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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

How To Upholster a Stool Seat

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.

upholstering a stool, upholstered stool

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

 
Sunny Simple Sundays Party at Sunny Simple Life
Sundae Scoop at I Heart Naptime
Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes
Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things
Restyled Sundays at Stylish Once Again
Silver Pennies Sundays at Silver Pennies
Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop at A Blossoming Life

 
 
MONDAY

Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick (first Monday of the month)
 
TUESDAY
 
WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY
 
FRIDAY
 
 
SATURDAY
 

Monday, August 26, 2013

DIY Stencil Canvas with Twinkle Lights




Just a quick update to the twinkle light canvas... I loved the twinkle light canvas that I made for my own kitchen, (HERE) and so did my kids and my sister, who all insisted I make twinkle light canvases for them. So I ran back to AC Moore with my 40% off coupon to pick up a few more large canvases. Time to mass produce twinkle light canvases!
 
(Could I say "twinkle light canvas" again? I could, but I wont. Even I'm bored with saying it.)

Twinkle Light Canvas, Twinkle Lights, Stencil, DIY Art
 
In case you missed the first one, I had to show you the second one I finished - it came out really cute too. I made this one for my sister, who loves watching the birds.
 (That makes her sound like a little old lady, sitting in a rocking chair with a blanket over her lap and a tissue tucked in her sleeve! Hahahaha!)
 
ANYWAY, I found a little chickadee stencil and mixed it in with the little flowers.


 
They didn't have any eyeballs, so I just used a toothpick to add them. 

 
And this time, I ran the twinkle lights back and forth and tucked them under the wood frame in the back. That way, you can slightly adjust the lights if you're OCD like me.
 
Twinkle Light Canvas, Twinkle Lights, Stencil, DIY Art

 
Cute, eh? And, just so you know, I'm never saying T-L-C again.

What are you guys up to today? 
 
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

 
Sunny Simple Sundays Party at Sunny Simple Life
Sundae Scoop at I Heart Naptime
Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes
Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things
Restyled Sundays at Stylish Once Again
Silver Pennies Sundays at Silver Pennies
Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop at A Blossoming Life

 
 
MONDAY

Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick (first Monday of the month)
 
TUESDAY
 
WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY
 
FRIDAY
 
 
SATURDAY
 

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Twinkle Light Canvas

Hello there! I've been working all week on a couple of large-ish projects, so yesterday, I had a few spare minutes, and a spare canvas. I decided to take a break, and stenciled some flowers in gold and black on the canvas. It looked cute, but then I thought about trying to light it up. I took a string of LED twinkle lights and stapled them to the back. Voila! A cute little twinkle light canvas, which doubles as a nightlight.

DIY, Twinkle Lights, DIY Canvas, Twinkle Light Canvas
 
So, it's pretty early in the morning as I write this. I admit, I'm not quite in the game yet because last night I had a hot date! With Toby. Big A didn't mind so much.
 
(Probably because it was with 20,000 other people.)
 
Alright, so Toby wasn't technically my date.
My date was with Big A, my parents, my sister and her hubs...
But still... a girl can dream.
This morning I need a lot of this:


Focus Jules.
 
I've mentioned before, I have a licensed electrician as a husband. And that means A LOT of outlets and switches all over the place. Hey, they're super convenient, I'll give Big A that. But they're equally as ugly. So I'm constantly trying to decorate around them and cover them up.
 


This Twinkle Light Canvas is perfect for hiding a few of those outlets!
 


(Big A wants me to remind you to use LED twinkle lights,
because they don't get hot and cause fires. Yeah, he's bossy smart!)
 
Tell me, what do you do to cover up the necessary outlets that are in your sight? Do you have any good ideas for hiding them? I would love to hear your ideas... Links welcome!
 

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

 
Sunny Simple Sundays Party at Sunny Simple Life
Sundae Scoop at I Heart Naptime
Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes
Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things
Restyled Sundays at Stylish Once Again
Silver Pennies Sundays at Silver Pennies
Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop at A Blossoming Life

 
 
MONDAY

Before and After at Thrifty Decor Chick (first Monday of the month)
 
TUESDAY
 
WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY
 
FRIDAY
 
 
SATURDAY