Fireplace Bench

I recently had a friend message me on Instagram to ask me about this bench my mother in law made for our fireplace that was pictured in an instagram story of mine and I figured maybe if I put it up on the blog then it could help others too!

When our son was about 8 months old, he was getting so mobile that we were lining up pillows around the brick fireplace bench so that he wouldn’t smack his head on the corner of the brick bench. I had been looking online trying to figure out what to do and when I got stuck I did what I always do and texted my mother in law. We came up with a plywood, foam, and fabric solution that has served us well for the last 4+ years and that is still used on a daily basis.

We purchased the plywood, grey fabric, and a big piece of dense foam and got the tools out and started measuring(ish)! The fabric was JoAnn’s and the plywood and foam were both from Home Depot. Our first problem was that instead of notching out the rectangle that sits in by the fireplace, we accidentally cut it straight and had to reattach it just with the tension from fabric with the foam under it. Next we cut the foam to fit the plywood box and then we attached the fabric to the underside of the plywood box with a staple gun. This was the hardest part and definitely needed two people so one person holds the fabric down as tight as possible while the other person uses the staple gun to attach it with 5 million staples (only slightly exaggerating). It fit perfectly, protected my son’s head and is still a great bench especially in the winter when it’s cold and we want to sit in front of the fire and not sit on chilly brick. This is one of my favorite places in the house to sit because it’s warm in front of the fire and I can see outside from windows on both sides of the living room.

And of course if you have a 3 year old at the time, you let her go wild with the coloring on the plywood because “no one will ever see it”, ah well, it’s a fun memory!