Easy Bench Refresh

So I bought a bench on sale from a website that already sells cheap furniture, really just setting myself up for disappointment. When the bench arrived (surprise!) I was less then pleased with the quality of the fabric and after only two days the upholstery started to come apart! However, I still really liked the legs and the dimensions of the bench, so instead of trying to negotiate a return I decided to make the best of it and see if I could recover the bench with something a little more special and a little more me.

While perusing TJ Maxx Homegoods for nothing in particular I spotted a beautiful boho rug and new immediately how I wanted to use it. It was thick, durable, had a beautiful texture and a great neutral color. The price was only $29 so even if I brought it home and felt it wouldn’t work for the bench I could surely find another place for it in my home.

Recovering seating is so much easier than most people think.

To start, turn the bench upside down and unscrew the legs from the cushion.

I didn’t even bother taking off the old fabric, I simply wrapped the rug around the existing cushion, tufted buttons and all. Like I said the rug was thick so I knew it wouldn’t be an issue going straight over the old cushion fabric.

Once I lined up how I wanted the rug to lay on the cushion I began stapling it to the back. Being careful not to cover up the existing screw holes, I started with the long sides of the bunch pulling tight as I went along. Placing staples only a few inches apart helped to secure such a heavy piece of fabric.

Before stapling the shorter sides I cut the excess fabric from the long sides and at the corners I cut angled slits to get rid of some of the bulk and help the rug to lay flat against the cushion.

When I got to the shorter ends I treated the bench like I was wrapping a present to create nice, sharp corners.

I discovered as I was cutting the rug in this direction, that it started to unravel. After a small panic attack I grabbed some duct tape to wrap around the edges and hold the ends together. I then added a few more staples to make sure the rug didn’t unravel any further.

It was time to screw the legs back on but as you can imagine the bench cushion was much thicker now and the previous screws were too short. Thankfully, we seem to always have screws on hand from some project so I was able to find longer screws that worked perfectly.

The bench turned out great and added a much needed texture element to my dining space.