DIY project – storage seating bench

Pinterest is dangerous. As in lethal. To my bank balance anyway…

This is the Pinterest image that inspired it all –




Anybody that knows me knows that I am incredibly impatient. I’m also super impulsive & when I have an idea in my head I just have to do it, like right NOW. I’ve been known to come up with an idea at midnight and start painting a wall by 12.05am, much to my husbands bewilderment.

On Sunday evening I decided that the conservatory was letting the house down and needed…well, something. But I had no idea what to do with the space to make it a bit more useable. Our conservatory is the biggest room in the house spacing across the entire back of the house (a whopping 8.33m x 3.7m), however anyone thats owned a conservatory before will know that they aren’t the most practical of spaces due to the severe heat in Summer & how freezing cold they get in the Winter. I hadn’t really done much with the conservatory as it was such a huge room which had to cater for many ‘needs’ including housing all of Elsa’s hideous toys, and soon Rory’s. 

After randomly browsing on Pinterest on Tuesday afternoon whilst the kids napped, I came across an imagine of a storage seating bench which then sparked my imagination & by Friday morning it was complete.

After sending a few pictures to the local Handyman (Matt AKA ‘Handy Hawkins’ – covering Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch) who also fitted our hallway/WC panelling, I booked him for Thursday all day (he charges £125 labour for an 8 hour day). 
This is a ‘BEFORE’ photo (excuse the ugly monstrosity Jumperoo!)
On the Wednesday I started off by clearing the area (one wicker drawer set went across the other side of the conservatory for more toy storage, the other now lives under our stairs in the hallway for bits and bobs). I also decided to paint the wooden skirting, give all the woodwork a touch up and also repaint the entire conservatory as the walls were quite marked (colour – Homebase ‘Magnolia’). 
Painting the woodwork white really brightened up the space –

On Thursday morning, Matt arrived to start the work. Materials to build the seat bench cost £128.
He started off by building the frame out of 4×2 timber in 2 separate sections –
After this was complete, he put MDF along the back & also attached hinges to the top to use the bench as a storage solution. Wooden cladding was then put along the front for a nicer look –
I then got to work painting it white as well as upholstering bench cushions for the top using a simple Youtube video and with the help of my lovely sister-in-law. All you need to do this is thin MDF or plyboard cut to size, foam cut to size, batting, your chosen upholstery fabric & a staple gun –
I also trolled through Gumtree/Ebay/Facebook selling sites and eventually found an absolute bargain of a table to upcycle. It cost me £30 including 4x chairs which are currently sat in the shed ready to be sold on. I actually forgot to take a ‘before’ picture unfortunately, but it was a horrible orange pine colour. I simply painted the base with Annie Sloan ‘Old White’ (2 coats) then sanded the top back to give it a shabby chic look. 
To complete the look I bought cushions (the duck egg ‘bee’ and stripe button cushions are by Walton which were bought from Thomas & Lucia), the rest (grey & white) were from Dunelm Mill

Large wicker heart was £35 down from £90 from FW Homestores –

Lastly I added finishing touches like a tray on the table housing some Ideal Home Magazines for light reading, a cupcake stand from Thomas & Lucia (£9.99), heart place mats from The Range (£2.99) as well as a beautiful tea set (mugs £1.99 & teapot £11.99) from Dunelm Mill which is also available in other colours

The finished product –

We absolutely LOVE this space now & have eaten dinner out there instead of in front of the TV every evening since. We’ve also had people round for drinks & games which proved what a brilliant entertaining area it is.
As always, any questions just let me know 🙂
Love, Charlotte x

11 Comments

  1. July 20, 2015 / 8:26 am

    Wow! Not many people can find a picture on interest & then doing it better in real life, well done beauty! X

  2. July 20, 2015 / 8:40 am

    Fab fab fab! Such a good job and finished so quick – with two little ones is amazing! 2 questions – what do you use for toy storage we have a little lady just younger than you (she's 3!) And toy storage is such a issue all of her toys are so big and will last for a while ? (kitchen, dolls house, babies and prams etc)? And 2 whats your pinterest name ? xxxx

  3. July 20, 2015 / 9:14 am

    Thank you lovely 🙂 I will be doing a proper conservatory room tour in a few weeks but maybe I could do a blog post next week about storage solutions with little ones & how to keep the house looking clutter free. Thanks for the idea x

  4. July 20, 2015 / 4:52 pm

    What a transformation. I love how you dream it and do it pretty much instantly. Such an incentive and inspiration to get on with it x

  5. July 21, 2015 / 6:59 pm

    You definitely need to do a storage solutions (and quickly – my house is being taken over by toys!) ☺ xxx

  6. July 21, 2015 / 6:59 pm

    You definitely need to do a storage solutions (and quickly – my house is being taken over by toys!) ☺ xxx

  7. July 21, 2015 / 6:59 pm

    You definitely need to do a storage solutions (and quickly – my house is being taken over by toys!) ☺ xxx

  8. August 14, 2015 / 7:34 pm

    I always find if you don't do it immediately then it never gets done! The spare bedroom has been ready to paint for 3 weeks now as I stripped the wallpaper then left it oops x

  9. January 19, 2017 / 11:34 am

    Where did you buy your wicker drawers from? xx

  10. Teresa
    October 16, 2019 / 8:24 pm

    Hi love the work you did ,we have a conservatory same as you and want to chang it ,but the prob is ,its too cold in the winter ,how do you get around this ? We have double doors same as you to ,and would love a window seat at the back window ,any ideas ??