A New Seat on Life: Revamping Barstools

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They weren't horrible before or anything. Medium brownish wood, black pleather tops. Pretty unassuming.

They didn't know it, but they actually needed me. The truth is, they were bored.

So I gave them a new lease… or seat… on life.

(I know, a bit of a stretch with the pun there, and darn corny too. But I'm a big dork, what can I say.)

Anyway, now they're kinda fun and slightly funky and they fit in better with the dining room we've slowly been redecorating.

All it took was a couple yards of Ikea Fredrika fabric (wonderful, sturdy stuff, and only $6.99 a yard) and a couple cans of spray paint.

Here's how we did it!

Revamping Barstools

1. Flip the stool over and remove the top from the stool – it probably just screws in. And that is definitely not my hand!

   

2. After the top is off the stool, spray paint your stools. We lightly sanded ours – they were a tad glossy – then just covered them with a satin espresso paint. I guess I was so enamored that I forgot to take a photo of this step – sorry!
3. Measure the diameter of the stool top.

   

4. Find the section of fabric you'd like on the stool. I knew with this large pattern, I was going to want the same section of fabric on each, so I needed two yards of fabric to accomodate for identical sections on each stool.
5. Measure a circle of fabric that's the diameter of your stool, plus about two inches on either side. I just drew circles lightly with a pencil. You want to make sure you can wrap the fabric around the bottom of your stool and have enough left to staple. 

   

6. Make sure your trusty golden retriever is on hand to assist.
    
7. Cut out the circle of fabric.
    
8. Place the circle of fabric on some plain fabric (like muslin) that will be used on the bottom of your stool.
    
9. Cut out a circle of the bottom fabric, about the same size as the fabric you'll use on the top. Again, I used a pencil to trace the circle then cut from there.

   

10. When you're cutting out additional circles of the main fabric for the top, it's helpful to lay the first circle onto the fabric you have yet to cut out, and align the top pattern exactly with the pattern underneath.

    

11. Time to staple! Using a staple gun, start stapling the fabric around the stool. I start with one staple in each of the four sides, pulling taut with each staple.

    

12. Then, just keep stapling and pulling and folding so that the fabric looks as smooth as possible on the tops and on the sides.

     

    

13. Lay the circle of muslin or plain fabric over the bottom of the stool. Folding it under slightly as you go along, staple this fabric over the edges of the patterned fabric. Like so!

    F

14. It'll end up looking like this. I have to say, sometimes it's really hard to write instructional content. I really hope the photos tell the story, because doing this is a little hard to describe.

    

15. The great news is, you're nearly done!
     
16. Through the bottom fabric, mark where the screw holes are, then screw the top back on to the stools (make sure the paint is dry first, of course!

    

17. Now, do the obvious. Flip that sucker over and sit on it! Doesn't your butt feel pretty?! Your barstools do now, too! (Oh, you may want to add some Scotchguard at some point, too.)