

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And there you have it!

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Our mudroom sure has changed!  See the updated bench seat/pillows and painted doors.  See how we’ve organized our mudroom here.

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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

44 Comments

  1. Wow—the seat looks AMAZING! Great job!!! And thanks for the shout-out, girl. Can you believe that I am considering recovering the chairs again in a more fall-friendly fabric? Haha… I think my husband thinks I'm crazy. 🙂 Of course I would just cover over the stripes so that once the holidays were over, I could just go back to my beachy blues and greens. 🙂

  2. Visiting from Anything Related ~ Wow, absolutely beautiful job!! And great tutorial, I have a bench that's in dire need of something like this. Will be bookmarking for later! 🙂

  3. i'm going to be turning my old army trunk into a padded bench in my new front hall when i move next month. over the summer i saw a post somewhere about a no-sew way to recover patio furniture –> the blogger used safety pins on the underside of the cushion to hold the fabric taut. afraid of putting holes in the fabric that might get bigger with time, plus using the idea of those eco-sandwich wrap patterns that you make of reusable/washable material, fold around your sandwich and hold in place with velcro, that's what i'm going to do to cover the foam top on the bench. this way, it's easy to remove, wash, and put back in place. (granted, i don't have kids with sticky hands, just a black cat who likes to shed regardless of how much i brush him!) just make sure to wash the fabric before you make your 'foam wrap' or it won't wrap properly after it's nice & clean again!

  4. You are my inspiration this weekend… well this week, it will probably be a weeklong process haha! My son has a high bed with drawers underneath. We never use the drawers now so I took them off and will attempt to make a bench out of it! Wish me luck! jaggedlittlelife.blogspot.com

  5. I love that fabric! And I'm drooling over your mud room too. Someday… someday I will be in a home instead of a rental apartment… someday. 🙂 Thanks for giving me some inspiration to tide me over until then!

    Stopping by from the Weekend Wrap Up. Have a great weekend!

    Lorene
    just Lu

  6. Wow…how have I not found this lovely blog? Love this little nook you have created…perfection!!!

    Cheers~
    e

  7. I love your bench seat, I would love a mud room to put one in, but something like that would be great at my front door!

  8. This looks so great! Please come to my house and make two window seat covers and one bench cover, OK? Thanks for the great step-by-step, as I'll be using it shortly! I love the fabric choices too – great job!

  9. Ahhh…I LOVE this project! And I featured it in our Frugalicious Friday Favorites today! Thanks for linkin' up and feel free to grab out button.

    Jane
    Finding Fabulous

  10. I'm attending a free class at my local Home Fabric store this weekend on making a cushioned bench seat. Depending on how they do there's I might use your tutorial instead! Your bench turned out fabulous!

  11. Does you bench have a "lip" on it so the cushion doesn't slide around? I've saved this post for awhile and plan on doing it this weekend, but was wondering if it stays in place or not. email is lizcolville (at) hotmail (dot) com

  12. Thanks for your tutorial! We just got done with our bench cushion and couldn't be happier! We used memory foam from a bed topper instead of the regular foam from hobby lobby but it seems to work pretty well, it stays squished down for a second after you get up but overall it looks great!
    Thanks for your idea and steps!

  13. Love how it turned out. What is the benefit of using the batting before putting on the fabric? I'm getting ready to create my own bench seat and wanted to ask before I bought everything. Thank you!

  14. This is great! Thank you! I have a bench that is 45 x 17 3/4. I am thinking it would only take 1 yard of fabric (54 in. wide). Am I mistaken?

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