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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A Coffee Table Becomes a Bench

Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Moving into our house has inspired me to creatively reimagine some of the furniture we had in our apartment for new purposes, so today I thought I'd share how my mom and I turned a coffee table into a brass-and-velvet bench during her recent visit.
You may remember the previous iteration of this coffee table. It looked like this:Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
I originally bought it at an estate sale, painted the crap out of it and enjoyed it for about a year in our apartment. But when the table got moved into our new, much larger living room in our house, it felt small and dinky. Why not turn it into a bench with a box cushion, I thought? This would be the perfect project for Mom and I to tackle during her visit this past weekend.

She and I stopped into a few stores on Fabric Row in Philadelphia, just blocks from where Adam and I used to live. Adler's Fabrics had a good selection of cotton velvets displayed, which is where I found this peach/salmon cotton velvet for $10/yard.
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
And, don't worry: though there's a lot of pink in the living room now (thanks to the tufted sofa), that will all change when the sofa gets reupholstered. Once I decided on a color, Mom and I got to work. Actually, let me amend that statement: Mom took the lead on this project and really deserves all of the credit for carrying it out. We started by cutting 2" foam to fit the tabletop of the coffee table with a utility knife.
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Next, the wooden tabletop was covered with spray adhesive and the foam was placed on top to adhere. A layer of cotton batting was pulled over the foam and stapled to the wood. 
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
We then cut 4 strips of the velvet: 2 for the long side of the bench and 2 for the short side. Mom stitched those together and we checked the fit before cutting the largest piece of fabric for the top of the cushion and strips for the welting.
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
 Then, Mom got to work slowly sewing together the 4 sides, the top of the cushion and the piping. We pulled the cushion cover over the foam and...tah-dah, it fit! The next and final step was to staple the bottom of the cushion cover to the wooden base (this is also when we stapled the bottom portion of welting to the cushion). 
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Reattaching the tabletop-turned-box cushion to the brass base brought the bench to life!
Here it is, my new velvet and brass bench, in all its glory:
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
Meet Me in Philadelphia meetmeinphiladelphia.blogspot.com
I'm so happy to take something I already had and give it a new purpose in our new home.
What do you think?

P.S.: Can we get a round of applause for Mom on this one? She's earned it!

10 comments:

  1. Absolutely adore it! I am really into velvet right now...just bought some sea blue cotton velvet to have a shade chandelier made.
    Take care,
    Caroline

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  2. Great makeover! I love your color choice and your mom really did a great job!

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  3. I love it, Ashley. I have done this myself but your coffee table is much prettier to start with. The lines & the fabric are perfect together!

    www.chattafabulous.blogspot.com

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  4. You need to hire out your mom as a DIY assistant...I could use her help!

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  5. Thank you, everyone! Megan and Elizabeth, maybe my mom will have herself a little cottage industry when she retires. At that point, I'd be happy to share her skills! :)

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  6. Mom's are the best. What a great collaboration on this bench. Your new home is beautiful - enjoy it. We're in the process of house hunting right now as well and hope to find something soon.

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  7. Love it!! Does your mom want to come do some makeovers at my house??!!

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I'd love to hear your thoughts!