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DIY Bench Seat – Upcycled Furniture


Revealing my entry for gumtree’s #upcyclerevolution – upcycled garden bench seat made from former dining room chairs:) The DIY bench seat could equally be at home in a hallway for putting on shoes, at a dining room table – lots of places!!

DIY Bench Seat

Whats not to love about upcycled furniture? In case you are tempted to make your own version this how I made it, with considerable help from my husband – one quick disclaimer first we are not carpenters and there could very easily be a better way of doing this!!

We started by sanding down the chairs and removing the seats – the chairs were very rickety, they just fell out!

prepped seat

The chairs were placed together and the seating area measured. My husband cut wood to fit the seating area across the three chairs.

I painted the sides of the seats and legs which will be joined together. Use paint appropriate for your chosen location of finished bench. Starting off using spray gloss I quickly realised this was beyond budget and changed to using chalk paint (which I already had). This part of the chairs is hard to reach once assembled.

Next my husband attached the seat, screwing into each corner of each chair.

Seat area of bench

 

The next step was to further secure the chairs together. This was done in a variety of ways:

  • The front legs were screwed together at the base.
  • The back of the chairs had battoning placed near the top, screwed into place. The same battoning was used at the base of the rear chair legs too.

battoning

 

rear bench legs

 

The bench was then painted with primer, followed by three coats of chalk paint. I had been fortunate to win some as a runner up in Rust-oleums Make it Yours monthly competition. The bench took far more paint than I expected, using two thirds of a 750ml tin.

Upcycled Furniture - Garden Bench Seat from former dinisng room chairs, DIY

Finally the all important cushion. We are fortunate in Norwich to have a foam market stall – the foam cost £14, and then several charity shops later I sourced a great curtain perfect for upholstering the cushion. I followed a great tutorial to make the cushion cover.

Bench seat cover

 

One of the biggest dilemmas was button choices, tempted by natural toning buttons I braved some bright colours instead.

DIY Bench Seat

 

Would you choose toning coloured buttons or be brave and go bright??

signature

 

 

 

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Yirato

Wednesday 8th of June 2022

Hi, and Congratulations on a job very well done, Vicky. I salvaged a large (King?) size headboard. I'd wanted to turn it into a seat, as well. I'm now having second thoughts. Thinking it's too large for making a bench, It's petty nice with rounded and detailed curves, etc. I'm a bit undecided. Any suggestions?

6 Unique Upcycling Ideas for Your Home - Dwellin

Monday 6th of June 2022

[…] only do you get to repurpose furniture but, you also get lovely bench […]

Nancy Myers

Wednesday 28th of March 2018

I might have even chosen bright paint for the chairs! This looks great.

Annie B

Sunday 26th of June 2016

Love this. I could consider this with two chairs for a smaller version in our hallway. I've been looking for something similar. #MakingHome

Maura

Sunday 26th of June 2016

Looks great ! Love how you did it #makinghome

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