The Bench Project

I had some extra fabric from my kitchen chair project, and so I snagged this old upholstered workout bench from my dad and started in on a new project. It's small enough to not take up too much space, but strong enough for two people to sit on. I figured it can be tucked behind the table, put up against a wall near my entry, or used with my new table and chairs for extra seating. The bench fabric was very dusty/dirty from years of sitting in my dads dusty wood shop, and the legs were pretty beat-up and had rusted in places near the base. The base itself is just plain wood.

My plan was to reupholster the seat (I decided the orange and brown fabric straight from the 60's didn't match my decor). Then scrub, sand and paint the legs (testing out “mirror paint” in the process, cha-ching! Two-fer!!) and possibly stain the wood bases.

So, that's exactly what I did. Since the “during” pictures are a little boring, you can see the process here in a montage.

To start, you can see how dirty and retro the fabric is, how the upholstering is pretty shoddy, and the rust and dinginess of the metal legs to start (shown on the left). Such a labor of love. I scrubbed the legs with hot water, soap and steel wool. You can see how gross they were before, bottom left, then how shiny they are after, second down, top right. Then I tightened the hardware, (I considered taking out the old and replacing them with new, but ended up just painting over them) then I started to take off the current fabric (all shown on the right side).

Originally I was just going to cover the existing fabric, but when I turned the piece over, I noticed just a little bit of red material, and it made me curious. So, out came my handy, dandy reupholstering tool (shaped like a split-fork screw driver, and did a little prying... literally :)

What I found was the bright red original leather-like material, straight from the gym floor at thee YMCA, probably over 50 years old. I also found a lot of dust! Yuck! So, I totally removed (and incinerated) the old fabric. I ended up using 3 disinfecting wipes just to clean all the dust off! Imagine if I had been lazy and just upholstered over the existing, filthy fabric!

Then, after the base and legs had ample time to dry, I taped off the legs at the base and the underside of the seat, and then got out the spray-paint. In the end, I couldn't find the mirror paint, so I used the chrome aluminum paint, thinking if the finish was anything like the cap, that this would be close to the original finish of the legs, and that it was very mirror-esque. It isn't. The finish is very matte. I think I probably just got impatient and didn't do several thinner coats, and thus, the matte-silver finish, which I think looks better than I'd planned. Less industrial. The blue painters tape reveal was great!

Then, it was time to get down and dirty... or just down... on the ground. Down to business; the business of upholstering! I did the stapling from the underside to assure tight, clean fabric. I had pre-cut, and placed the fabric on the bench, the way it would sit when finished.

Then, lying on the ground, stapler in hand, starting from the center, stapled one side, then pulled the other side tight and stapled again, then the ends, then back to the center, working in tandem, out toward the ends. Stapling from beneath is hard work!! Grrrr. The last step, and the hardest part is the corners. I cut the excess fabric in a 7 or L shape. Then, pulled and tucked the corners, as shown top center, and then... ta da!!

Done! I could go back and cut a long thin piece of tan or burlap fabric to make the bottom look finished, but I didn't because I didn't have any fabric and I'm lazy!

Well, Bear let me know he likes it from the start!!!

So, here is the finished product:

Fabulous!!!!