Happy House and Home: August 2013

If you have a staple gun, some fabric and foam, upholstering a stool or chair seat is a pretty easy fix. This "tutorial" is not something I'd suggest you do with anything you value. These stools are being covered purely to buy me a little more time until I find replacements.

From This: To This:

upholster a stool, DIY upholster, stool DIY

If you want to try your hand at making a stool a little more comfy, I suggest you start with a fairly sturdy stool or chair. I, on the other hand, have two very old, very rickety stools. We only use them for extra seating around the kitchen island. But I want them to look a little prettier.

Quite frankly, my stools so beat, one might say it's a waste of time doing anything to them. I have to use that little hex key thingy every time we use them to tighten up the legs. If I don't tighten the legs, they're so wobbly, it's like doing core-exercises trying to balance on them... BUT, until I can find something fun but inexpensive to replace them, I decided to at least make them look a bit better.

Am I really so cheap and desperate? Yes. I am.

I set off to Walmart to find foam for the seats. I found this foam mattress pad for $10. I was pretty happy that I'd only need a couple of feet of the foam and have lots left over for any other projects I think of in the near future.

(Oh, yeah, it's sentences like that that make Big A break into a sweat. Is it just my husband, or does your significant other get nervous when you dream up ideas for a project? Geesh, it's not as if I ever cut up one of his favorite shirts and used it for a pillow cover!)

Anyway, I then remembered this fabric that I bought ages ago, which has been sitting in the cupboard for quite some time. I decided to use it to cover the seats. I gathered all of my supplies, and it was at this point that I thought "Hmm, this is a little like making a silk purse of a sows ear..." Anyway, I continued on.

All I did to cover the stools was cut the padding the size of the stool seat - two pieces for each stool. I then stacked it all together. (Of course I left a few inches of fabric so that I could staple it easily to the underside of the stool seat.)

I didn't take the legs off of the seat, because, honestly, I wasn't sure if the whole stool would fall apart if I did that. Plus, I'm lazy. I just used the staple gun to staple the fabric directly to the underside of the seat, legs still attached. I started in the middle as below.

And then I stapled all the way around. (The trick is to pull the fabric taught, but not too taught. If it's too tight it will make the foam look lumpy.)

I put staples about and inch apart. You may as well go staple-crazy, because you don't want the fabric to pull when you sit on the seat.

When it comes to the corners of the seat, just fold the fabric like you are wrapping the end of a present, and staple. This is a little tricky, but you'll get it.

Now the stool was covered but the excess fabric was hanging down. You could cut the excess fabric, using a utility knife. However, my creative (read: lazy) way to cover up the excess fabric was to glue gun fabric ribbon around the bottom of the seat.

So, here's the finished stool. I think they look better, even if they're still falling apart. I can live with that. Unless there's a lawsuit.

Now I have two very rickety, old, unsafe, but cushioned stools! If you ever stop by, you might want to sit on the sofa.

PS: Doesn't that picture of the underside of the stool feel wrong, like looking up a skirt? Or is it just me?

PS2: Here is a REAL website:

Seasoned Chair and Stool Accident Lawyer

Jeffrey S. Pop & Associates is a chair and stool accident firm of over 30 year's experience. The firm has a reputation for earning big verdicts and settlements in personal injury actions, most for over one million dollars. (WOW! A million dollars! Now I'm just hoping I fall off a stool or chair! Not only will I be rich, I'll get to say

"You'll be hearing from my Chair and Stool Lawyer" in a threatening tone.)

What about you? Do you hang on to furniture that really should be in a landfill?

LINK PARTIES for each day of the week. I can't say I make it to every one of these, but I'd like to!

If you have a link party I haven't listed, please email me or comment below!

SUNDAY

That DIY Party at DIY Showoff
It's Party Time at Three Mango Seeds
The Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming