Not Too Shabby & Re-Find Living: May 2010

Magazines, Magazines, Magazines

4:49 PM

Just picked up this great vanity stool. It has a nice wooden seat that makes it perfect to recover, I'm going to use burlap, some egg crate foam, and cotton batting. This is a great first upholstery project because there is a wooden seat to wrap and cover instead of strapping.

Here, I'll show you all the steps.

You'll need egg crate, cotton batting, burlap, staple gun, screwdriver, and scissors for this project.

First, I unscrewed the seat bottom from the legs, then I cut an
egg crate cushion to fit, cotton batting slightly larger (so it wraps
around the egg crate) then a much larger piece of burlap.

Then center the seat on top of everything, with the burlap as the bottom, and I pull on corner of the burlap up and over everything, then using the staple gun, I staple it into place. Next I pull up the corner of burlap opposite the side I just did, pulling tight, and staple in place. Then turn the seat a 1/4 turn and pull up that corner, staple, and then the final corner, pull tight and staple.

Now I can flip it over and make sure that I have pulled it evenly and like how it lays, now is the time to make sure the cover lays flat, shows the design you like, and isn't crooked or unevenly pulled. It's easy to start over here, just pull out the staples and reposition, then start over.

Note: I used size 8 staples, and stapled along a 1/2-inch edge of the seat.

Now that I have verified I like how the cover lays, I will go around the cushion, pulling the burlap a uniform tightness, staple, and shift to the opposite side, doing this about 15 more times, I finish the cover.

Flip it over to give it one final review, now it's time to trim the excess burlap. Using good scissors, I like to trim the burlap within a 1/4-inch of the outside staples. This gives me a smooth finish that won't show when I re-attach the legs.

After trimming the burlap and cotton to a nice even look, I then use the original screws and re-attach the covered seat to the legs.

Now, I think I'll add a little burlap ruffle along the edge. This will help cover the staples and add a little personality to the seat.

Viola! all done in under an hour, and the stool looks fantastic. I'll bring it into the store on Thursday and we'll see how long it takes for someone to fall in love with it and take it home.

Bobbi