DIY Window Seat Wall : Before and After
/If you’re just looking for sources, head to the bottom of this post.
Call me #Influenced. After one trip to Lowe’s, I caught the DIY/hack bug. At around the same time I saw that Regan at The Blooming Nest was installing a window seat and I discovered Jess at CarcabaRoad do a sponge paint wall. My coffee fueled brain thought, “Hey, I could do that”
The target? Our sunroom.
The goal? Make it a defined room in the open living area and a functional space that can store toys.
Before I unveil the before image, let me just say that our ‘sunroom’ is more of a bump out. It is by no means a room. However, it is the part of the main living area that gets the most sun. Boom- that makes it a sunroom.
Also, before getting into the nitty gritty, I was on a budget. We are in a big time savings mode right now so I wasn’t looking to spend more than a few hundo here.
So here she is before:
Burns the eyes a bit, no? I cannot tell you the passion with which I hate those chairs. I bought them on a whim to use in our old house and kept them just to fill the space. I was never sure what to do in terms of window treatments here since we have long drapes on either side of this room. I felt like drapes were too much but I didn’t want to go to the expense of ordering a valence nor did I think that was a great DIY place to start with all the sewing and woodwork required.
I’ll take you through the whole design process below, but here is the design plan that I started with to get this project rolling.
I decided that a feature wall would be ideal - something that makes a statement, but doesn’t require much time, effort, or know-how. AKA right up my alley!
DIY Sponge Wall
I had just seen a DIY sponge painted accent wall on Carcaba Road. The supplies were minimal and the skill level seemed low.
Supplies:
Sponge
Scissors
Paint
Paper Plate
How To:
Snip the corner of the sponge at a 45 degree angle
Pour the paint onto the paper plate
Dip the sponge and start making your lines
Tips:
Don’t buy a whole gallon of paint to start. I literally did my wall with just the sample.
Do a few practice lines on a sheet of paper, paper bag, etc.
Start somewhere inconspicuous so that you can feel out the size and placement on the wall
Window Seat
Then I set my sights on a window seat. Having a background in interior design and home building, I knew the carpentry work to make a built in window seat was not in the budget right now. So what’s a girl to do? Go to Pinterest!
Pinterest had a wealth of beautiful images of sunrooms with window seats. I began to see the IKEA hack of the Kallax system to turn it into a window seat. I thought this would be a great option. My biggest concern was that I would have to remove the baseboard trim where I wanted the window seat so that it would sit flush against the wall. Alternatively, I could also order feet to attach to the base of the window seat to raise it above the trim.
I measured the wall and ordered the Kallax single bookcases to fit. We (read: my husband) assembled the first one and put it on its side flush with the trim. To my delight, it fit perfectly between the baseboard and the window sill so that there was no need to remove the trim!
My original design plan and budget included cushions, but I knew those could get pricey so I wanted to see the Kallax in place before buying anything. Once I saw how my boys climbed on it, I realized that cushions wouldn’t be ideal right now. They would slide around and likely just be thrown off so that the top of the seat could be used for Hot Wheels. My budget breathed a sigh of relief.
I grabbed some pillows from Target to warm up the space a bit. They add some texture and color which the area needed. The lumbar pillow is actually an indoor/outdoor pillow so hopefully it will hold up to three kids.
Sconces
The final piece of the puzzle was sconces. Since I knew I wasn’t going to do any sort of window treatment aside from the woven shades we already have, I knew visually the room needed something at this height - near the top of the windows.
My brain harkened back to Nesting with Grace and her magic light trick. A few Amazon searches later, and I had found some sconces that were reasonably priced and worked with the fixtures we had throughout the rest of the open concept space.
With the magic light trick in hand and zero interest in doing any sort of electrical work, I opted to snip the cord on the back of the sconce and install it on the wall. Inside the can of the light is industrial velcro and attached to that is a puck light.
The exact puck lights that we got are cool lights which aren’t my favorite. But these lights also have a bunch of color options - great for holidays- and they have a strobe effect - great for late night dance parties to release a little energy.
And that’s pretty much it! I had the runner that is in front of the window seat elsewhere in the house and the same goes for the rug under the chalkboard. I love how these rugs define the two areas, but also unite them. The rugs are from the same family, but obviously different colors and shapes.
This project took me about 10 days to complete from inception to conclusion including all ordering/lead times. Once the actual products are all in hand, you can complete this in an afternoon.
I strayed from the original design plan by skipping the floating shelves on the side. My husband really wanted to sit on the window seat to read when the babies nap, and the shelves would have had to be in a weird place to accommodate his height. I also didn’t paint the top of the seat. I want to see how it wears without it first.
All in I spent just under $400 - most of that on the sconces. Right in line with what we had agreed upon.
Sources
Paint Color: Valspar colormatch to Farrow and Ball Pigeon 25
Window Seat: IKEA Kallax Single
Baskets: IKEA Fladis (small)
Pillows: White + lumbar - Target
Throw: old Target but similar here
Plant pot: Bathroom trash can from Target
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