Foot Stool Reupholster

I got this foot stool off freecycle. It had so much potential, but just needed a little face lift.

I'll tell you how I changed it from this:

To this:

You will need:

• A flat head screw driver
• A hammer
• Needle nose pliers
• A staple gun
• About 1/2 yard-3/4 yard of upholstery fabric

First I went to Joann's and got my fabric. Don't you just love it?! :) I am obsessed with yellow and I love how the dark colors bring out the nice dark color of the wood.

Then I flipped the stool over and inspected the underneath. The plywood looked good from here and all the legs were sturdy and thankfully nothing was broken! So I banged the plywood out with a hammer.

And two stubborn nails came with it!:(

And left this mess in the beautiful wood! :(

So I got the nails out with a hammer.

And decided not to use them again, so I threw them away.

Then I set to work getting all the staples out using the flat head screw driver.

I had to use the pliers on all of them because usually only one side of the staple would come free.

Half way through I saw this. I'm pretty sure this is when I released possible asbestos spores into the house! :x

Some of the staples were rusted and REALLY hard to get out. So I wedged the screwdriver underneath the staple and the fabric using a hammer.

After taking out 50-some staples, you're left with naked plywood! ;) Unfortunately, the original pad was dry-rotted, and had to be thrown away with the old fabric.

So back to Joann's I went to get a new pad.

The pad was too big so I put my plywood on top...

And traced around it then cut the foam to fit!

Then I put the plywood on the fabric and measured in 4" all the way around, marked and cut it.

And I ironed the fabric out. (Not pictured, but you don't want to have wrinkly fabric!)

Stack the foam then plywood (in that order) onto the fabric.

I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of this part! I will try to explain it the best I can.
Starting with the long sides, fold the fabric in about 1/4"-1/2" (so the rough edge of the fabric is not showing) then fold again so the fabric is taught against the foam pad. Staple gun it a lot to secure it to the plywood.
Then fold the short ends the same way, making a nice looking fold on the corners.
(This is my first reupholstering experience, and I have no idea how to fold the corners! I just did it how I thought looked best.)
Reattach the plywood to the frame of the stool by nailing it to the little blocks of wood on the underneath.
It should look like this:

And you're done! :)

Riley gives it the seal of approval!

If I could have saved the original pad, I would have only spent about $3 on this stool, but because I had to buy a new pad the grand total was about $8!

Not bad for a super cute addition to the house.

Thanks for stopping by! :)


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