SHABBY TO CHIC: DIY STOOL MAKEOVER

My grandma is pretty awesome about finding furniture pieces that have a ton of potential but need a little extra attention. I was so excited when she gave me an ugly outdated, but sturdy stool that she found for $15. We agreed with a little paint and some reupholstery (she also had some antique french country patterned fabric that she scored for $2!), it could be pretty cute and fit in nicely with my apartment.

One of the things I knew had to go immediately were these corner adornments. It made the stool even more outdated and didn't quite fit the style I was going for.

The stool was in really great condition but obviously needed new paint and new fabric that wasn't stained and old.

I immediately fell in love with the fabric my grandma gave me and was super inspired to do a piece that was retro with a modern feel. Being that the fabric was white and a dark gray, I knew I could easily play around with a pop of color that would update both the pattern and the stool itself. I settled on a canary yellow paint as I knew it would be super playful and fun!

The first thing I did was remove the corner adornments. This was really easy to do as they were just held in by finishing nails. I was able to easily pull out the pieces after leveraging them a little bit with the tool shown above called a Cat's Paw, which is really just a miniature crowbar or prybar with a handle.

Next, I had to remove the cushion from the frame. This can be done with a regular screwdriver, but my dad had a nifty electric one which has a setting for both screwing in and removing screws; it made it a million times quicker and easier!

I set the screws aside so they could be reused after everything was finished (Note: this stool only had three screws but my dad had extra of the same kind so we just used one of those to make up for the lost one).

If you are anything like me, you hate measuring. This goes for really anything (cooking included). Yeah yeah, it's probably a terrible habit but I would much rather eyeball something and fix it until I like it than do math and yada yada. I really just have a hard time with measuring, okay!

THAT SAID, the easiest way to get the fabric onto the stool is to eyeball it. Honestly, trust me. Put away rulers, tape measurers, whatever. All I did was lay the fabric over the cushion, completely spread out, and placed the pictures where I would want them on it when it's all said and done.

Then, I just took a regular pencil and eyeballed about 3 inches from the cushion and drew a line around the fabric (make sure to go a little further out in the corners). It'll probably be easiest to pin the fabric to the cushion before you start, so that nothing moves.

After that, cut all the way around where you drew the lines and maybe throw in a few extra pins so it's nice and secure.

This heavy duty stapling part is really fun. I mean seriously, if you're having a bad day, there's nothing more satisfying than squeezing a heavy duty staple into your DIY project.

This part is pretty self explanatory. Start with the long sides so that you can pull it tight and reduce the wrinkles in the fabric. Then staple away! Be conscious of the holes where your screws will have to go back in though (fabric will be fine over the hole, but a staple won't).

It gets a little trickier when you get to the short sides with the corners. Play around with it so the fabric is taut and has the least amount of funky lines on the top as possible. Imagine it as a present that you're wrapping!

I then sanded down the frame with this bad boy. It doesn't have to be major sanding, just enough so that it's lightly scuffed and the shiny paint on top isn't super visible anymore. Don't worry about being SUPER thorough as primer can make up for whatever you missed.

For these kinds of projects, spray paint is always the way to go. It's way easier than having to sit there tediously painting in every spot. Grab a primer paint and your choice of color and you're good to go!

I didn't take pictures of the priming but make sure to be in a well ventilated area (outside is probably best) and cover the frame with primer!

After the primer dried completely, I was able to go over it with the yellow color that I had picked out. You may want to do a couple coats, but this was just one coat and it turned out nicely.

Once your paint dries, this is the part where the whole project comes together! Put the screws back in and admire the finished product!

I'm super happy with how my stool turned out. It cost about $25 to make this, including the stool itself, the fabric, and the primer and paint. Luckily, I had all the other tools I needed at my disposal so that wasn't a part of my cost. If I found something like this in the store, it'd probably cost anywhere from $50-$100, so I'm ecstatic about this DIY!

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions about the process or materials xx

#diy #apartment #lifestyle #home #karina