DIY Stripes on a Cute Bench

This bench came to me in great shape, just not a great color. I wanted to do something a little different with the seat cushion and decided on stripes.  Since I’m in love with canvas drop cloth material, I knew it would be my choice of fabric. It’s actually a piano bench which I love because I can open books or magazines inside.

{Before Seat Cushion}

I used Canvas Drop Cloth material – it’s cheap and it’s durable.

Step #1: Cut canvas larger than the bench.

TIP: Always make sure to give yourself enough extra fabric to staple around whatever you are covering. You can always trim the extra off, but if you cut it too small you’ll either have to re-cut the fabric (big waste) or spend forever trying to pull it tight enough to staple (pain in the patootie).

Step #2: Measure stripes (I made mine 6 inches) and use masking tape to mark them off on fabric.

TIP: Before painting lay the fabric on an old sheet, as you can see in the photo you’ll end up going off the fabric with the paint. Also, cheap masking tape does the trick on this fabric – no need to use expensive painters tape since you are not pulling it off an already painted surface.

Step #4: Paint stripes using a small foam roller, it works perfect!

*I INTERRUPT THIS REGULARLY SCHEDULED TUTORIAL TO BRING YOU A DIY FAILURE*

My DIY Failure: I wasn’t paying attention and as I dipped my foam roller in the paint and went to paint my stripes, the paint dripped across the fabric – I had to re-cut an entire new piece of fabric. Learn from me and be careful!

Step #4: Allow paint to completely dry (a couple of hours) and remove masking tape.

Finished DIY Stripes

TIP: I happen to be using this striped fabric to cover a bench, but you could use this technique to make striped canvas window treatments - that’s on my list of projects!

I forgot a before picture (shocker), but I painted this bench black and gave it a little distressing.

Step #5: Staple fabric onto bench and re-attach to bench (forgot a picture of this step – sorry).

{After DIY Striped Canvas Bench}

I love how the bench turned out! What would you use striped canvas for? I’d love to know!

Love you more than  heading to a pre-season Vikings game with the fam, 

Sunday

Love this from our last session of family pictures in 2010, it makes me smile :)