Dining Banquette from a Baby's Crib - Part #2!
9:22 AM
Readers of this blog may remember that a few months back I made my kids old crib into a banquette for our dining room. There's the tutorial for that conversion.
I REALLY enjoyed doing this project and I was mostly pleased with the results.
The naked bench/banquette was fine, but too low and too hard. So I took old sofa cushions and made cushions for the banquette.
These cushions worked in terms of comfort and height, but they ALWAYS slipped off the bench and looked messy. In truth, the messy cushions didn't bother anyone in the family but me.
Nobody can really see the cushions, but I hated them still. This weekend I reupholstered the banquette so that it was more functional for our family.
This redo was easy but time consuming. I'm (mostly) pleased with the results, though there's an excellent chance that I'll reupholster the back next. Stay tuned for that. Anyway, here's what I did:
First I removed the old cushions from the banquette. They were just tied on, so that was easy. In the last year I've tossed out 2 old sofas. When the sofa's left, I kept all of the cushions. High density foam is EXPENSIVE, and I figured that I could use the foam for other projects.
Turns out - sofa cushions are actually layers of foam sandwiched together. The dense inner core is wrapped in several layers of thinner, light weight foam or batting.
I used the outer most later of batting as the base for my banquette. This layer will provide softness to the edges of the banquette. It will also keep the dense seat foam from slipping around.
I stapled the batting in place (trimming the edges where necessary).
Next I centered the sofa cushions on the banquette. Then I draped the cushions with fabric.
At Joann Fabric I found a package of Upholstery Tack Strip. This is cardboard stripping that holds the fabric down so that you can staple the fabric in place.
I have never reupholstered a piece this large before, so I was kind of winging it the entire time. Starting at the back of the banquette, I smoothed the fabric flat, and began stapling the fabric in place.
With the back edge done, I laid the piece on it's back and stapled the fabric in place on the bottom and the sides.
To make the fabric extra secure I secured the fabric in 2 places. It's stapled to the bottom edge of the piece and to the back.
The seat is upholstered but it needed something. The cushion was too thick in my opinion. I wanted it to be a little more refined. Back at the fabric store I discovered Nail Head Trim!
This trim makes it look like you added hundreds of nails, but it only take a few minutes.
One package of trim is about 5 yards long. That's more than enough to do a large banquette.
It only took about 15 minutes to add trim around the entire banquette.
PRO TIP:
 |
| Crib Conversion |
 |
| Dining Banquette Re upholster |
 |
| Bench with Cushions |
 |
| Dining banquette in use |
This redo was easy but time consuming. I'm (mostly) pleased with the results, though there's an excellent chance that I'll reupholster the back next. Stay tuned for that. Anyway, here's what I did:
 |
| Remove the cushions from the banquette |
 |
| Sofa Cushion Layers |
 |
| Outer Foam Layer of cushion |
 |
| Staple or Tack the batting in place |
 |
| Add old sofa cushions |
 |
| Drape the cushions in fabric. |
At Joann Fabric I found a package of Upholstery Tack Strip. This is cardboard stripping that holds the fabric down so that you can staple the fabric in place.
 |
| Tack Strip |
 |
| Upholstery tack strip |
 |
| Grab a length of tack strip |
 |
| Measure out the amount you'll need. |
 |
| Set the strip in place |
 |
| Pull the fabric tight and staple the tack strip and fabric in place |
 |
| Bottom edge of the banquette |
 |
| With the banquette turned upside down I secured the fabric in 2 places. |
 |
| Upholstered! |
 |
| Nail Head Trim |
 |
| This trim is super fast and easy to apply |
 |
| BEFORE the trim |
 |
| AFTER the trim was added |
 |
| Done! |
PRO TIP:
Posts
0 comments