Furniture Flip: Drab To Fab Furry Stool Makeover

Who doesn’t love a good furniture flip?  This super cute furry stool is a quick and easy DIY project which is suitable for both new fledgling furniture upcyclers and old-time-poor furniture-flipping addicts like me.

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This is yet another of my famous junk shop finds and it set me back a whole €5.

I didn’t have to think twice about this one.  The price was right, it was a good quality piece, I liked the shape and it was nice and sturdy.  A perfect furniture flip find!

At first, I thought that it would be a great addition to my bedroom but after finding a super sweet little dressing table that I am planning to revamp for my daughter’s freshly decorated bedroom, I saw that they would look great together.

(I’m just working on the finishing touches and sorting out new furniture for it but I will post the finished photos when everything is complete.  I’ll give you a clue though; we’re running with a very sweet sprinkles & candy theme.)

Furniture Flip Furry Stool Makeover

As I said before this was a very quick and easy furniture flip project.

I bought the turquoise blue fluffy material a while back at a local sewing exhibition, the Stoffenspektakel, which takes place twice a year in Zwolle.  They were selling it off at a rock-bottom price so I grabbed a few meters with the idea of making some cushions with it.

Sanding Old Paint Back To Bare Wood

Initially, I was planning to just give the legs a light sanding and paint them with either chalk paint or spray paint.

But once I started sanding the thick chipped paint, I saw that the wood underneath looked quite nice.  It did take me a few hours extra to sand them down but I think the end result was well worth it.

The legs of the stool unscrewed from the stool top making it easy to sand them.

Tip:  I just used a 180-grade piece of sandpaper and a sanding block (I started doing it just with the sandpaper in my hand but then found that it went sooo much faster using the sanding block).

I took it more or less back to the bare wood but consciously left a very small amount of the white paint in the grain.  I was really happy with the end effect.

Re-covering The Stool

The stool top was actually quite hard and because the material I was using was pretty thin I decided to add a little padding.  I didn’t want it to be too thick because of the shape of the stool, so I decided to use a little batting.

I was struggling to find it here in the Netherlands (I don’t know what it’s called here) but I managed to find a cooker hood filter at a local discount store (Action) and it was perfect for the job.

I cut two pieces of the foam to the exact length of the stool but allowed an extra 10cm on each side to wrap around the stool top.

I laid the stool top on top of the furry blue material and cut a piece out allowing 10cm extra to attach to the underside of the stool.

Using A Staple Gun To Upholster Furniture

Using a heavy-duty staple gun, I stapled the material securely to the underside

Tip; To ensure a neat finish, make sure the stool top is exactly in the centre of your material and put one staple in the middle then on the long edge, pull tight, and put another on the opposite side.

Carry on and secure the rest of the long side edges then make triangles (as though you are wrapping a parcel) on the two ends and staple them in place

Tip; The wood on the underside of the stool was quite hard, which meant that the staples didn’t always go in as far as I wanted.

At first, I was struggling to pull them out so I could re-staple it but then I found that just banging them in with the handle of my dressmaker’s scissors did the job.

My daughter absolutely loves it, she says it’s the most beautiful furry stool she has ever seen (I think that I may have sheltered her a little too much – but hey, it’s nice that she appreciates my handy work 🙂 )

Now that is the easy bit done!  Next up – the vanity table!

And maybe……. I am still thinking about this one…… I might try and attempt to make a slipcover for an old Ikea sofa bed…..hmmm I’m not sure though – we’ll see!

I’d love to hear what projects you are up to, so do leave a comment, or tag me if you have shared them on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest).

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