Dining Room Bench Tutorial

A couple of weeks ago I showed you all this bench I made for our dining room. Well, I finally got all of my photos uploaded and ready so I could show you how I made it. It was completely inspired by the farmhouse table I made a couple of weeks earlier using Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial.

First here is a list of what I used:

2 – 1” x 8” x your choice - I think I used 54" (top)

2 – 1” x 3” x your choice - I think I used 50"(for the length of your bench)

6 – 1” x 3” x your choice - I think I used 12" (for the width of your bench and 4 bracing pieces)

4 – 1” x 3” x 11” (bracing)

Four pre-turned legs

Electric drill with one box self – drilling 1 ¾” wood screws

Wood filler and putty knife

sandpaper

2" foam cut to fit on top of your bench (I would have preferred to use the 3" but it was so expensive)

Fabric

Staple Gun

Paint

Nailhead Trim

First I screwed one of the long pieces into one of the twelve inch pieces:

Once I did that on both sides this is what I had:

Then I screwed another twelve inch piece in like this on both ends:

After that I screwed two more of the 12" pieces into the middle of the piece:

Once that's done if you flip it around it should look like this:

Now it's time for the legs. I just placed each one in the appropriate corner and screwed them in.

Once that's done this is what it should look like:

Now I placed my two long boards on the ground and flipped my bench over on top of them:

I just used scrap wood for this next part (as you can see from all the crooked lines) but in the list above this is where you would use the 4 – 1” x 3” x 11”pieces.

I basically placed them down on the board so that when the bench was flipped over the top would sort of "lock in" to the base.

Then I screwed them onto the top boards to keep them locked together. I needed slightly shorter screws for this but more or less just made these ones work:

So, now when you flip it over and put the top onto the base this is what you will have:

You could just stain or paint that and secure the top to the bottom but I wanted an upholstered top so I put the foam on top to make sure it was cut the correct size.

Then I took it off and placed both the wooden top and foam face down on to the ground on top of the fabric I planned on using (with the foam being on top of the fabric and the wood being on top of the foam). I used a staple gun and pulled the cotton fabric tightly over the foam and wood:

After I did this with the cotton fabric I pulled some ivory burlap over that. I wanted the texture of the burlap but didn't want to see through to the green foam which is why I first lined it with a cotton fabric.

I am not sure where the nailhead trim pictures went. Basically though, I just used the trim where you just have to pound in every 5th nailhead. I was so easy - Lillie actually did three of the four sides. If I ever do another project with it again I will do a tutorial just on that.

Now back to the bench. I filled in the holes with the putty and then when it was dry I sanded it down. I think this photo was before I sanded.

Then I painted the bench using Benjamin Moore's Shenandoah Taupe AC-36:

Then I just popped the top on it and it was finished. I planned on screwing the base to the top in a few spots but honestly it fit in nice and snug so I haven't bother to yet. And there you have it: far from perfect but it's pretty fun sitting at a table and bench every day knowing my little helpers and I made them!