I Made A Bench!

So I recently got it into my head that I needed a bench at the end of my bed so I would have a spot to sit and put on shoes and socks. Pregnancy makes the dumbest things seem really important. Generally the end of our bed is where my totes full of clean laundry sit til I am ready to have a folding party while watching a movie. I'm slowly trying to make our room into a grown-up space that looks pretty, versus the college bachelor looking space it's been. I mean, we have a tall kitchen cupboard ($3 at a yard sale last year- it was brand new!) that holds our extra canned goods right next to our dresser. Because nothing says classy like pinto beans and applesauce in the bedroom. Anyhow, I found an online tutorial and got to work.

I bought a new shelf piece for $3 and four table legs for $2 each at our local Restore. A piece of foam for about $9 at Joann's with the half off coupon (Does anyone know a cheap source for foam?), $1.50 for button blanks that I covered with fabric I had on hand and new fabric for $7 a yard on sale. I used 1+1/2 yards. I used an old fleece blanket for the batting, spray paint I had on hand and my neighbor Timmy cut the legs down for me with his saw. It has 6 legs (the two far back ones are the tops of the table legs and don't match, but you don't really see them) and is only a tiny bit wobbly! Yay. I actually bought some small "L" brackets for $2 to strengthen it so I feel very comfortable sitting on it. All together I spent $34 (if my math is right), half of what the gal in the tutorial spent and mine is a wider depth and more sturdy. Oh! And mine has tufted buttons. I'm pretty pleased, however, if I were to ever make another one (which I doubt I will ever want to do) I know what mistakes to avoid. Like using dowel screws as opposed to regular ones, but hey. Live and learn. Here are my pictures. I will have to post what it looks like at the end of the bed once my room is clean. Ahem, might be a while.

I took this close-up to see if you could tell where I had to patch the fabric together. I bought one yard thinking that since it was decorator fabric it would be 54" across. Didn't even check. Duh. Got home, realized it was 45" and wouldn't work and had to go back and buy another half a yard. Then got home again and realized that another half a yard didn't solve my width problem, duh, so I ended up just patching it all together. You can't tell unless you look close, so, yay!I do enjoy sitting on it to put on my socks. And my piles of laundry look ever so much better stacked on this as opposed to sitting in tubs. Ha. Yeah, I will be clean and grown up one of these days. I have a few more projects that I've finished recently and a few more to knock out in the 23? days til our little man is supposed to arrive. Wish me luck!