April 30, 2014

Always Never Done: Cloth Napkin Covered Stool


Hi everyone! Hope you’re all having a great week. Mine is going by way too fast. This month I decided to recover a stool with a cloth napkin. Genius right! I know thank you.
This stool was so graciously given to me be a friend to do with as I wish. LOVE THAT!
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The stool itself was in fantastic condition however the fabric was old and dingy. So, the first thing I did was remove the old fabric. My number one tip for removing fabric from any piece that you plan to recover is to remove the old fabric carefully and save it as a guideline for your new fabric. That way you don’t have to do any crazy measurements. I used this tool to remove the old staples from the bottom of the stool. They just pop right out with this tool. I had two different sizes that I used just in case but the smaller of the two worked perfectly.
Napkin-Stool-Always-Never-Done 2
Napkin-Stool-Always-Never-Done 2
This is what the stool looked like after I removed the fabric and the layer of padding (which I also saved because it was in excellent condition.) You can see the padding in the background.

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I then sanded down the visible wooden parts on the edges to make them look a little more worn. I loved the stain color that was already on there so I didn’t touch it, I just roughed up the edges a bit and did a light sanding over the entire piece. Then I put two coats of wipe on poly on top. (of course I let the poly dry for the appropriate time in between)
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So why the sock in the photo above? It’s an old sock I couldn’t find a match to. You know the ones the dryer magically eats up why you aren’t looking, yeah one of those. I have a drawer full of them that I save because they are PERFECT for staining and wipe on poly. Awesome right!
After the poly was completely dry I got my cloth napkin. These napkins were on clearance at target for $2.49 (a pack of 4 and I only needed 1 for this project). That’s .62 cents for one napkin. (I had to pull out a calculator for that!)
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I took out one napkin, flipped it over so it was right side down and then laid the old fabric, right side down, on top of that. See this is where the old fabric comes in hand. You just cut around the old fabric and there you have it. No need to measure and check and re cut 10 times. The hard part is already done for you:)
Napkin-Stool-Always-Never-Done 2
Napkin-Stool-Always-Never-Done 2
After the fabric was cut, I put the saved foam back on top of the stool and then laid the new fabric on top. Now I don’t about anyone else but when I reupholster anything I use my hot glue gun first to keep the fabric in place and then I use my staple gun for the final placement. This is just  my preference and works best for me (aka keeps my sanity).
Napkin-Stool-Always-Never-Done 2
Napkin-Stool-Always-Never-Done 2

The final product! Isn’t it adorable!! Total amount for this project was $ .62. Cents that is!!
So next time you have a small project that needs a smaller amount of fabric, check out the cloth napkins. They can be really inexpensive, come in amazing designs and are already finished on the edges!!!  Doesn’t get much easier that that folks :)  
Have a good one and I will see you next month.