Vanity Bench Reupholstery Completed!

Here is the lovely, renewed vanity bench that goes with the vanity in my guest room. I love the turned wood handles that come up the side--I think that gives it such a unique shape. I can kind of imagine it in a medieval castle or something...


And here is what it looked like before, in our sad farmhouse. It needed a good shining up and new seat badly. I think the last person who upholstered it was my great-grandmother Hazel, probably in the 1950s. She used pretty nailhead trim, but I went the lazy girl's way with staples, trim and glue.

First I cut off the old seat and kept it for a template. I traced it onto brown paper.

Then I used the brown paper as a guide to cut out my new fabric--a pretty basketweave pattern tone-on-on tone with some stretch in it. I wanted my bench to be pretty cushy, so I made sure to keep about 3 extra inches all around to accomodate the new foam.

It had old upholstery straps on the bottom which were rotted away, so I threw them out an had my dad make me a new bottom with some plywood. Then I got a 4 inch piece of foam, cut it to size, and wrapped it with some quilt batting (crib mattress size).

I seem to be missing the picture of it done with the staples showing, but you can kind of see them in the photos below showing how I applied the trim. It was on sale at Hobby Lobby, and I got "about yea much" of it, figuring I could estimate how much I would need. HAH!

See the staples? First I cut out 4 small pieces to go around the curved corners and glued them on, turning the end under and gluing it with hot glue so there wouldn't be any frayed edges.

Then I again folded under the edge of the trim and matched it up at a right angle with the pieces draped over the corners.

Here it is with one side done:

AND HERE IS HOW MUCH TRIM I HAD LEFT OVER:

BOOYEAH! I must admit it would have made me feel a little bit better to have some more in case I messed up, but no harm no foul, right?

Here she is again, next to the old piece of upholstery. I removed. She is so happy that she is in a nice clean house and now our guests can use her to sit on to take on an off their shoes, or to apply their makeup at the vanity!

P.S. It really helps to have an extra hand when applying the trim with the glue gun. Thanks Anne!!