A new bench for a simpler look

Many months ago, pre-Luke, we were watching Lost but my mind was working on home projects I could add to my ever growing list.  My eyes landed on the window seat in my office and I immediately had another idea; I think I even paused the DVD to tell Matt about it.  I've been working on de-tropicalizing my office for awhile (it's a work in process) and redoing this bench area was part of that.  While I've been set on the idea for months, it took a looooong time to finally finish the project.  

Matt bought a big piece of plywood in March to make his arcade (finished since June), my signs (hanging since May), and this new bench cushion.  He's even had it cut for about that long but it's just been sitting under the pile of pillows waiting for a pad and the right fabric.  That part was the part that took forever.  Redoing the underneath part was much easier.

I took this picture March 15th....

I wanted to take off the doors since the little ledge under them made it hard for kids to pull the toy basket out since it meant going up and over that bump.  And it just looked sloppy because the doors stopped latching long ago and were even hung crooked.  So off they came. 

Next was figuring out what to do with what was underneath.  I didn't take any pictures of it but there was carpet and ugly yellow paint.  The cabinets look nice and built in but they were built over the carpet.  Over it.  And not the same carpet we tore out to put in the bamboo.  That's a little weird.  During one of Luke's long naps (he used to take), I got the carpet torn up, padding up, and staples pulled out.  There was hardwood underneath but now we had a step down from the bamboo. 


We came to the same conclusion on what to do there: add bamboo.  First I painted the top and sides using leftover paint from the room and Matt added a support bar.  Then we had to buy more bamboo since Matt made a huge laundry folding table with the leftovers from the first flooring project (and is now using the leftovers from this project to make something for Luke's room). 

The bamboo was pretty easy to install, especially for me since Matt did it all.  That's what's nice about coming to the same conclusion on home projects: he's more willing to do most of the work. =)

We had received the baskets as presents for Luke: one has toys for older kids (mostly old toys of ours) and one has Luke's toys (mostly new things he's gotten).  This part of the project has been done since sometime in May.  It's easy for kids to pull them out and it's easy to throw Luke's toys in when cleaning up during naps and bedtime.

The hardest part of this project was finding the padding for the bench.  Two of my sister-in-laws are professional upholsterers but the size was deeper than what they typically use.  I finally found something on Amazon about two weeks ago but then had to let it "relax" a few days after receiving it since it was shrink wrapped.  This past Saturday we finally made the bench cushion which took 25 minutes.  Maybe. 


Our first time upholstering was pretty easy.  I traced the board (already cut to the correct dimensions) onto the foam and then Matt cut it out.  Together we laid out the fabric, pad, and board to stretch it tight and put in about 100 staples.  And that was it!  I put it in place, put away the pile of pillows and comforter that used to be there and we were done! 

Look how pretty now!

It looks so much cleaner than where we started some 7 months ago.  Pathetic, I know but we did get a baby in there...and got distracted a few times.  I am so happy with how it looks and how the navy and light blue tie in with the rest of the room.  (I know the pillows are pretty much the same color as the walls but Matt vetoed my repainted the walls when he found out I just wanted to go a few shades lighter than it currently is.)

Next up is finally redoing the wall of frames over my desk, another project that has been in the works about as long as this one!  My excuse there is that I was waiting to go to Ikea and for the prints Matt got me as a birthday present... I hope to have one done before too long!

side by side before and after