Refinishing an Old Footstool: Drab to Coastal Chic

For the past 10 years I’ve been decorating the inside and outside of my home in a Coastal and Beach Design. Some people would even call my decorating style as a little bit of Shabby Chic and Cottage Chic, mixed together. I admit, I love anything and everything that has to do with the ocean and the beach!

Even though we only live 3 1/2 hours from the Atlantic Coast, it can be difficult to find the type’s of home decor items and furniture that I need. In our particular area…country and Amish decor is popular and that certainly isn’t the look that I’m going for.

Back in the 1980’s my one great aunt passed away. From her estate I grabbed this old wooden footstool with wooden legs and a braided wool top. It didn’t fit within my decor, so I’ve been storing it in my attic…until now. I finally had the time to give that old footstool a new makeover!

I headed out to my local craft store and picked up a 1/2 yard of fabric, a package of cotton quilt batting, a can of white spray paint and got busy! My husband had a staple gun, staples and sandpaper that we used too.

We removed the legs from the footstool which were attached by screws and metal plates. It took us about 3 minutes to get all four legs off of the base. We then lightly sanded them with fine sandpaper to remove some of the old varnish, nicks and scratches. I was going to paint them by hand using a paint brush, but decided to just hit the legs with 2 coats of white spray paint which worked out really well. Plus, it saved me a lot of time.

While the legs were drying we tore off the old braided wool top (reminded me of an old braided wool rug) and the padding from the top of the stool. I then wiped the top down with a disinfecting cloth and left it dry. From my cotton batting I cut an oval shape to fit the top of the stool and glued it lightly in place with wood glue. I didn’t use much glue, just enough to tack it down & to keep it from sliding around. The cotton batting that I used was about 1 1/2″ thick.

When re-covering a piece of furniture you always want to make sure you iron-out any wrinkles or creases in your fabric before proceeding. I placed the fabric down onto my work table and the top of the stool on top. I then used a pencil and traced around it. When cutting the fabric you want to cut your fabric about 5″ larger than what you really need.

I then used my husband’s staple gun to tack the fabric down on the top. You’ll have to make small pleats and folds around the corners as you go along and tack them down with the staples. I believe my staples are about 3″ apart as you go around. I wanted the fabric to fit pretty tightly with no puckering.

We tossed away the old metal screws and replaced them with new ones. We attached the legs back onto the bottom of the footstool using a screw driver. Make sure the legs are nice & tight. You don’t want wobbly legs on it at all. If they’re wobbly, you may need to drill new holes to get a tight fit.

There you have it! I had my new footstool completely refinished in just one afternoon. You can see the BEFORE and AFTER photos within my post. The stool would of been the perfect accessory as-is in a country home, but didn’t work well with my coastal style, until now. I love the new look!

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