Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Coffee Table to Bench Transformation {Tutorial}

My husband and I are trying to finish up as many projects as we can before baby #3 arrives {which should be any day now!}. I want to clear them off my to-do list so I can turn around and fill that list back up with a ton of little baby projects. My husband just wants his garage back.


One furniture makeover that I have been dragging my feet on has been this coffee table to bench transformation. I would work on it for a few days and then get distracted by something else. Come back to it a couple of weeks later and then go out of town. Poor little neglected coffee table! So I finally buckled down this past week and finished it up.  And I am so glad that I did! This little bench resides at the foot of our guest bed {for now} and when my parents visited this past weekend, they absolutely loved having it there. It is the perfect little spot to put on shoes or store a small suitcase.


Thank goodness my pregnancy nesting kicked in and I got around to checking this off my list!


 
I scored the coffee table off Craigslist for $10 {I won't tell you how long ago because it really is embarrassing how I've procrastinated with this project but I will say that I wasn't pregnant when I got it.}  and knew immediately that I wanted to upholster it and make it into a bench.





I took about two and a half inches off the bottom of the legs to allow for comfortable seating once I added the two inch foam. Since I was going to be painting it, I drilled a few screws in the bottom of the legs. This elevated the table and allowed for me to paint the entire table, right down to the edges of the legs without worrying about making a mess on the floor or dirt in the paint. {If you do this, don't drill too far in and be careful to not split the wood!}

I sanded the table down and used a semi-gloss paint and a small foam roller to paint the entire table.


Of course, the pulls that I picked from Hobby Lobby were too long to be placed in the holes from the original hardware and I needed to move them up about two inches. Luckily, that was an easy fix.


I just took a few toothpicks and cut off the tips.




After applying wood glue, I pushed the toothpicks down into the preexisting hole.


I then filled the remain space with wood filler and let it dry.


Once it was dry, I wiped it down and lightly sanded it.


A light coat of paint and you couldn't tell that there had ever been a hole there.  Now I could drill my new holes for the longer drawer pulls.







The next step was to upholster the top of the table. I had some experience with this when I made an upholstered headboard for my sister so I knew that this part wasn't as intimidating as it may seem.



I sprayed my two inch foam with adhesive spray {be sure to do in a well ventilated area!} and applied it to the top of the table.


Then, I busted out the electric carving knife and trimmed up the edges {this part is so much fun...I let my sister do it the last time and now I know what I was missing}.





I draped some batting over the top, around the sides and under the top of the table and stapled the bejeezus out of it. I found it really helped to actually turn the table upside down so I could really apply good pressure to my staple gun. Then I trimmed the batting and did the same with the fabric. Be sure to line up your fabric if you have a pattern! The last time I upholstered, the fabric was just a solid color and that was so much easier but patterns are so much fun and are so cute...they are hard to resist {like a baby koala}.


I stapled around the straight sides first and then carefully folded the fabric around the edges. It wasn't very hard but it did take some patience.


After that, I was done!


The bench turned out so comfortable.



I love how I finally have some purple in my guest room {I am decorating with gray, yellow and purple}.



And I think my guests are happy to finally have a place to sit.


Thank goodness I can now cross this project off my project list. It had been languishing there long enough!




What was the longest it took you to complete a project? Please let me know I'm in good company. :)



Partying with these fabulous blogs this week:

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