What Is The Best Upholstery For My Pub Shed Bench Seat?

There are a few ways to upholster bench seating. One, have it upholstered professionally. Two, buy the foam and the fabric of choice and upholster it yourself. Or three, have custom size cushions made to measure. So what is the best upholstery for my pub shed bench seat?

After weighing up the effort and cost, I decided the best upholstery for my pub shed bench seat is to have custom cushions made to my measurements. I will go through the three options and why I decided on the custom cushions. Plus how I finished the bench seat cladding too.

I am pretty pleased with how my bench seat upholstery has turned out.

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The Best Upholstery For My Pub Shed Bench Seat

I Recently built my pub shed bench seat, which consisted of a simple frame and cladding. You can find the steps in this article Is It Hard To Build Seating For A Home Bar?

So this article is a follow on from that article. The next step if you like, the part where I finish my pub shed bench seating.

And as I said, I am pretty pleased with the result. So lets go through the three options I mentioned at the beginning and why I chose the one I did.

The Professional Upholstery Option

This will yield the best result by far, however it will also leave the biggest hole in your budget too. However if you want to splash the cash, then this is probably the best option.

There are companies that specialise in build bench seating for pubs and restaurants. These companies will also build bespoke seating for pub sheds or home bars too.

So they will actually build the frame and cladding too, then upholster it to your specifications.

All you have to do is supply the design you want, either straight bench, L-shaped bench or any other shape you require.

You give them the measurements and the type of fabric you want. They then build and deliver the whole thing to your door. In most cases they will fit it too.

This is the easiest way to get your home bar seating, and by far the best result. However it is also the most expensive too.

DIY Upholstery

The second option is to upholster your bench seating yourself, I mean how hard can it be?

It is pretty straight forward, buy the foam and the fabric. Glue the foam to your seat top and then stretch the fabric over the foam and staple to the underneath of your seat top.

That is the general way to upholster your seating yourself. However it is important to make sure you get the fabric even over the foam and leave plenty to staple underneath.

It can get a little tricky on the corners as you have several layers of fabric coming together. It is all about the folds and the cuts. A good idea is to practice with some scrap fabric on a small wooden board.

Talking of corners, make sure they are not to sharp as with the tight stretch of the fabric, they could tear the fabric. Just round them off a little so they are not sharp.

This does take a little effort, but get it right and it is pretty satisfying.

It is also a lot cheaper than having your upholstery done professionally.

Foam And Fabric

Apart from a stable gun, staples, scissors, sharp blade and fabric glue. The only thing you need is the foam and fabric.

However as I looked at getting the foam cut to the size I wanted, I found out foam is pretty expensive. You need good quality foam for seating, high density or memory foam. That is if you want it to be comfortable and last.

The fabric also works out pretty expensive too and when I priced up the foam and fabric together it worked out more than if I had custom cushions made for me.

I was surprised too.

I need four cushions, two are 1.5 metres long and the other two are 2 metres long. For the foam and the fabric it worked out at approximately £380.00 which is more then the custom cushions.

Why would I buy the foam and fabric and then have to do the upholstery myself, when I can get custom made cushions ready upholstered cheaper.

Custom Made Upholstery For My Pub Shed Bench Seat

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So the custom cushions I had made for my pub shed work out cheaper than doing it myself with foam and fabric.

I chose a wine red linen fabric which comes complete with a non slip base and is zipped so the covers can be removed and washed.

The foam is 80mm (3.15 inches) thick and is high density memory foam. So it’s not only comfortable, but keeps its shape too.

I sent the company my measurements and spec and they made them and delivered them to my door. The whole process took around three weeks.

The cushions come vacuum packed with two cushions in each package. Each package was around the size or a standard shopping bag.

I was a little disappointed when I unpacked them as when put in place they look a little thin and limp. However I was warned by the company though, as they are vacuum packed it takes around forty eight hours for them to reach their original shape.

I’d say it took around double that time, and now they look great. They are comfortable and stay in place well.

The cost of the four custom cushions worked out at £353.96. So £26.04 cheaper that the DIY option, and I don’t have to tackle the upholstery myself.

I also had a little surprise bonus too, the company included four small cushion covers of the same colour and material. This wasn’t part of the deal, but I am not complaining, I bought four cushion inserts and now have four scatter cushions for my bench seating, result.

Finishing Off My Pub Shed Bench Seat

Now I have the upholstery I need to finish off the cladding to complete the job. I was going to paint or varnish the cladding.

However I used OSB board for my cladding and it is a pretty rough finish on it. So I decide to cover the cladding instead.

I chose a self adhesive vinyl cover in the style of metal chequered plate effect. Two rolls are needed for my benches, so it cost me £32.98.

I did take note of the reviews for this product which said the self adhesive was not that sticky. As OSB board is quite rough I also bought a spray adhesive (£6.00) to make sure it stuck well to the cladding.

It is easy to cut, however the reviews were right it is not very sticky. But with the spray adhesive it goes on a treat.

The final result is good, a little blingy maybe, but I am getting use to that.

Final Thoughts

So that is my pub shed bench seat complete, and I am happy with the result. It is comfortable and easily fits five people, it serves the purpose well.

I really thought that buying the foam and fabric and upholstering myself would have been the cheapest option. And I dare say if I shopped around for a while I might have got it cheaper than the custom cushion route.

Having said that, I don’t think it would be that much cheaper, and I would still have to do the work myself.

If you want to splash the cash, then the professional approach is probably the best option. However the custom cushion route for me beats the DIY options.

Let me know your home bar or pub shed bench seat shenanigans, share your thoughts below. Or if have any questions or tips that can help others, then share them too.

Related: Why Your Home Bar Needs A Bench Seat