Flea markets are my thang. I love em. I could wander the booths all day browsing all the treasures and dreaming up things to create. And surprisingly enough, Jeff tolerates it. He even joins in on the fun sometimes and gets excited about his own finds. Of course our idea of a great find are completely different. His might be an old school Pearl Jam concert t-shirt, and mine is usually more home related, but that’s all relative.

Kane County Flea Market: Photo Nomikon

On one of my many hunts for a good find I came across and old coffee table/bench. It seemed too long and narrow to be a coffee table,  and way too low to the ground to be a sofa or entry table. And it didn’t seem like it was meant to be a bench either. But that’s what I wanted it to be. Our bedroom had been lacking a spot to sit and put on shoes in the morning, and this was the perfect solution. So I brought it home thinking that Jeff would be pleased with such a steal (I think I got it for less than $40). Wroooooong, womp womp. He liked the idea of a bench, but just didn’t like the look of this one. What was I to do? I couldn’t take it back. Cover it!

So I went to my local Calico Corners and picked up a couple yards of Dahlia by Thomas Paul in Dove. I also ran to Joann Fabrics and grabbed some two inch thick foam to fit the bench, and a roll of batting. Then I got to work. Here’s how I did it:

I completely forgot to take a before pic, but I’m sure you all have great imaginations. It was just a plain old bench with a fun curvy shape to the ends. The first thing I did was lay the foam on the ground and turn the bench upside down on top of it. Then I took a pen/marker and traced around the bench on the foam. Then I cut-it-out (anyone else think of Uncle Joey from Full House every time you hear that phrase? Just me? Ok then). I used an old bread knife that we don’t use anymore, but electric knives work even better if you have one.

Once I had the foam cut out I placed it on the bench, unrolled the batting and put it on top of the foam. Before I cut the batting I used my staple gun to staple the ends just underneath the lip of the bench to make sure everything stayed in place.

Once that was finished, I stapled one side of the batting under the length of the bench just enough so I could pull it taut to the other side and it would all stay in place. Then I cut the batting on the other side and repeated the stapling on that side. When going around the corners I just gathered the batting and folded them like I would when wrapping a present.

Next, I cut off any excess batting and laid my fabric over the bench so I could figure out the placement of the pattern. I wanted as many of the yellow flowers visible as possible, while also saving as much as the extra fabric as possible. I was afraid of cutting the fabric before I stapled it for fear that it would end up too small of a piece, so I just started stapling. I put a few staples in on all four sides of the bench first to make sure the fabric wouldn’t shift, and then went back around and stapled away filling in all the gaps. I made sure to pull the fabric taut as I was stapling so it wouldn’t end up looking bunchy or saggy.

And when it came time for the corners, I did the same thing I did with the batting. I folded the corners in before I stapled just as I would a present. When that was done, I turned the bench upside down and cut off all the remaining fabric. I cut as close to the staples as I could so that you can’t see any messy ends to the fabric.

All I had left to do was flip the bench back over. Tada! I think it turned out quite well!

And the best part? Jeff now loves it! Woohoo, success! Sometime down the line I might add some nail-head trim around the bottom, but I like it as is for now.