As is typical with my projects, it started on a normal Saturday morning.  I was out yard sale shopping, and on my way to my target area, I stumbled into some interesting yard sales. At the one stop, some items had prices and some didn’t.  The items that were priced seemed reasonable.  So, when I spotted this stool, I had to ask how much??

The lady said, well how much do you want to pay?  I said, you shouldn’t ask me that question, because I like to start at zero. 🙂  She laughed and agreed she was cheap too…my kind of lady!  And, she quickly followed it up with, how about $1?  Of course, I said yes to that.  I knew this fabric stool had great potential.  I didn’t waste time when I got it home and took it apart.  I knew it only needed the 6 screws removed and the seat would come right off the base.

Once separated, I got to work painting the wooden base with a chalk-based paint. Two coats of paint and it was ready for the next steps.

I wanted to distress the edges to reveal the dark wood.  So, I lightly sanded with fine grit sand paper to smooth it all out and then used a bit more elbow grease on the edges and some select spots for the distressed look.

Meanwhile, I also worked on updating the fabric seat too.  I had just received some beautiful fabric from Minted, (yes, I got it for free and no they didn’t pay me to write about it)  and I was anxious to use it in a new project.  I decided that Leafy Berries in Warm Grey would be the best for this project.  This fabric is amazing.  It is beautiful and I loved the quality too.

I used my trusty pliers and flat screwdriver to remove all the old staples to get the old fabric off the seat.  Then, I used the old fabric as my template to cut out the new fabric.

After that, it was just like reupholstering a chair, like I have done many times in many different styles:  here, here and here.

But, here is also a quick 4-step preview of how I did it for this stool.

1 – Lay seat on underside of fabric

2 – Staple one side of the fabric

3 – Staple opposite side of fabric

4 – Staple other 2 sides and then staple corners

After it was all stapled, I trimmed away the excess fabric and then reattached the seat to the base of the stool.  In the past, I always used regular screwdrivers, but this summer I got this handy electric one when we were trying to take shutters off my mother-in-law’s beach house and needed some power behind it, so we picked up this handy little guy and I just love it.  I don’t know why I tried to be all tough and use the manual screwdrivers before.  Work smarter, not harder, right?!

Then, it was just time to flip over the stool and take the pretty after pictures.  You can see some of the extra distressed spots in this view too.

I think she turned out quite pretty and the leafy berries are just perfect.

What do you think of the transformation?  Have you made over any good yard sale finds lately?