Designing, Building, And Sewing An Affordable Custom Handcrafted Bench

Backstory: First Comes Table!

I’ve had a round glass top table in my kitchen since we moved in. My great gram gave it to me when I got my first apartment in college. It had previously been at our cottage as long as I can remember, and before that, it was at grams’ vacation home in Florida. As much as I LOVE this table, it isn’t practical for this space. It didn’t seat enough people but seemed to take up too much space.

I started searching for table options after living in our house for around six months. I know I’m rather particular, and I also try to be thrifty, so the sooner I started looking and honing in on options, the better prepared I could be when I was ready to pull the trigger. I wanted something adjustable so that I could add a leaf or two for holidays, but on the regular a table that seats 6 was ideal. I’m also insanely picky about the apron of tables. When I sit down, I HAVE to be able to cross my legs in all positions. 🤣 It’s perfectly acceptable for a table to be a little on the taller side to accommodate this.

I eventually found a beautiful table at Pier 1, but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger. It was over $600 😕. So I kept it on the back burner and kept an eye out at my favorite thrift spots for something French Country, English Cottage… but most of those options were equally pricey or just not quite right. Years passed, and last winter, I was ready to pull the trigger on the table from Pier 1 or start the online search again. Hallelujah! They still had the table, and it was on sale for $290! But then it wasn’t available for shipping or pick-up locally. I did some digging and discovered it was in stock in Raleigh, NC, so I placed my order for pick up! (Bonus! I was able to deliver some cookies and cupcakes and have lunch with one of my besties!)

Second Comes the Chairs

Once I had a table, I knew I would need some proper chairs. That wasn’t iron and didn’t snag my clothes. My beloved glass-top table and chairs would live in my gazebo, and possibly come out on the deck should we need it. I casually kept an eye out for chairs. I never seemed to find anything I liked. I didn’t want anything fancy, a simple, sturdy wooden chair that I can clean easily. A local store was going out of business, and it was my lucky day!!! They had four sturdy wooden chairs that were on super-clearance! It was serendipity! The color is a little more yellowed-off-white than I would like, but a coat of paint is a simple fix whenever I get the time or inclination to change it.

With only 4 chairs, I knew I wanted to also have a bench under the window and should I need to sit 10 at the table, I could borrow 2 of my iron chairs. I would have space for 18 for a sit down dinner! Eight in the dining room and ten in the kitchen!

The Bench

Daniel agreed to make a bench that fit the space. I gave him free rein to make it up to a specific width. I just wanted it centered on the window, and I need to be able to open the cupboard next to where the bench would be. True to Daniel’s nature, he was able to turn my vision into a reality and improve upon my conceptual design.

We knew we would need to route the floor vents for the central air through the bench. It would take up some of my storage space, but I think it’s a little more effective at cooling. (We’ll see how I feel about the heat after a winter). He also had the AMAZING idea to run an outlet to the end of the bench. There was an outlet below the center of the window, which is where I plugged in my kitchen robot. With it at the end of the bench, it’s easier to get to, and I see it to use more regularly! It’s also super hand for charging devices while I’m working at the kitchen table having a snack!

There’s plenty of storage for my big bulky items that I don’t use daily (like my air-compressor, airbrushes, and backup crockpot).

Crafting a Custom Cushion

Preparation

Due to the very custom nature of this piece of furniture, Daniel had some choices to make it appear square. The floors aren’t perfectly level, and the walls aren’t perfectly perpendicular to the tile. Long story short, one end of the bench is slightly narrower than the other. Visually it isn’t discernable to me. The bench is just over 88″ wide, so the ends are far enough apart that it’s more important for the other angles to be “squared” off. It works. It’s beautiful.

The down-side of this extremely custom bench is I have to make a custom cushion. Making cushions isn’t a wildly tricky process. Especially square (rectangle) ones, but this is technically an irregular quadrilateral. An additional challenge I hadn’t thought of was the lack of supplies at my local craft stores. They were SOLD OUT of craft foam aside from 5″-thick, and it was only 72″ long so that I would need two pieces cut. It was going to be incredibly expensive. More expensive than I realized. Alas, I started searching online to see if there was something, and my searches resulted in costly cushions.

Since I was back to the drawing board, and looking online, I decided to see if I could buy craft foam online. I was hoping for 88″ and 3″ thick. My good friend Amazon had a spectacular deal on a single piece of 4″ thick foam that would deliver to me in a week. I would have to cut it, but it was much more cost-effective than my local craft store (by 70%).

I started looking at various fabrics and zippers. I wanted to be able to change the cushion cover as well as clean it. I went to my local Jo-Ann’s and found some fabrics I thought were funny (but certainly not approved by Daniel). I found a couple of okay upholstery fabrics, but nothing that resonated with me. The lack of inspiration in stores led me to expand my search online. No dice. It is tough to look at material online.

In preparation for baking my birthday cake, I stopped at Hobby Lobby for a could of supplies. Since I was already there, I decided to take a gander at their fabric section to see what they had available. I felt underwhelmed by anything classified as an upholstery fabric.

Perhaps people aren’t doing DIY upholstery, maybe it is sold out due to COVID-19, or there are better fabric shops to search, but I did happen upon this GLORIOUS fabric!!!!! I didn’t think Daniel would approve of it, but he was off to Deltaville for the week, and it was my birthday week, so I did what I wanted and bought 4 yards of it!!! (I could use it for SO many things. I’m easily convinced). The fabric ended up being a little narrower than I anticipated. I hadn’t calculated the 4″ thickness, only the seam allowances. 😂 I ended up going back to the store for more. 🙄

The last supply I needed to source for this project was an extremely long zipper. I knew the back measurement of the cushion was 88-inches, so I figured I would see what I could find around that size. (Also, I had to consider what was in stock, thanks pandemic). My general rule of thumb is to buy a bigger size rather than a smaller. I can always make a zipper shorter, but Stuffing a giant cushion I didn’t want to skimp on the length.

I was able to find a zipper that was exactly 88″, but it wasn’t going to be delivered for 2-3 weeks. I was pretty bummed and began to accept this fate as our “new normal” but decided to keep searching for a few more minutes, just in case I could find something. I was eager to complete this project.

Low and behold I hit the zipper JACKPOT! Have y’all heard about zipper by the yard? No idea what I’m talking about? I’m about to blow your mind!!! You can literally buy a roll of 10 YARDS of zipper with sliders and pulls! You feed your sliders onto your zipper tape, cut to measure, and voila! You have a custom length zipper!!!!!! (I’m slightly oversimplifying and skipping the sewing steps. You need to sew your own stopper on the end. Reach out on social media or email me with questions, or find a good youtube video).

For those of you that have bought zippers for your sewing projects, you know the cost can add up quickly. My 10 yards of zipper tape came with 25 sliders and pulls. The total cost was also only $1 more than buying the 88″ zipper. Additional bonus, you can thread the sliders on BOTH directions. So you can make bags and luggage-style zipper closures. My mind exploded with excitement! Where were these all my life! Why hadn’t I ever seen them? Who is keeping this secret?! (Clearly not me. I am telling everyone I can about some zippers now. 🤣)

Let the Making Begin!

I was ecstatic to have all of my materials to make my bench. My first step was to cut the foam down to size. Measure twice, cut once. Seriously. This foam cushion was the most expensive part of my purchase. (If I ever have another foam cutting project I will be investing in a hot knife or researching better practices for cutting foam, learn from my mistakes).

I drew my nice straight line and cut with nice SHARP fabric scissors. It was a little jagged. But I decided that would just be the back edge of the cushion. NBD right? Looks pretty good down there! 🤷‍♀️(Stay tuned friends. I made my job more difficult).

With my approximately perfectly cut cushion, it was time to roll out the fabric and start making cuts!! I used the cushion itself as my pattern. I gave myself a 2″ seam allowance. I knew I had excess material, and I wanted lots of wiggle room with this beast.

Sewing (especially on such a large scale) is very difficult with a precocious kitty. Purrl had to help with EVERYTHING. Eventually, Purrl had to be placed in her en suite, so I could get my measuring and cutting completed. I cut two pieces the size of the top (plus that 2″ seam allowance).

For the sides, I wanted as few seams as possible. So I made one long piece that wrapped from short end around the front and to the other short end. Then I cut a strip for the backside of the cushion but included a more generous seam allowance because I needed to split it to insert the zipper.

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With my zipper piece sewn into place, I had all of my elements prepared to assemble the actual cushion cover! Purrl was ready too.

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Purrl was desperate to help with this project. I laid out my material once more on my cushion. It was cut with a couple generous inches of inseam. I knew I would need to line up the top and bottom pieces as well as the front and back lengths. (As we all know by now, I have a LOT of irregular quadrilaterals to contend with).

Typically, when sewing a simple cushion cover, the top and bottom pieces are EXACTLY the same size. They are also relatively symmetrical. So the top piece and the bottom piece of fabric are interchangeable. The largest perk of having a even lengths on your corresponding sides (matching lengths, widths, and height) is it mean you can pin everything in place with the fabric inside out. Stitch your new perfectly snug seams, and then you have a perfect fitting cushion.

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I made adjustments as I went, but used this same principle to get the job done. After all, I probably only have one guest who regularly comes to my house that sews, and she isn’t going to judge me harshly for this!

I finished sewing the top piece to the sides and decided it was time to call it a night. Purrl, on the other hand, was rather proud of her accomplishment and had to reign queen of the cushion.

The next morning I got up ready to attack the day and finish off my cushion. I had planned meticulously. It was a little harder than I imagined to place the last puzzle piece, due to all of the irregularities. My square corner would move when I flipped the material inside out to pin everything in place. Finally I decided, the best is the enemy of the good. I would proceed as I originally intended and hope for the best.

I flipped the fabric inside out and placed the last piece of material over the cushion pinning everything in place. I was cautious to keep straight lines on my cut edge and not to stick the pins through the cushion itself. Once the pinning was complete, I carefully unzipped and removed the cushion from the cover. My full-length zipper worked like a charm!!!! (I literally did a happy dance around the kitchen).

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Finally, it was time to stitch the remaining seam! I was about 5-inches from finishing when my bobbin ran out of thread. I took a gander at my spool, and it was running on fumes. I tried to split the difference as best I could and hoped it would be enough thread to complete the job. PTL (praise the Lord) it was enough! I didn’t want to make an emergency run to the craft store if I didn’t need to.

Finishing Touches

The last step was to stuff the cushion back in the slipcover! I checked the fit, and for any places, the seams weren’t holding or if I had misaligned the material in the sewing process. There was one small spot (about an inch wide) near a corner I busted out a needle and my remaining thread to sew by hand. I knew I didn’t have any more bobbin thread, and in the interest of time and effort, I figured my hand stitches wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone else in such a small space on such a LARGE project.

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I am in LOVE with this bright, floral, and preppy print in my kitchen. I was concerned it might be too pink and too feminine for the rest of the dwellers in the house, or that I might not love it as much on the GIANT scale. I am so glad I took the risk!

It feels fantastic to have this project COMPLETED!!! Purrl is obviously over the moon about it too. She loves anywhere cozy to sit. In the last year, she (me) has gotten fancy chairs in the parlor to snuggle in when I play the piano, houndstooth chairs, and a stool in my craft office where she likes to nap and keep my company when I’m working at my computer, and now this super cozy bench. Clearly, all of these things are JUST for Purrl. She does look particularly posh, preppy, and happy in all of “her” new spaces.