Nesting With Grace

by Brooke Christen

DIY Banquette and Window Seat Cushions How to Make

We recently extended and painted my sister’s kitchen banquette. We painted it this fun bright blue color and I had this darling vintage looking rug that I wanted to use in her space. Sadly it was too big to fit the area, so I thought how cute would this pattern be as banquette cushions?! That way we still get to use it! It didn’t scare me to cut it up at all knowing it would still be loved. I’ll walk you through the steps we did and what we used, hopefully making you feel confident that you could DIY your own upholstered banquette seating!

Here is what the area looked like without the banquette cushions.
And here is how it looks with the cushions! I think a rug is a great option to recover a cushion with and very durable. I had found this vintage rug (HERE) and had no plans for it. Happy it found a home!
I had custom cushions made for my girls window seat, and they are nice quality with welt and reversible. But they cost about $600 in labor. For my sisters banquette we spent about $500 for 3 cushions, that were about the size of the one I had custom made. So you can save a lot of money to DIY your own banquette or window seat cushions.
If you are making separate cushions, keep in mind the way the pattern will match up when the cushions are installed. We couldn’t follow a certain pattern using this rug, because of the size of our cushions. My sister didn’t mind that the patterns didn’t align, she liked the eclectic look.
There are lots of options when it comes to foam padding. This one was a little more creative and different, we found this foam mattress topper with options for thickness, 1-4″. Whereas we had gone to a craft store and could only find 2″ foam and knew I would want to double the height which would also make the cost double. This was by far the cheaper option for what we could find around us. We got the 3″ king size foam topper to be able to get all the banquette seats done. At first I was concerned about it being memory foam but was really impressed with how quickly it reshaped after having pressure on it.
Cushion thickness is about preference, however choosing a cushion that is too thick or thin could make sitting uncomfortable. Keep in mind the height of your banquette. Typically a banquette seat height is 18″, so if you had a 2″ cushion it might make it too uncomfortable with the table ratio. We also had to make sure it fit under the window.
First thing we did was measure and cut the wood. We used a very thin plywood for the underside only because we needed something to staple the fabric to. We did three separate pieces because she needed to still be able to lift it up easily to get inside the storage below. After the wood was cut we laid it out and traced around the wood with a sharpie. Then cut with these scissors, they worked really well.
We then laid out the rug and placed each piece out, finding the pattern and placement we wanted. While also making sure we had enough fabric to cover each cushion. Measure twice, because you can only cut once.
Then we cut the rug, we used these same scissors. I was worried about the thickness of the rug and being able to have a nice clean cut but these handled it no problem. We left enough material around the edges that we could pull it tight and be able to attach easily.
For the edges we folded the smaller side up first then brought up the longer sides. It’s like wrapping presents, finding the right fold that will have it lay smooth without bulk. I cut off access fabric in the corners, to help keep it from being too bulky.
We attached the fabric to the wood with a staple gun. It held in place nicely. Once we finished one side of the cushion we made sure to pull the fabric tight before stapling the other side so that it would lay smooth without bunching.
Here it is all finished. We love how it all turned out. The height is perfect for comfort and to fit directly under the window trim. My nephew’s all commented how comfy and cozy it is. Exactly what you want in a place that everyone loves to gather.
Get all the details on the banquette seating HERE!
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Comments

  2. Ginger S. says

    Did you attach the finished product to the banquette or is it just laying on top of it? Does is slide around?

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