Headboard Corner Bench eBook

Making a headboard corner bench can seem a little intimidating at first, but I hope this tutorial will show you just how easy it can be. Full sized beds make very long benches. Cutting the headboard in half and making a corner bench is another option. The corner bench is easier to move around and takes up less room. I hope this article inspires you to make your own headboard bench from a full or queen bed that fits perfectly in that special corner in your home.

White Corner Bench Red Corner Bench Black Corner Bench

Last Spring I got a call from a friend to alert me that there was a headboard out to the garbage on her street. I borrowed a truck and hurried right over to scoop it up.

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How to make a Corner Bench out of a Headboard

Cut the headboard. As you can see in the picture I didn’t cut it exactly in half. It’s difficult to explain, but because one side is butted up to the other side, if you cut it exactly in half, one side will end up being shorter than the other. See more details on how to cut a headboard for a corner bench by clicking that link.

I used my kreg jig to make pocket hole joints to attach the two pieces together.

Attach headboard pieces on a 90° angle

I used Gorilla Wood Glue and the pocket holes along with a Speed Square to make sure everything lined up. (NOTE: there is no spindle where the two pieces meet)

Add a third leg in the back of the headboard corner bench

I used a scrap piece of 2x4 to hold the back up while I figured out the height of the back brace/leg.

The back leg will also be the support for the seat, so it’s important to get it the right height, while using the level for good measure. (NOTE: I have placed the extra spindle in the middle where it would have originally been cut in half)

The Corner Bench will need a front brace

As I uploaded this picture, I wondered why I wrote the 2” on the board. After thinking about it for a bit, I remembered it is to remind me to tell you that even though I drilled the pocket holes at the ¾” setting, I used 2” screws because I was attaching the ¾” board to the square post of the bed.

Because of the angle, it was impossible to clamp the 1x to the post. I used my quick clamp to hold the board in the right spot to keep it from slipping down the post.

Add a seat to your headboard bench

You can see this old piece of scrap plywood I used for the seat. It was easy to cut on my table saw, but the math (of the angle) really had me messed up. I couldn’t get it to fit back far enough. It also wouldn’t slide in from the back. I think I took a lunch break around this time. It was pretty frustrating.

HA! this is how I figure out where to cut the corner bench seat. After setting the bench onto the seat I was able to outline just where it needed to be notched. Was it the right way? I don’t know, but it worked!

The problem was I wanted the front of the seat to have a little bit of an overhang over the front brace board.

The notches aren’t exactly the same, so I suppose it’s not 100% squared. Hey! I never said I was a perfectionist.

But I think it’s looking pretty darn cute!

I added a couple of small boards to the back leg to help support the top of the headboard. It was sort of suspended in mid-air.

Paint corner bench

Into the paint booth it goes for the HomeRight Finish Max treatment. This is a simple bed, but painting those spindles by hand is not going to happen around here.

This is after one light coat of DIY Chalky Primer with some oops paint. I intended to paint the bench red, but now that I have it primed with black paint…. I'm not sure—what do you think?

I love the finish I get using my HomeRight Finish Max.

I have since painted it with Beluga (Behr), but I don’t have a picture to show you yet.

It seems like this is a period of “non-finished” projects. I need a few warm days to catch up. Right now we are experiencing the Polar Vortex. I hope you are warm wherever you are!

gail

EDITED to ADD new pics