This is another post John wanted me to call “Stool Boom” (he has his reasons). A while back I redid a stool that mysteriously arrived in the mail. I’ll explain that in a minute, but first here’s how the makeover went.
The original was an old, beat-up periwinkle blue stool with rusty nails, holes, and a rotting wooden top. The before shot wasn’t great, but picture a sad little stool that needed some love.
The first step was to remove all the old nails using the back of a hammer. Once it was stripped of the worst of its hardware, I primed the surface and painted it a rich navy. I used a $3 test pot of Benjamin Moore Santa Monica Blue. Photos made the color look brighter than it really is—the finished piece reads as a deep navy in real life.
After two coats of paint dried, I gathered some extra loft batting I already had and a scrap of fabric from my stash. This was a cheap, quick reupholster—partly because I’m thrifty and partly because the stool didn’t belong to me. Up to this point I’d spent just $3 on paint.
To finish the upholstery I bought two small boxes of decorative nail heads from JoAnn for $1.79 each. I used them to secure the batting and fabric around the stool’s top. I cut the batting and fabric about two inches wider than the stool top on every side, pulled the excess down, folded it under neatly, and tacked it into place with the nail heads.
I spaced the decorative nails about two inches apart and used a 2-inch piece of cardboard as a spacer to keep the gaps consistent. After tapping the nails around all four sides—about thirty taps per side—the upholstery was secure and the stool had a fresh, polished look.
The total cost for this little DIY reupholstery and paint job was $6.58. The result is a compact, stylish stool with a navy painted base and a fabric-upholstered top trimmed with decorative nail heads. It looks richer in person than in some of the photos, where lighting made the blue read brighter.
Here’s a side shot that better shows the finished silhouette (the photo I should have taken as the “before” to document the contrast):
After finishing it up, I got a little sentimental—hugged it, kissed it, then sent it off. It’s odd to get attached to a stool, but DIY projects do that to you.
The stool was actually a submission for Do It Yourself magazine. We have a Q&A column called “He Said, She Said,” but for this winter issue the magazine ran a feature on bloggers who received surprise items in the mail to makeover. A group of bloggers were included, each transforming a mystery piece into something new.
It was fun to see the variety of makeovers. For their feature they styled my stool with yarn, which was a clever choice even though I don’t have any yarn at home. The magazine’s styling made the small stool look right at home among craft supplies.
You might recognize the fabric I used—it’s the same print we used in Clara’s weekly photo series. It has a watery pattern that looks great in photos and was perfect for this small upholstered top. There was still plenty of fabric left after making her quilt and a birthday banner, so using it on the stool felt like a natural extension of other projects.
Have you been painting or reupholstering anything lately? Small furniture makeovers are one of the most satisfying DIY tasks: they’re inexpensive, fast, and you end up with an updated piece that feels custom. Whether it’s a stool, side table, or chair, simple paint-and-fabric updates can bring old furniture back to life.
P.S. We might be biased, but we think the video of Clara singing a medley of songs is the cutest thing ever—she really loves to sing!