Reupholstery for Beginners (+ books to read)

Yesterday, I spent most of the day at the DMV helping my lil sis, B, get her driver's permit. Yay! She passed the test! Later that evening, I did the following project.

My friend, Christina, suggested a while back that I could reupholster my piano bench for a simple and cute change to my living room. (She has so many great ideas!) I've considered it for a while, but until yesterday, had not found any fabric that I really loved. Below is the before and after. Scroll down to see how I did it.

Before

After

My sisters and I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday afternoon and I found this fabric that I LOVE!

(You'll see a better photo of it at the end of this project.)

Here are the tools I used to recover the piano bench:

I used a philips head screwdriver to take the top off of the hinges. Then I used a flat head screwdriver to loosen the existing staples that were used to upholster it.

Then I used pliers to remove the staples completely.

After I got the original piece of fabric off, I used it to measure and cut out the new piece of fabric.

(I did a lot of this project in my 3 year old's room since he is recently having trouble going to bed in his own room and is comforted to have my husband or me in his room as he goes to sleep.)

Next, I laid the bench top on the upside-down fabric and pulled the center of the fabric over tightly (but not too tight). It is best to do the long side first. I used a staple gun, but unfortunately, I had the wrong size staples, so I struggled getting that part right. I stapled from the center of the fabric to the outside corner in order to avoid any bumps.

This is how I folded the corners.

Then I stapled them down.

And here is the finished product.

I love it!

If anyone has tips on better ways to do things (Like, get the right size staples for your staple gun!) or about how to do more complicated projects, please feel free to share!

I hope that one of my upcoming projects will be to paint the piano and bench in a glossy white paint. My husband isn't completely on board yet because he loves natural wood. But I don't love natural wood most of the time and I think that the white would really brighten up the room. If he is okay with it (it is his home too!), I plan to knock it out quickly.

I recently finished this book that was recommended by a couple of different sources...

and loved it. I passed it along to my sister to read.

Here's a book that I'm currently reading and enjoying.

All of Malcolm Gladwell's books make me think. So far, this one is about extraordinary people and how they become extraordinary. I am hoping that he will share some secrets so I can find my own way to do extraordinary things. I don't want to be afraid to do things that are out of the ordinary. Perhaps this book will help give me courage... or at least some practical ideas.

Tomorrow, I plan to post my pillowcase project that I did tonight!