Sad lonely wooden stools are easy to come by in sheds, op shops and on the side of the road. Just waiting for you to turn them into functional works of art! This would totally work for other wooden items. Think dresser drawer fronts, kitchen chairs, occasional tables, shelves, TV stands or even a headboard. Go nuts! Obviously, the size project will dictate how much of everything you need and depending on the furniture, you may need some more in depth prep if you are painting parts of it.
We may happen to have enormous fabric stashes (there is no such thing as too much fabric!) but if you don’t – think old garments, bed sheets, table linens etc. Any cotton-y type of fabric will work like a dream. Raid your wardrobe, rummage through the linen closet or hit the op shops for all sorts of recyclable goodies. When you are picking fabrics, keep in mind that lighter/sheerer fabrics will show a little of the base underneath and when overlapped. Same thing with the size of the print, bigger patterns will be less obvious when things get chopped up. We think a riot of colours and patterns works best, in terms of balance, even if you are working a colour theme. We decided on orange as a major theme, so had several orangey red toned fabrics.
You’ll need:
Wooden stool
Fine grit sandpaper
Fabric scraps
PVA glue & foam brush
Spray polyurethane sealant
Black acrylic craft paint
- Perfect Prep
Wash the stool with warm, soapy water to remove any grunge and grime and let it dry fully. Give the whole stool a light sand and wipe over with a damp cloth to remove any dust. Cut up the fabric into strips, squares, rectangles – whatever shape and size you think will look good. We made ours about 3cm x 7cm but didn’t measure it at all. Be sure to cut off any threads, raggy bits and anything that won’t look nice in the finished product. Threads will happen as you work later, so better to start clean now.
- Paint it Pretty
We like to put down a plastic party table cloth and don some dishwashing gloves before painting and find clean, old take away or yoghurt containers make great paint pots. If you are not worried about your manicure, bare hands are fine for painting and glueing, both will wash off. For our version, we painted the legs and underside of the stool with craft paint and a foam brush. We allowed it to dry fully, it only minutes on the dry, hot day we had. We painted a second coat and let that dry. While we waited, we washed out the foam brush with plain water and let that dry too. Then it’s all ready for the next step.
- Getting to grips with glue
You’ll need a vessel to hold your glue mix and if you have a larger project (or hot weather as we did) you’ll want to keep it covered up when it’s not being used. Again, a clean and securely lidded take away, butter, yoghurt or ice cream container will work well. And that plastic party table cloth and gloves are handy, coz this is really rather messy. We covered our freshly painted stool legs with a plastic garbage bag, secured by its drawstring, to protect it from the glueing. Mix up PVA & water in equal quantities (we used about ½ cup of each) and stir really well. Throw a few fabric bits into the glue mix and let them get coated. Paint small area of the stool with glue mix, squeeze the excess glue from the fabric and place it down. Use your fingers (or the sponge brush) to smooth out bubbles, wrinkles and imperfections. Keep going with this until the whole surface is covered. Allow sections to overlap and create patterns or keep things random. Curvy bits are always the hardest, you may need to make snips (don’t use the good scissors!) and work the fabric around the shapes. When you’re all done, let it dry. Again, we had a hot day, so it only took about 2hrs.
- Super Shiny Gloss Coat….Oh yeah!
The gloss coat is going to seal that fabric goodness in for keeps and it’s also how we could get away with painting the legs with only ordinary craft paint. If this were something like a dresser that would see a lot of wear, we would have put much more work into the prepping & painting steps. We picked an outdoor, high shine, polyurethane top coat that specifically doesn’t yellow (like say, shellac) that came in a spray can. Follow the safety and other directions on the can and give it 2-3 coats, drying (as per instructions) in between.
Now that your deliciously fabric covered furniture is all finished, you can bring it in and find it a home. Which might be tough when it looks so amazing in every room and all of your friends and family are trying to sneak it home with them! As was the case when this baby was finished. Our crystal ball predicts many scrappy fabric furniture items to come. We would love to see your projects popping up on our social media pages because we just can’t get enough of this technique!
This tutorial previously featured in Indie Love Magazine.
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