You would think I would know better than to write about a project immediately after a very frustrating finish… but here we go! :)
Today, I was in search of a nice used dresser to re-purpose. However, after a morning of driving from thrift store to thrift store, our search was unsuccessful. I was amazed by the prices these places wanted for used furniture! We visited one place that wanted $125 for a 20 year old dresser with 4 missing drawers! I wonder if everyone has been snatching these up since the “old-furniture makeover fad” started plowing through the internet? Anyways, the last store we visited had 2 of these great bar stools to use for the cocktail high-top portion of my new kitchen island.
One of the stools… They both look the same. :-)
We carried these to the front of the store to pay, only to find that the people in front of us had planned to buy them but went to the front to do it instead of carrying them up like we did. Luckily, the store manager sided with us, stating that whoever had the ticket portion of the price tag would be the owner of the stools. Although I felt bad, I was thrilled about these really great stools, as they would match the mixture of copper and oil-rubbed bronze that I had as accents throughout my kitchen (Faucet, Cabinet Hardware, Copper Back-splash etc…).
Once I got them into the kitchen area, I realized that these were much bigger than I had originally thought. I would certainly consider this an impulsive purchase since I ventured out originally to find a used dresser. Therefore, this is an important lesson for me… have measurements, even before impulse purchases!
The other thing that I didn’t like about the stools was the seat fabric. It looked a bit dirty, and didn’t really go with the theme of the space. I studied the pieces and found that the seat cushions were easily removed with 5 screws on the bottom side. I immediately started digging through closets looking for a fabric suitable to reupholster the seats. The third closet that I looked in had some nice pillow shams that I thought I would try. It turns out, the subtle stripes of green, blue and tan matched very well with the color scheme of the space. As a test, I simply wrapped the fabric around the cushion to see what it would look like… (note: table in the background is still an in-progress project; so don’t judge the lack of grout hehe)
Pillow Sham
After committing, I began splitting the thread between the portion of fabric I was going to use and the back portion of the pillow sham. Not having a clue how re-upholstery is done by professionals, I took my light-duty stapler (my favorite friend!), scissors, a mini-hammer and started attaching the fabric to the back of the seat cushion.
These are the materials used to fix the fabric to the back of the cushion.
I finished the first cushion, only to find that my geniousness had attached the fabric with the wrong side up! UHG!!! I had to start from square-one once I removed the staples from the first try. I suppose this was good, since it allowed me to learn a little more about how I could manipulate the fabric to fit around the cushion and to understand more about how it needed to be attached. For example, I found that it was important to staple in such a way that each staple was perpendicular to the pull of the fabric (pull must be tight!). Notice below, how each staple is positioned so it held against the tension of the fabric.
Staples were placed against the pull of the fabric.
I ended up being very satisfied with the end result of the reupholstering. I think they really updated the look of these bar stools and they look great in the space!
Recycled bar stools reupholstered with repurposed pillow shams.
Now, I mentioned toward the beginning of this posting that I was frustrated… YES!
After reupholstering, I found that I had a little bit of fabric left over from each of the pillow shams. This was such nice fabric, I thought it would be a waste to just toss it. So I decided to make little pillows for the bar stools. So I busted out the sewing machine, which is rarely used, and started cutting and pinning. I planned to use an old guestroom pillow to provide the batting for the inside of the mini stool pillows.
However, as I began sewing, my bobbin kept getting tangled down below the work area. After the upholstery took me under an hour, I literally worked for 3 hours on these dumb little pillows, which I’m not even sure I like!
We will see if they grow on me… but, overall I’m happy with the final look of the stools (with or without mini pillows).
See the photo below the poll… Let me know what you think!
Finished Stools with Mini-pillows
Final Product
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