A futon? Nah, just some benches.

I recently moved into a bigger house to accommodate the fact that I know have a roommate (buddy from high school). Whilst moving everything into the new house, we quickly realized that my futon frame stood no chance against the corner at the top of the staircase. Ted was instantly struck by a genius idea, dismantle the frame and turn the two halves into benches for the porch. Now, while this was a great idea, it would also leave me without a frame for my mattress. Ultimately the prospect of a new project outweighed a bed frame, and so began the transformation!

We started off by dismantling the frame, which was nothing more than removing a few carriage bolts. The first issue we ran into was that the two pieces were far to wide/deep, as seen below...

A quick visit from the jigsaw and we had the length issue taken care of...

After some wood glue and sitting overnight to let the glue set, we were in business.

The legs were also a fairly straightforward endeavor. Just a few planks of wood cut to size and secured in place with a carriage bolt. I'm starting to realize this isn't the most exciting project ever... :P

Legs attached, we have a bench!

Problem is that the bench wasn't all too comfortable, which we somewhat anticipated, as it is just solid wood. Originally the plan was to buy some foam of some sort and rig up padding, but while enjoying our work, Ted was struck with the 2nd great idea. He noticed my old area rug sitting in the corner and out of sheer curiosity, sized it up against the bench. By some miracle, the rug fit PERFECTLY across the bench. We sprang into action without a moments hesitation.

And just like that, the benches were complete! The rug could use a cleaning, and we are thinking of adding some cardboard underneath to sturdy it up a bit, but other than that, they came out quite well!