Telephone Table to Upholstered Bench

The telephone table was actually lovely. I’d bought it online in the U.K. prior to our move to France from someone who did upcycling and sold pieces on eBay.

I especially loved the seat and plan to do something with the fabric.

So why did I decide to change it?

As it was half seat, half table it was difficult to place it in the house. When telephones were a new invention and you had one at a fixed point in the home this made sense. Answer a call, sit and have a chat. Need somewhere to store a phone book? There’s a little slot.

But….that’s not what we do now is it? Since the 80s we’ve had hands free phones, not to mention our lives tied to mobiles. We’ve seriously considered just keeping mobile phones. The only thing that stops us is an emergency scenario where a fixed phone could save lives.

You know where it is.

Since moving here the telephone table has been under the stairs. Too wide to fit in snugly under there to make use of its seat, it was wasted really, with its positioning against the wall running into the stair treads.

The creation of the vestibule area and the evolving sitting room encouraged me to look again at the piece.

I thought I’d share here because, even though this is the simplest of upcycles, it might give you ideas so you can save a similar piece in your home.

This isn’t a how to, just a you could. But here’s how it was….

And here’s how it is…

Everything is recycled. I removed the seat pad, shelf and back and then I took some old seat pads to make an upholstered bench.

The seat pads where from a set I’d bought for garden seats that I loved. They had a paisley pattern with a gold shimmer. However the pattern, including the shimmer, faded and it ended a dirty grey.

So I split three sides of the pads along the seams and used them for the padding on the bench. I then used a staple gun to secure it in place with the clean, but bleugh, material as a lining.

Then I used the left over velvet form these chairs as a cover, before trimming it with piping and ribbon.

An easy upcycle.