A Foot Stool Do-Over

I am in the middle of redecorating my master bedroom-yet again- but this time this redecorating does not involve painting.  Hard to believe I know.  I have decided it is time to update my bedding and some wall hangings and see if that satisfies my need for change.  This will definitely be a change done in segments and as the change unfolds, I will update the progress. 

My first re-do, the foot stool that is positioned at the end of my bed.  It is made of a faux leather, and in it's day was quite nice.  After years of my husband and eye "plopping" down on it, a few of the buttons and stitching have come undone, leaving it looking very worn and well used.

So I started with taking off all of the hardware. 

And carefully removed the leather material from the bench trying very carefully to keep the

foam underneath in tact.

Here's what it looks like without the covering.  I was debating about putting a thin piece of foam over the top so the creases from the previous tufting wouldn't show, but after letting it sit for a couple of days, the creases popped up and created a nice flat top.

I found a fantastic website that has the cutest,  most colorful fabric at such fantastic prices.  Since I couldn't find what I wanted in local fabric stores, I turned to this website and found exactly what I wanted.

Check it out fabric.com

I gathered my air compressor and my air stapler (LOVE THE AIR TOOLS) and started recovering.

Reupholstering is not as daunting a task as some may think.  Especially a bench like this that is pretty square and is much like wrapping a present.  And since I wasn't going to do tufting on the top again, it was pretty straight forward.

I started with the lid.  With a nice ironed fabric, I wrapped it around the top and tightly stapled it to the underboard on all 4 sides.

When I turned it over, this was the result.

Now, the bottom.  I cut 4 strips of fabric that were long enough to cover the various sides of the bench.  And then, simply began stapling.

Here's a view of the corners on the underside of the bench.  To me, reupholstering is nothing more than trial and error.  And who cares if the unseen side isn't pretty.....remember, it's unseen.

Now that that is done, I redirected my focus to the lid again.  Since the underpart of that is seen when the lid is up, I wanted it to look nice and finished.  I used a matching yellow fabric and lined the underside to hide my stapling mess.  I attached one side with staples, the rest was done with heat and bond and hot glue. 

And here is the end result.  I think it turned out FABULOUS!!!

I am going to use the remaining fabric to make a few pillows.  But that tutorial will have to be for another day.