Window. Sitting. Pretty.

As a girl, I had a bay window with a window seat in my room.  I loved it because it was such a cute, sunny spot in my room.  Cats in our house also loved it, but that has nothing to do with this post.  I decided that I really wanted to create a nice window seat for Lucky in her room too.  She does not have a bay window, but she does have a nice, large window that would allow for a window seat beneath it.  We didn't do anything fancy like a built-in window seat.  Instead, I found inspiration in these images:

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Then I bought a 1 x 5 Expedit bookshelf from IKEA for 60 buckaroos.  Here is the room with the bookshelf/window seat in place, along with a few baskets that I picked up at Joann's on clearance.  The blankets and pillows in the shelf/seat were items we had on hand already.

I decided that I wanted a padded seat cover for Lucky as well, which is where this sewing machine post came in.  I went back and forth over whether to attempt to use piping on the seat.  I ended up going for it after finding this pre-made piping product:

We picked up some 2 inch foam and cut it too size with an electric knife we picked up at Menards for $10.  I've seen pictures of people trying to coat through thick foam with razors and it didn't look fun.  It actually looked like quite the opposite of fun, and was apparently time consuming.  We cut through our foam in about a minute and half with our new knife.  Easy Peasy.  And now we have an electric knife for future projects:).

Knife, measuring tape and markers

The foam fit almost perfectly on our new bench in the dining room!

I cut the fabric to size, and after many, many hours alone (and in Charm's company...he was my helper) with a sewing machine:

There must be an easier way.  Experience will teach me perhaps? 

Here is the final result:

Cost Breakdown:

2" Thick, 2 Yard Long Foam Insert: $22.50 at Hancock Fabric's (50% off sale)
2 1/2 yards of Fabric: $12.50 at Joann's (50% off coupon)
10 yards of premade piping: $5.20 (on sale at Hancock Fabric's)
Expedit Unit: $60
Clearance Baskets in Expedit: $19 (70% off and then an additional 25% off coupon at Joann's)

Total: $119.20.  Definitely not the cheapest thing in the world, but impactful, practical and pretty, I think.  It took me about 5 hours to cut the fabric and get it all sewn together.  It wasn't the most fun thing I've ever done, and it took about 4 sewing 'sessions' over the span of a week.  I'm not nearly as intimidated by the sewing machine anymore.  Progress.

Next up for Lucky's room:  Wall art. Cheap wall art.  I have a project that I'm working on and lots of options for pre-owned art.  Wall art is the trickiest thing for me to do in a room, partially because of the 'hole in the wall phobia' we have around here, and partially because there are just too many arrangement options.  We'll see how things end up being pulled together.  We are getting very close to calling this room done!