So things have been moving along on my kitchen banquette bench. Let me catch you up to speed. The back was constructed and it was time to upholster it. I found the fabric I needed in the form of a tablecloth from Target. That was the only part I paid for since my dad just happened to have a huge old roll of one inch foam in storage in his basement. No joke on the “old” part of that sentence. It is the same roll he used to upholster my dining room chairs about 17 years ago.  

I would be stapling two layers of foam to the back and then stapling the fabric around that. My only tools were a huge pair of scissors and my staple gun.

I first laid an old sheet down on the floor to protect my fabric. I was using my three season porch as my workspace and didn’t want any dirt smudges. I then laid the first layer of foam down and traced an outline of the wood back with a marker. I cut the foam at the outline and stapled this to the front of the wood backing. I wanted a soft back but I didn’t want the sides and top of the back to be too upholstered and squishy. 

I then laid the foam down again and placed the bench back with the attached foam face down. I would be adding a second layer of foam which would be wrapped around and stapled to the back this time. I left about five inches of foam on each side and cut. I would be trimming down any excess foam later. 

This part went pretty quickly. The trickiest part was the two notches I had cut out to make room for my chair rail. I left the corners open so that the foam did not bunch up. 

I then stapled all the sides down, getting as close to the corners as possible. I didn’t want the corner to bunch up and wanted the foam padding to go all the way around the top and sides of the frame. I cut a thin strip that went all the way to the corner of the frame. I then tucked and stapled that strip to the side of the frame. I trimmed the larger side section of foam to the frame as well and than wrapped that around the side. This way there was no excess foam at the corners.

I positioned the back the way it would sit on the wall and marked the center of the foam. This would help me position my fabric. I was using a geometric print and wanted it to be perfectly centered. If you are using a solid or busy pattern you can skip this step. 

Once I had the pattern centered I also checked with my level to make sure it was straight. I then stapled three staples to the back as a place holder. This way everything would stay in position as I placed the fabric and foam covered back on the floor to finish stapling. 

I placed it all on the floor and went to town with the stapler on the four sides, leaving the corners for last. The notches for the chair rail were the trickiest part again. I just cut closer to the frame and stapled around the small corners.

For the top two corners I stapled up to the sides and then wrapped each side around to the back. I then pulled the top down and folded it on the pattern so the white line was even and straight. The bottom two corners would not be visible so I just wrapped those two corners like a present.

I trimmed off all the excess fabric and I was done!