Albert Blog: Upcycled Coffee Table Turned Upholstered Bench

Hello Remodelaholics! I’m Tasha and I blog over at Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body about thrifty DIY projects and home renovations. You may remember some of my other contributor posts, like the one about how to transform an outdated, cultured marble vanity with concrete or my popular post about how we built a wood screen to hide the ugly utility boxes on the side of our house. I am very much a Remodelaholic and I always feel like I am in very good company over here

Today I’m here to share an inexpensive and easy DIY furniture project with you. I still get sticker shock sometimes when I shop for furniture, so we often end up making pieces ourselves or coming up with creative upcycles from thrift store finds.

When it came time to find a pretty, upholstered bench for one of our daughter’s rooms, I quickly realized we couldn’t afford the one from One Kings Lane I fell in love with, so I headed out to my favorite thrift store! I didn’t find an upholstered bench, but I DID find an inexpensive coffee table that I could turn into one myself!

How to Turn a Thrifted Upcycled Coffee Table into an Upholstered Bench

I was so excited to start this project that I totally forgot to take a photo of my coffee table before I started working on it. OOOPS! But if you go into any thrift store or consignment store, you are likely to find one almost identical to it–the mass produced versions seem to be a dime a dozen. This is close to how mine looked before I got started.

Easy upholstered bench tutorial!

I started by removing the top of the coffee table by unscrewing the top from the base. Then I painted it with 2 coats of Amy Howard One Step Paint in Tick Tock.

Easy upholstered bench tutorial!

While the paint dried, I placed some old foam (similar here) on top of the coffee table top and secured it by wrapping batting (like this) around it and stapling it securely to the bottom.

Easy upholstered bench tutorial!

I then wrapped my fabric over the entire piece and stapled it securely to the bottom as well. I used exactly 1 yard of this fabric.

Upholstered Bench Remodelaholic 2

Next, I secured the coffee table base back onto the now-upholstered coffee table top. Since the piece was now too thick to use the original holes that secured the top to the base, I counter-sunk these metal rings that I found at Home Depot into the coffee table base and used longer screws to secure the upholstered top into place.

How to re-attach an upholstered bench top that is too thick for the original hardware -- super smart tip!

You can see two of them in the photo below.

Easy upholstered bench tutorial!

I finished it off by applying some antiquing wax to the wood portion to add some depth and interest to the paint. And voila! About 3 hours later (which included the time for the paint to dry), here’s the finished project!

Easy upholstered bench tutorial!