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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Foot stool re-do.

During the weeks before Christmas, Brian was working hard building shelves in the basement to organize our storage area.  While sorting through all of our stuff, it became painfully obvious that my "project" shelf was going to be, um. large.  So in an effort to clear it a bit, I grabbed this sweet little thing from the shelf.  


I snatched it up for $4.00 one day and bolted out of the store before anyone else could grab it.  I mean, $4??  A steal!  


The base was in really great condition, other than a few scratches on the metal.  I decided to just give the cushion a makeover for now.  I mean, I know that floral is pretty, but it wasn't screamin' my name.



My first thought was a faux sheepskin throw, but it wasn't quite wide enough to cover the whole cushion.  Instead, I grabbed some gray arrow fabric from my stash.  My Mom would say that I should iron it first, but ... I hate ironing.  So I just measured the fabric and rolled with it.  


First step, lay out your fabric, place the cushion on top, and be sure that you you have enough fabric to cover each side of the cushion.  

At this point, you could remove the old fabric and such, but I was going for a quick project, so I left the flowers live and just covered them up.  

So, now begins the stapling!  This project is really very, very basic.  Two things to remember: #1 Always staple into the wood edges of the cushion (too far into the center and the staples won't stick!) and #2 - Pull taught, but not too tight.  


Now, let's get stapling.  First things first, staple one side of the fabric with one single staple in the center of that side.


Then, pulling the fabric taught, put one staple into the middle of the opposite side.


Same deal for the other 2 sides.  Once all 4 sides have at least one staple in them, start the stapling process down one side, then continue to the opposite side, followed by each of the other sides.  Stop the staples about 2 inches from each end.  Don't forget to keep the fabric pulled taught the entire time!
 

Now it's time to tackle the corners.  Pull the corner piece toward you.  


Then, pull it straight up toward the center, and plant a staple into the corner.  


Next, pull one side to the side to make a nice, straight line of fabric on the corner.  Plant another staple to secure the fabric.


Last, pull the other side taught to make a pretty corner and plant another few staples in there to make them secure.


Repeat til you have 4 nice, pretty corners.  


It'll look pretty frumpy at this point, so trim the excess fabric to make her look nice and slim.


See?  Isn't she pretty?  Then I popped her back in the frame.  And BOOM - pretty little ottoman.


The whole process took 10 minutes at the very most.  And for such a cute little foot stool!


 I still love to throw a little faux fur over it, so I might explore that option some day.  But for now, I think she's really cute, fur or no fur!





2 comments:

  1. Hi I am visiting via the Remodelaholic blog. Love your clever craftiness. I wish there had been a link on that blog to your bathroom sink makeover as I wanted to know the timeline for when you did this. I have been really researching the painted sink option as I have two thirty year old sinks that are huge contenders for a makeover. Overall though I keep seeing reviews that at the 6 month mark the painted sinks start peeling, and by a year down the road they are a complete mess. This project does require a bit of laborious time and the kit itself while not expensive, is not cheap either. So, I am still wondering if I should pull the trigger and spend the $40 for painting or go ahead and just pay $97 for a new sink. ????

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    Replies
    1. Hi there! So sorry for the delay! My comment notifications seem to be wonky :/ Anyway, I *think* I may have answered your question over on the Remodelaholic page, but if not, here goes.... I think that since you're looking to replace really old sinks, I would just bite the bullet and buy the new sinks. Ours have been finished for about 5 months now, and they still look awesome, but we did this knowing that we'll probably do a bigger remodel in a few years. This was just a relatively easy project to help us love it while we live with it for a few more years :) Hope that helps!

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