DIY Farmhouse Headboard Bench

I am so thrilled with this bench! It started life as a twin headboard and footboard set, and now it is this beautiful entryway bench. To me, this is one of the most wonderful ideas that some genius person came up with. I found this idea on Pinterest and fell in love. And the search was on for a headboard and footboard.

It didn’t take long to find this bed set at a thrift shop and it was only $5! Can you believe that?! But it took quite a little while before I was able to get it made. But it’s here now and I’ll tell you how I did it.

The first thing I did was wash it and assess the scratches and gouges and holes.

I didn’t fill every tiny thing, just the bigger stuff. I used wood putty for this job and let it dry. After it was dried I sanded it smooth.

My headboard was a bit wobbly, understandable given it’s age.

So I took the corner posts off and cleaned them up. I used wood glue to reattach them.

Next thing was to figure out how deep I wanted the seat. I just took the average depth of a bench, maybe 18″ and marked the footboard. The footboard is the piece that, when cut, will become the sides of the bench. Overall, the bench is a bit deeper because I didn’t take into consideration the corner post of the headboard. More on that later.

My footboard was wider than 36″ so I just measured from the outside in and made the cuts and I ended up with this extra center piece.

I then used my kreg jig to make holes to attach the side pieces to the headboard. The headboard is the piece that will become the back of the bench.

I made two holes in the inside of each section of the footboard for a total of eight holes. So when attached, the holes will be on the inside of the bench. I thought they would be less noticeable there.

Next up were the supports for the seat slats. I measured the distance between the corner posts on the headboard and cut two pieces of 1x material. These pieces are about 3″ high.

I then had to figure out how many seat slats I would need. I used 1x material for each slat which measured 5 1/2″ wide. For my bench I used 6 slats and allowed for a slight space between each. More on the slats later.

After dry fitting them, I used the kreg jig again to make lots of holes to connect to the seat slats. There are actually two per slat in both the front and back of each slat.

And on each end of each support, I made 2 kreg jig holes.

I attached one of these supports to the headboard between the corner posts using kreg screws. I left space between the bottom of the headboard cross piece and the seat support to allow room for the seat slats.

Make sure the holes in the seat support are facing toward the inside of the bench and are at the top of the board.

Notice the space between the seat support and the cross piece on the headboard.

Once that was attached, I measured from the bottom and transferred that measurement to each footboard piece.

I used a speed square when attaching the seat supports. Attach the seat support to the corner post of each footboard. Once again, make sure the holes in the seat support are to the inside and facing up. Also make sure that the kreg jig holes in the side pieces are facing the inside of the bench.

Notice the seat support is between the corner posts and that the holes in the sides are on the inside.

Now it’s time to attach the side piece assembly to the headboard. I found this part a bit tricky to get everything square, but with a little help I got it done.

I placed it on its back to drive the kreg screws.

And then I placed it upright on the barn floor to see how it sits. My barn floor is not level by any means though.

Is it completely square with no wobble? Not exactly, but close enough.

To make the seat slats, I first determined how many pieces I would need based on the wood I had on hand. I had some 1x material that measured 5 1/2′ high. I measured between corner posts and divided that measurement by 5 1/2″. That gave me 6 slats with a little space between them.

I dry fitted the slats to be sure I liked the look, but I did not attach them yet.

Then I filled more holes and gaps with wood putty and sanded everything smooth.

I used wood plugs made for kreg jig holes to hide the holes in the sides where they join the headboard.

Now time to paint and stain our bench. I used 2 coats of Sherman Willliams Clary Sage to paint the bench.

I used Minwax Walnut stain for the seat slats.

For more protection, everything got a couple coats of Minwax polycrylic.

Once dry for a good little while, I attached the seat slats with kreg screws, carefully spacing them across the seat supports.

And now my DIY farmhouse headboard bench proudly sits in my entryway for all to see and admire!