I have been really undecided as to whether or not to make this bench in my dining room bay window a ‘proper’ window seat. I loved the simplicity of it but as I thought about it more, it seemed such a shame not to have somewhere you’d actually want to curl up, watch the rain patter on those beautiful original bay windows & read a book with a hot chocolate.
The window bench was a gumtree find, it’s a really old piece of furniture & I knew when I saw it that it was just perfect for this bay window.
To see my dining room home tour blog post including details of paint colours, where items are from click here.
After speaking to Laurie from Style At Home Magazine, I decided to take the plunge & give the dining room a bit of a ‘soft furnishings makeover’. She explained that it can really soften a room & give it a lot more depth as well as adding a cosy feel.
First off, I bought a table runner as they had used a similar one in the magazine shoot & it looked lovely. This was from M&S available here. It was £15 however they were running a 20% off homeward offer so I got it for a bargain £12.
I also bought a gorgeous throw in neutral & mustard yellow checks which was £12 from Sainsbury’s to add a bit of colour as it was all looking a tad too beige for my liking.
I then decided that the window bench definitely needed some cushions so it became my mission. Unfortunately this was a bit harder than originally thought as after visiting about 10 shops I only left with 2x very plain cushions from Dunelm Mill which were under £5 each. Unfortunately, having only 2 looked a tad silly. I couldn’t find anything that stood out to me.
When browsing Instagram one evening, I stumbled across a baby clothing seller (@oh.so.eden.rose) who’s little dresses were in the most beautiful fabric. After begging her to tell me where it was from, I realised that a shop locally sold it so went & stocked up as well as finding a gorgeous striped fabric which looked just perfect against it.
I did plan to vlog this tutorial, however with a house full of basically the plague, it didn’t really work out! But, here’s my tutorial on how to make a super simple envelope cushion. These literally took me about 10 minutes each, if that.
- Your chosen fabric – the floral one is by Clarke & Clarke (neutral flora) & I’m unsure of the striped unfortunately
- Cushion pad in your chosen size (my sizes were 2x 18″ (striped), 2x 18″ (plain – from Dunelm mill, I didn’t make these) & 2x 16″(floral)
- An Iron/ironing board
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
- Tape measure
- Pins
- A pointy but not too pointy thing – I used a pen
Love, Charlotte x
Looks lovely. I need to learn to sew properly. I'll put it on my new year goals. Thanks for sharing
It's definitely a great skill to have – will always come in handy. Happy learning lovely x