Renew, Reuse, Reupholster!

I decided to try my hand at reupholstering our old bench cushion. Now what in the world brought this on? Well, for some reason I just wanted to try it. The old fabric was very frayed and old and I just felt it was time to try to revitalize it for the new year. I had a coupon for Beverly's for 40% off one item (love, love, love these coupons!), so I decided to go buy a staple gun for this project.

In the above picture, I placed the new upholstery fabric that I bought from the clearance bin at Beverly's crafts months ago under the bench cushion to get an idea of the size and shape. I love the clearance fabric bin, because I never know what will be there, and often times, there is enough fabric or upholstery for small projects like this. Normally, upholstery fabric is quite pricey and can range from $9.99/yard to $39.99/yard and then some! This fabric was a bargain at only $8.99/yard (originally $19.99/yard), plus an additional 50% off! Originally, I was going to use the upholstery to make curtains, but I figured, I could use some for the bench and the rest for a curtain later.

This is the back of the bench cushion. Here, I am trying to figure out how much upholstery I need for this project. I decided to give myself some extra room on the edges just in case I made a mistake or something.

The first long side was the easiest. All I had to do was fold under the fabric to make a clean seam and start stapling away! Then I ironed the the surface so I could remove most of the wrinkles (there weren't many, but the ironing helped keep the fabric flatter, so I could pull it tighter). The indented corners proved to be more difficult. I had to tug and pull and try to get the fabric not to slouch or shirr too much. I just made my way around each side and pulled the upholstery tight each time I added a staple. Then, I went back and added more staples to areas that needed it, so that the staples were spaced about an inch or so apart.

After using up one whole row of staples and then a few from another row, this is the finished product! This is my first reupholstering project and I'm pretty surprised with how it turned out. Now, if I had taken this bench in to be reupholstered at a furniture store, it would have cost around $50 or so, but I was able to do it for way under $10, with less than 1/2 a yard of upholstery and the cost of the staple gun and some staples (which can be used for future projects!). It's certainly not perfect, but it was my first attempt, and as Josh would say, "That's okay!"