Playroom benches: DIY

So! from a long time I had wanted to give some personality to the playroom. But was just not sure how. Googled playrooms, read blogs, articles, projects but was always left confused. Coloring the playroom with the child's favorite color, was the first thing most of the parents did, but that's not something we wanted to do. Not yet.
And then one day we decided to make a window bench ourselves. Why ourselves? Ah! There is so much satisfaction in doing things yourself. 

Window benches in the playroom

The window side of the Playroom

I love these window benches for so many reasons

1. It provides a comfortable place to sit and read books, write, draw, play or even rest.
2. The storage below can hold so many things. They are easily visible and easy to clean.
3. We made it ourselves! There is so much excitement and satisfaction in doing projects like these.

And now, The Tutorial:

1. The first thing we did was, bought 2 Kallax shelving unit from Ikea. They come in three colors, but we preferred white. My husband put the units together in just a few minutes, it was that easy.

Kallax units placed in a L shape.

2. We bought an OSB from Home Depot, cut to the dimension of the shelving unit. The board cost us about $8 and was enough for both the benches with some board left over.

3. Then I bought high density 1" foam from Joann's for $30 and cut it to fit the bench using a shapie marker and a regular scissors.

4. I had some quilt batting from my previous projects, so I did not buy, but it's easily available at craft stores for about $5.

5. My daughter wanted the cushions to be in yellow, blue and pink color, she wouldn't settle for one, so I also bought this multi color sturdy fabric from Walmart, about 4 yd at $3/yd.

And now The Construction part:

1. Placed all the materials one over the other like this. Fabric-batting-foam-OSB

2. Then, stretched the quilt batting over the edges of the foam and OSB and stapled it with the staple gun. It was fun actually. I had never used a staple gun before and needed some practise before I worked on this project.

3. Then, I repeated the same stapling step, using fabric this time.

 I placed the cushion onto the bench. And yay!! the bench was complete. Now, that wasn't too hard, really. Hoping to enjoy many years of fun !!

Got inspired for the bench after reading this tutorial from Mommy Vignettes: No- Sew Window Bench. :)