Ikea No-Sew Window Bench Tutorial

I've had many requests to do a Window Bench tutorial from my Nursery Reveal post. It was something I saw myself on pinterest and other blogs but had a hard time finding a good tutorial, and there's nothing more I'd like than for you to make one yourself! It has made such a big difference in our nursery and our living room. That's right, we made two!

Window Bench in our Girls' room

Window bench in our living room

Here are the finished products, don't you love the way they turned out? I love that you can customize it to whatever your taste in decor is.

I love this window bench for so many reasons:

1- It creates a high enough bench that my girls can look out the window. They love looking outside.
2- It provides a comfortable place to sit and read books, play, rest, etc.
3- The storage containers hold so many toys, blankets, etc. It helps keep clutter down and it's easy to clean things up now by just putting them away in the storage bins.
4- The bench in our living room adds 4-5 more seats for adults.
5- We made it ourselves! There is so much satisfaction in completing a project like this.

So on to the tutorial:

The first thing you will need is an Ikea Expedit Shelving Unit.
They come in different colors, but we preferred white. Follow the Ikea instructions for putting the shelving unit together. My husband did it within a few minutes, it was easy.

UPDATE: The Expedit Shelving Unit is no longer available from Ikea, however, the Kallax shelving unit is available and if it had been when I made my window benches, I would have used it because it is a little bit shorter with 4 openings instead of 5.

Next you'll need at least 2 sets of Ikea Capita Legs. We got the 4 inch ones which made the window bench plenty tall. It's the perfect height for kids to be able to climb up on the bench, and for adults to sit on it. We got 3 sets of Capita legs because we made two window benches.

They are easy to screw into the bottom of the Ikea Expedit shelf. We put the legs on each end and in the middle of the bench, totaling 6 legs.

Once the legs are attached to the shelving unit, you will need a piece of MDF board and foam. We got our MDF board cut at Home Depot (for free) to the dimensions of the shelving unit. The board cost us less than $15 and we had enough for both window benches with some board left over.

Here is some advice for the piece of foam. DO NOT buy your foam through a craft store like Hobby Lobby, Joann's, Michael's, etc. It costs way too much! I found a piece of foam at Smith's Marketplace for $20 which was big enough for 2 window benches. They had smaller sizes too so if you are just making one window bench, you can easily find a piece of foam for probably $10 or less at a hardware store or a similar store. 

You will need to cut the foam to fit the bench. Just place the piece of foam on top of the bench, use a Sharpie marker to mark the edges, then use a kitchen carving knife (electric) or whatever you have to cut the foam. 

We cut the foam to these dimensions:
72 inches long
15 inches wide
3 inches high

The only cut we had to make was to cut the foam piece in half length wise. It was already the proper dimensions pretty much. So we got 2 bench-seats worth of foam out of one piece.

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Now comes the cushion part of the bench. Several tutorials I saw skipped this step, but I would recommend adding quilt batting first, before the fabric. I bought a humongous bag of quilt batting at Walmart for about $5. First set the piece of quilt batting on the floor/table/bench, then the foam, then the MDF board. 

We actually stapled the fabric to the board/foam without the quilt batting the first time, then realized it didn't look very good. We could see bumps and areas where the foam wasn't quite straight, and it was hard to get the fabric tight enough. So we removed the staples and fabric and added the quilt batting.

Then simply stretch the quilt batting over the edges of the foam and MDF board and staple it with a staple gun! This was actually really fun. I found that by adding quilt batting, it provided a tighter surface area to stretch the final fabric over, which helped keep it nice and tight fitting.

After stapling the quilt batting, you will repeat the step but using fabric this time. You can choose any type of fabric you want. For the window bench in our nursery, we chose Pearl bracelet Andover fabric in Citron color . I had previously cut it and ironed it for a smooth surface once it was stapled on.

How much fabric do you need? I purchased 2 1/2 yards of fabric for each window bench. It was a little more than I needed, but I didn't want to cut it close, and I have a little bit left over if I need it in the future.

For our living room bench, we chose Waverly Sun N Shade Lovely Lattice in Lagoon color. I can't tell you how long it took me to decide on which fabric to use. I would suggest waiting until you absolutely fall in love with something. 

Tip #1: When choosing fabric, I would recommend a sturdy type, such as the Waverly Fabric I chose for our living room bench. It's an indoor/outdoor fabric made of durable Teflon-coated polyester fabric. It's breathable, will hold up to harsh sunlight, resist mold, mildew, soil, and stains. And they are easy to wipe off and clean. 

The fabric we chose for our nursery, the Pearl bracelet fabric, is a simple cotton fabric. I fell in love with the print that I decided to go with it even though the fabric itself isn't very sturdy. This may prove to be a mistake in the future, we'll have to see. I can already tell a huge difference in quality of the fabrics I chose, and would recommend going with a sturdy indoor/outdoor type of fabric.

Tip #2: When choosing fabric, I highly suggest viewing it in person to get the most accurate coloring/texture. There were many samples that I saw online but once I saw it in real life, the coloring was completely different. If you can't go see it for yourself in a craft store, then ask the seller to send you an actual picture in natural light. Both of the fabrics we chose were not available in my area, but the computer image compared to an actual picture of the fabric in natural light was such a huge difference, the difference between choosing it and not. 

Continuing on:
Pull the fabric tightly over the edge of the foam/board and staple it down. I actually folded the fabric so that the staple had 2 layers to grab onto to help prevent tearing in the future. 

 

 I found it was easier to stretch the fabric tighter when it was on a slippery surface like the top of the Expedit shelf, rather than on the carpet. You will want to pull and stretch the fabric generously to ensure the final product is tight with no puckering.

The corners got a little tricky, I had to experiment folding the fabric down different ways so it wouldn't pucker. When I finally found something that worked, I went to town staple gunning it down.

There you have it! The cushion is now complete with the MDF board, foam, quilt batting, and fabric. 

The final step is to attach the cushion part to the actual bench. 

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Simply grab some 3 inch screws, and screw them into the MDF board from underneath the bench. We screwed 2 into each end, plus another set in the middle to hold it on tight.

And waaalah! You have a beautiful window bench! Now that wasn't too hard was it? We will enjoy many years of fun with these window benches.







For more information on the storage containers/bins I chose for my window benches, look HERE.

Nursery Reveal: Source List

Check out more pictures from our nursery reveal HERE

UPDATE: The Expedit Shelving Unit I used for the window bench is no longer available at Ikea. However, the KALLAX SHELVING UNIT is and if that had been available when I made our window benches, I would have used that one because it is a little shorter.


Source List:

Chandelier- Ikea Kristaller Chandelier
Window bench- Ikea Expedit Shelving Unit with Capita legs attached x2 UPDATE: Kallax Shelf
Window bench storage containers- Ikea Drona box
Lace sheer curtains- Ikea Alvine Spets curtains
Pink curtains- Ikea Aina curtains
White Curtain Tie-backs: Walmart Mainstays Holdback here
Curtain rod holder- Ikea Betydlig x2
Curtain rod ceiling bracket- Ikea Betydlig x2
Curtain rod- Ikea Racka x2
White finials- Ikea Vasentlig
Book shelves- Ikea Bekvam spice rack spray painted white
Floating shelf- Walmart Woodland Home Decor with Ikea Bygel Rail (spray painted) attached.
Floating shelf hooks- Ikea Bygel S-hooks
Frames- Ikea here, here, here, here, here, Hobby Lobby here and here (both spray painted white)
Changing table mirror- Hobby Lobby 12" round beveled mirror
Stencil for accent wall- Cutting Edge Stencils Moroccan Dream Allover stencil
Wall Paint Color: Behr Premium Silver Drop 
Pillows and pillow covers- Ikea assorted here, here, here, here
Mirrors above crib- Ikea Malma  x2
Lamp- Ikea lamp base and shade
White bow holder- Ikea Skurar plant pot
White container by changing table- Ikea Skubb box set of 6
White 6x6 frames- Amazon
Teal clock on shelf- Tai Pan trading
Figurines on shelf- Willow Tree here and here
Window bench monkeys- Target
Crib sheet- Target
Laundry Hamper- Target Rubbermaid
Rug- Ikea Emime flatwoven UPDATE: new rug Ikea Tastrup button rug
Window bench fabric- 2 1/2 yards of Pearl bracelet Andover fabric in Citron color
Rocking chair- inherited from my sister several years ago
Crib- DaVinci Kalani in Cherry
Nightstand by Rocker- inherited from my sister several years ago; was a wood color but I spray painted it
Alphabet poster printable- here
ABC's printable- here
I Am a Child of God printable- here
I Love to See the Temple printable- here


Feel free to ask questions if I left anything out! I'm working on some tutorials of things from the room as well.

Nursery Reveal!!!

UPDATE: We've added some new items to the nursery since our big reveal. Check them out HERE.

 

After 4 months of hard work, our nursery is finally completed! It has taken a long time to get it done with all the finishing touches. We did a lot of spray painting, staple gunning (is that a word?), nailing, hammering, sanding,  painting, screwing, bending, climbing, cutting, moving, looking, changing, buying, and returning!

Here is the old room. It has the basic beige wall paint color that I don't like. It's not horrible, but I was ready to be ambitious and repaint the whole room, including stenciling an accent wall.

Room is taped off and ready to paint! We went with a very light silver gray color so the room would still be neutral.

Waalah! I forgot to take any in-between pictures, but it took me about a week to stencil this wall. That's because I could only work on it after my daughter was in bed. It's very hard to paint and stencil with a 2 year old running around.

Only one wall is stenciled, the others are the same gray color. It looks great in all types of light, especially natural light from the window. 

One of my favorite additions to this room are the book shelves! I love how we can see the book covers. It adds such a cute artistic look to the room. My daughter loves picking out books now because she can actually see what they are!

We didn't want to hang many things on the accent wall, but I couldn't resist these small mirrors and Alphabet print-out. I love the simplicity of it.

It took a lot of moving furniture around to decide on the layout for the room. But I'm in love with what we decided on. I love the rocking chair nook.

Like I said, we wanted to keep the wall neutral, but I wanted it to feel girly too but not in a way that we couldn't change it down the road if we wanted to. So we bought the perfect-shade-of-pink curtains with lace sheers. It lets in SO much natural light!

I got some of these ideas from Pinterest and other online sources, but for the most part, this room is entirely unique to us! I looked at a lot of nursery pictures and decorating ideas online, but we just went with our gut to know what felt right and what looked good for us. I can't believe people hire professional designers to do this kind of stuff. It was so much fun doing it on our own! And I'm so much prouder of it considering we did everything ourselves.

I know all the wood colors don't match, and in a perfect world it would all be white (or so I'm told), and our rocker wouldn't be green. But you know what? I love that it's all a little mis-matched. We didn't have the funds to replace all our furniture. You can do so much with a can of spray paint.

I thought about re-upholstering our rocker, but it looked too difficult to do myself, and I couldn't bring myself to change the rocker I rocked my first baby in!

See what I mean about the natural light? And those pink curtains do a great job of shutting out the light when it comes time for naps or bed time.

We spray painted this shelf, screwed in the rod, and added the hooks. I love displaying photos of my daughter that I took myself. It makes the room feel more special to me, like a part of me is in that room.

My daughter wore that baby gown hanging from the shelf when she was a newborn. They grow up so fast!

We made this window bench by ourselves. I'm working on a tutorial so you can do the same thing! We actually made two of them and put the other one in our living room, with a different fabric of course. Let me know if you'd like to see a tutorial on the window bench! Those baskets hold SO many toys! 

So bright and cheery. This is my favorite room in the whole house (probably because it's the only room we've ever re-done before!).

This changing table was my husband's when he was a baby. I re-did it when we were expecting out first child. See HERE how I did it!

We have clips, bows, ribbons, and head bands ready to go!

One of the first things I knew this room would be needing was a chandelier. It adds so much to the room!

I love the simplicity of an Alphabet print to the wall in a child's room. 

I love our lace sheer curtains! It totally adds a girly yet vintage feel to the room.

I love decorating with photos too. The one of me with my daughter on the night stand isn't a great photo.....part of my head is cut off. But I remember the moment that picture was taken, what I was feeling in that moment, and the look on my daughters face. Every time I see it it reminds me that I'm a mother. I love that feeling. 

One of my favorite designing secrets (see HERE) is decorating with scrap book paper. I'm a sucker for scrap book paper and I didn't know what to do with it until I thought of putting it in a frame! Then I can switch it out any time I like.

Our favorite bed-time song (HERE). It's a reminder that my family will be together forever. 

I am so proud of this room. I love that we did it ourselves. I love that we decorated it with our girls in mind. It was a lot of work mostly because I'm very indecisive on some things, and sure about other things. We re-purposed a lot of things we already owned and didn't spend a ton of money re-doing this room. 

Let me know if you have any questions as to where I bought things or how I did anything. I'd love to answer your questions!

UPDATE: Source List HERE!!

My Favorite Designing Secret

Okay, maybe it's not a secret, but I've never seen anyone else use this idea before. My favorite design secret is to decorate with scrapbook paper, but only the square kinds (size 6x6 or 12x12 inch) and put them in frames. 

I place the frame on my mantel and switch out the scrapbook paper all year round. I have Halloween paper, Christmas paper, Fall paper, Spring paper, etc. And then I also have some of my favorite designs that I display at other times. 

In our baby's nursery, I have smaller 6 x 6 frames with prints in them. I love how easily I can switch out the paper!

My 12 x 12 white frame I got from Target in-store. Here's a link to a similar one online: here

And I got the 6 x 6 white frames on Amazon: here

Second-Hand Store Shopping Secrets

My tips for shopping at second-hand stores:

1. Don't go expecting to find a lot of things, many times we don't find anything, but have an open mind!
2. We don't go often to thrift stores, but when we do, sometimes we score big!
3. I buy a lot of my kids' clothes at thrift stores. Most clothes have been previously worn a minimal amount of times, if at all. I don't buy clothes that are stained or torn, only ones that look basically brand new. I always wash my thrift store clothing finds before my kids wear them. 
4. Ask yourself, do I really need this? Sure, it's all pretty cheap stuff, but somebody else gave it away! That means unless you really need it or have a use for it immediately, don't buy it and save some $$$!
5. Look at the books! Many board books are in great condition, as well as holiday books. We've bought many children's books at thrift stores!
6. Look at items with a different view, meaning, could you re-purpose it somehow? Many things I buy I end up spray painting to give it new life and a different look.