DIY Therapy Bench

Thu, Jun 11, 2020

We needed a therapy bench as we do a lot of floor work with Evelina and we needed something sturdy to use for high kneeling and supported playing but I was reluctant to spend £250+ on a therapy bench, so made my own.

I’ve been whinging about our lack of therapy bench for a while on instagram. You’ll be pleased to know I’ve finally sorted it!

Therapy benches are over £250 (whaaaat!). Don’t get me started on the postcode lottery of funding but long story short is that our team doesn’t provide them. I don’t know about you but we’ve got better things to spend £250 on! So I made one, at a fraction of the price and it’s working very well for us so far.

Shut up and tell me how you made it…

(All sizes and links at the bottom of this post)

I bought an extendable kids bench from IKEA, cut and glued foam onto the bench. I already had this foam which is why I cut it down but you can actually just buy pre-cut foam for very cheap. (All sizes and links at the bottom of this post)

I covered it in faux leather/ vinyl (the stuff that covers soft play). I chose red for Evelina’s vision impairment as it’s a lovely postbox red and I thought that would be a good contrast for her. I stapled it all the way round and then stuck it on the legs.

For Evelina’s height, we cut the legs down to 15cm, sanded the feet down and glued on some dycem to the feet to stop it from slipping.

The extendable part is extra legs that screw in, so we cut down those pieces too and drilled a new hole so the bench can go up to 20cm and then 25cm (when we’ve drilled another hole in the extendable leg). These are the best height for Evelina (the small size for side sitting and propping and the taller size for high kneeling).

Please note how I’ve taken the best angles and if you see the wonky looking (but very sturdy and level) leg on stories in the future I kindly ask that you refrain from pointing it out for fear of me losing my shit/ bursting into tears. Fanks pals.

Please let me know if you make this, I love seeing when people share this. I’m @dear_evelina on instagram.