Banquettes

tRenDy tueSDayS

With so many big bold colors in style and with so many people downsizing to smaller quarters.  Banquettes have made quite the buzz.

They are great in small spaces and really give a room personality.  Built-ins are in!!

I've even seen people use sectional couches as banquettes.  That look is pretty awesome too.

What a great use of a small space

This one serves triple duty

via apartment therapy

Love the built-in cabinet over this one

Period Design Magazine

Neutral traditional space with a bold print and a modern twist

My Ideal Home

Funky, Fun and Retro

Turquoise Tulips, and Bliss

xo,

mONICa

Making It Homey

featuRe fRiDays

Meet Sandi from Making it Homey.  A mom of 5 who still has time to make things gorgeous.  Well if you haven't blog met her before, you definitely need to check out her blog.

She can turn this

into thisThis chair

into this chairand my personal favorite, this settee

into this settee

and the way she used it outside is ingenious.

I'm sure she would love you to stop by and visit.  So click below and stop by and say hello.

xo,

mONICa

Storage Bench- Before and After

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Thought I'd share this nifty little storage bench I picked up at an estate sale.  I looked and it and it reminded me of something my grandpa would've made.  It was calling my name and I had to take it home. This is what it looked like when I got it.

[caption id="attachment_896" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Masonite Storage Bench"][/caption]

First I patched up some of the small holes with wood filler.  Than I removed the top and the vinyl seat fabric.  Underneath was smelly original foam padding so I tore that out as well.  Next I primed it.

Then I painted it and started working on the top.  I didn't want to use $22.00 foam padding so I used  $6.00 carpet padding instead.  You can see how I did that here.  I used upholstery/ drapery fabric to cover the top.

And here is the final product.

I love it.  I'm almost inspired to use it as a pattern and make a banquette with similar construction.  I think that would be awesome.

xo,

mONICa

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Carpet Padding to the Rescue

I picked up this really cool home-made bench at an auction.  It's made to be lightly padded.  When I took of the original upholstery I found rubber foam padding underneath old torn vinyl, like the kind you use for your babies to play on.  It was really gross too so in the garbage it went.  Anyway,  I went to the fabric store to grab a foram padding for it.  I was like, WHAT? $22 big ones.  So off I went into my world of creativity.  I had to stop by Lowes anyways to grab some annuals for the front yard and in my head I was thinking, what at Lowes is made of foam or padded?  Aaha!! Carpet Padding.  The awesomeness of carpet padding is that it is like foam and batting rolled into one.  I found some on clearance, the whole role was $6 bucks.  I grabbed it!

I cut out 2 pieces the sizes that I needed.  I did one piece the size of the top and one piece slightly larger to roll around like batting.  Then I used spray adhesive to put it on the lid.

[caption id="attachment_814" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I stacked the 2 pieces one on top of the other, gluing them together."][/caption]

Then I wrapped the second layer around my lid and stapled the perimeter.

Finally I covered it all with a ulphostery/ drapery fabric, and I've got a padded lid for my bench.

I will do a final before and after reveal once I get the thing put back together.

xo,

mONICa