DIY: Oversized Chaise becomes a Bench

 

 This is my oversized chaise and my Mom's Pomeranian Peachie. She's an ornery dog and hates me! Don't get me started on my sister (tell me all about your sister with a comment) and now, let's resize a chaise. This piece of furniture is awkward. It just didn't fit into my room the way it should. So, I had an idea. Why not cut it down to make a bench? And...we did! Here's how we did it.

 We removed the top cushion held in place with Velcro. Pretty simple...but we will remove this from it's cover and downsize it later. Please notice the zipper in the cover which makes it difficult to cut down and re-sew but we managed and you'll see how.

Then, my  dear Mom cut the lining covering the stuffing inside the chaise.

 We turned the chaise on it's side and removed the bottom two feet.

A ratchet tool makes removing the feet so much easier!

We carefully cut back the upholstery fabric leaving it attached whenever we could. We also removed the stuffing uncovering the horizontal boards we will cut to shorten the chaise.

We moved the chaise to the porch to saw. I wanted it to be 23" from the back of the chaise to the end. We measured and drew "guide lines" for an even cut.

My sweet husband did his thang!

After the sawing was done, Steve beat it like a bad wife gently removed the end cover to screw back to the raw end he had made. All the while, we were very careful with the attached upholstery fabric. I used this fabric to recover the bench.

We cleaned the bench removing the sawdust and moved it back into the house. I carefully stapled the bottom lining back onto the underside of the bench. I was amazed at how accurate our measurements were when the black lining fit perfectly.

I stapled all the upholstery fabric back around the outside corners. Then, I cut the inside stuffing to 23" to fit the new bench and stuffed it in!

Then, I cut the beige topside lining down to fit and stapled it into place.

If you can believe it, cutting the top cushion to fit the bench was the worst part.

We did it with teamwork, me and Mom. After it was cut, we placed it back into it's original covering and folded the extra material under.

We covered the back cushions that were brown in a nice green & purple matisse fabric to match the existing floral chair in the pic above. Here it is... Oversized Chaise turned Bench!!! 

 Whatta ya think? How'd we do?

Have you done any furniture remodels? Please leave me comment and tell me about them. You can give me some tips for next time!

Loving my new bench,

Tammy

The Happy Handicap