Reupholstering A Footstool

Over the years, the fabric on our footstool has gotten thinner and thinner.  This fall it wore through and the hole is ever expanding.  Not a pretty sight but it is expensive to get furniture reupholstered, we have already had this one done once, so we opted for the next best thing and that was to redo the stool ourselves.

The first step was to take the top off, remove the backing and take off the old fabric.  There were over 90 well secured staples in here, hence it was the hardest part of the project needing Dad's brute strength to free them.

We got a remnant at the fabric store for $3.53 and used half making the cost of the fabric for this project just $1.77.  Our chair was professionally done over 10 years ago so matching the fabric wasn't an option anymore.  Spark was the one who found the fabric and I must say, I like it better than the fabric that was on there, although now it doesn't match the chair but, oh well.

Lay the old piece out on top of the new and cut around it leaving plenty of extra fabric.  We could see from the old piece that they must cut a piece of fabric, upholster the stool and then cut off the excess as it was uneven.  Makes sense in the long run, no chance that you cut the fabric too small.

This is the point where you put on your safety goggles.

Using the staple gun, while I held the fabric tight, Dancer put in a line of staples in the middle of each side.

For the corners we folded the corner straight in, then one side over and the other.  Before putting in any staples here we would turn it over to make sure it was creaseless on the sides.  Load up the back with staples every few centimeters.  Dancer put in about 120 staples which Dad figured was about 48 cents worth.  When it comes time to redo the stool again we reconsider if that many staples were necessary or not.

Staple the backing back on.  This was a little fuzzy on the side that was the outside before.  We refolded it and the now front, former backside, looked brand new meaning the cost was zero.

Screw it back onto the stool and

Voila!!!  Recovered for $2.25.