The "I can't believe it was this cheap and came out this nice" window seat DIY

Today I decided to conquer my window seat project. I have 2 in my home, but the one I am working on is the one in the kitchen. Up to now it has been a catch all for everything from recycling to groceries. I've seen other tutorials online that called for buying and cutting plywood...but the plywood was to expensive for my taste and I do not own a circle saw in order to cut it. If you want to use that then by all means do so, but my aim was to get this done as inexpensive as possible.  Here is what the space looked like after I clean it.

Not much going on there right? Okay well let's dive into it shall we? Okay firstly the supplies:

Let me say that the foam was purchased at Joann's with a 60% off coupon one regularly priced item and a 15% off entire purchase. The regular price was $11.99 a yard, with the coupons it was roughly $4.08. Not bad even if I do say so myself. Everything else I had.  The first thing I did was place the cardboard boxes on the window seat and with the marker I drew a line on the underside of the box to get an accurate measurement of how much I should cut off. When I was done with this step here is what I had

I proceed to cut along the line with the box cutter and broke the pieces off. 

Next I laid the now cut boxes on the foam and traced another line for that perfect measurement. 

I cut the foam for the first board, grabbed the staple gun and went crazy!

Make sure you measure your window seat before buying your foam. I did not and ended up stapling pieces to the last cushion. 

After this step I grabbed the scrap fabric I had on hand and stapled it on top of the foam from the back. Be sure to pull firmly in order to ensure a smooth finish. 

My staple job is not to cute, but it got the job done!! Afterward I ran to the sewing machine (literally) all giggly and grabbed my scrap batting to make a matching pillow. Take note that an easy alternative is to buy cheap bed pillows from any store like Wal-Mart and cut them in half. Then sew both cut sides. No need to do a perfect job, in the end it wont be seen. Then you can sew up some pillow cases and use those as your pillow forms. In the end my window seat came out like this. I wish I would of used thicker foam, but it was to expensive. If you want thicker cushions try adding a layer of bating to the top before you staple the foam to the cardboard. 

I plan to add more pillows of course, but I am well pleased with the end result. Technically I did this whole project for under $10.00. Even if you choose to purchase fabric you can still do this under $20.00.

Tweak this idea to create your own special place. Now all I need is a good book :)

The easy dining room chair redo

MATERIALS USED:
2 yards of fabric from Hobby Lobby ( it was $7.99 before i used my 40% off coupon from the app)
scissors
screwdriver or drill
black spray paint
staple gun
chair to be redone (got mine from the salvation army 2 for $21)

As part of an affordable kitchen overhaul I decided that instead of buying new furniture I would try to give new life to what I already had. I recently bought 2 dining room chairs from the Salvation Army for $21. They were having a 50% off furniture sale (lucky me) so technically I got each chair for $10.50...Not bad right.

My chosen kitchen colors are red and black. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a red, black, white, and gray chevron print fabric to cover the seat portion of the chair. Sorry no pic of that. I also bought a black satin spray paint from Walmart for about 4 bucks to paint the wood portion of the chair.

I used a regular screwdriver to remove the 5 screws that were holding the cushion to the frame...sorry no pics of that either. I'm new at this so I will do better next time. This is what I was left with though.

I used to spray paint to cover each of the chairs. I ended up using the whole can for both chairs. So if you are doing 4 chairs it would be wise to buy 2 cans. Even then you wont have any left. After that process I grabbed my fabric, staple gun and scissors so that I could cover the seat portion.

This part is really easy. you just stretch and staple the fabric to the seat and cut as you go. Make sure that if you are using a patterned material that you line up the design the way you want it to go. After that you use a drill (that's what I used because it was to hard to find the holes) or a screwdriver to reattach the seat. I waited 2 hours till the paint was dry to the touch. Here is the end result. Looks like a brand new chair.

 WALAH!!! I am very pleased with the results. It takes the paint about 24 hours to dry completely so don't be in a rush to have anyone sit in them. Next project I am sprucing up my window seat in the kitchen. This will also be an affordable project.