Take a Seat: How to Make a Budget-Friendly Bench in Under an Hour

I love doing small projects around here because they’re typically pretty easy to recreate at any skill level. BUT I also really like making things that are a bit larger in scale to make a larger impact in a space (like furniture, etc). Especially when those DIY projects still fall into the ‘easy to do’ category. Who’s with me?!

So I partnered with SWENYO, an online (and brick and mortar) shop that makes really cool stuff for your space, to create this SUPER easy minimal bench and share some of their other products that I think you’ll really love too. Like those amazing pillows! There’s a discount code for you too, so be sure to scroll down for that!

Here’s how to make your own budget-friendly bench in under an hour…

There are a couple of things that make this bench really quick and easy to recreate and a lot of it has to do with the materials.

To get the totally assembly time to clock in at under an hour, I had the wood cut down to the exact size I needed (32 x 12 inches) at the home improvement store (which they’ll typically cut for free). And add in the the fact that you only need 2 skurniture legs (instead of four) to create the bench, and it shaves off even more time (less time on measurements and assembly).

Materials:

• skurniture legs (1 set of 2 legs – which comes with the bolts, locknuts, and mini wrench needed)
• sturdy piece of wood at least 1/2 inch thick (I used 0.656 inch laminated pine and had it cut down to 32×12 inches)
• 14×14 carpet sample (found mine at West Elm for $2)
• manual heavy duty staple gun and staples
• drill (with 1/8 inch drill bit or spade bit)
• tape measure
• pencil
• sandpaper

Instructions: I’m going to share the exact dimensions / measurements we used for everything to make things simple and take out the guess work. Feel free to tweak things to your liking though.

Start by determine the good side of the wood and flipping it over (so its facing downward). Then, start taking measurements for where the legs will go. Since the piece of wood I used was 12 inches wide, I made a few marks to show the halfway point of 6 inches and then went in 6 inches from each side and that’s where I placed each leg. So the base plate for each leg started at the 6 inch mark.

Trace a line all the way around the base plate of each leg.

Then, trace the inner holes of the base plate so you know exactly where to drill.

Remove legs and start drilling the holes that you traced from the leg plates. 1/8 inch holes will be perfect for the bolts that come with the legs.

Once all the holes have been drilled, place your skurniture leg back over the traced line that you originally created, place the bolts through the top of the wood, add the locknuts, and tighten with a wrench.

Now that the legs are attached, flip it over and give it a quick sanding to smooth out any imperfections.

Next, place the sample size rug scrap (right side down) on a flat surface. Then place the wood bench on top of the cushion, as shown in the photo. Pull the end of the rug scrap so there is enough to attach to the underside of the bench and, using a staple gun, start stapling the rug to the wood.

I recommend starting in the middle, then the sides, and then in between. Just like stretching a canvas, if that’s something that you’ve ever done before.

Repeat the stapling process on the opposite side, flight bench back over and you’re done.

Get this look! To make things easy, I’ve rounded up the exact items I used in the styled after photos, in case you want to recreate this look at home…

face pillows in tan and teal // ban.d0 agenda // blue cord light // hanging air plant pods – orange and white // ocean green backpack (I use this for work everyday and love it – fits my laptop and everything) // expandable hub ladder

And here are a few more photos of the finished project…

Photography by Amelia Tatnall

Have you ever made a piece of furniture before? Think you’ll give this budget-friendly DIY bench a try? I’d love to hear your thoughts.