Footstool Revamped

Here's the old footstool revamped.

This is how it looked before

I've had this footstool for many years and when we moved into our present house (about 11 years ago) I put it under my craft desk pushed to the back and that's where it stayed - until now!

Here's what I did to transform it

Took the top and legs off and carefully ripped off the fabric.

I kept the old foam cushioning on.

I removed the covered buttons from the lid.

I used the old fabric as templates - much easier than measuring everything!

I covered some buttons with the black material and laid them out onto the fabric for the lid.

Using my trusty old staple gun, I attached the fabric around the bottom.  I love this fabric, but unfortunately didn't have enough of it to do the lid too.

The fabric is called Dress Forms by Michael Miller.

To cover the inside of the lid, I used the same fabric as for the top, it is a cream coloured brocade I've had in my material stash for ages.   As the 'Dress Form' fabric is black and white, I wasn't sure if using a cream coloured top was a good idea, but I think it works fine.  Ideally, I should attach some trim to cover the staples up - but that's for another day.

Apart from finding the corners difficult to re-cover - getting an acceptable mitred look wasn't easy, the only other thing I had trouble with was attaching the buttons to the top.  I decided to use the thread from the original buttons, but it wasn't long enough so I couldn't pull the thread through to the inside of the lid - doh!!  This means that the buttons are not as tight or as cushioned as they should be.  However, as I'm not a professional upholsterer, nor will I ever be, I think I did pretty well!

I didn't have to do anything to the legs (apart from dusting them!) as they were already black.

I've gone a bit mannequin mad lately as I bought a wire mannequin standing approx three foot high and two smaller ones which can be wall mounted.  One day soon I hope to make over the sewing area of my craft room and then all of these mannequins and the footstool can be nicely displayed -  if only I could get Kirsty Allsop in to give me a helping hand!

Thanks for looking x