Our "New" Bar Stools

Our new bar area means that we finally have room for the bar stools that we've had for a few years now. They were purchased secondhand for an outdoor party and, other than outdoor parties, they'd mainly been in the basement, gathering dust and cobwebs. Being an older item, they're solidly built, but were a little plain, so we gave them a facelift!

I'd already taken the staples out of the fabric when I took this shot, but you get the idea. Perfectly okay, but pretty boring.

Removing the staples was by far the worst part of this job. Whoever put them in originally put them in to STAY. About two hours and 200 staples later, they were free of their fabric!

The shot I took of using the fabric as a pattern was bizarrely out of focus, but you get the idea here - press the previous fabric flat, trace around the edge and cut your new fabric out. Easy!

Fit your new fabric over the stools, then staple, staple staple and hammer, hammer, hammer! Remember how frustrating it was to take out all of those staples in step one and create the same frustration for the next owner!

And voila! Your custom bar stools for the cost of a couple of used bar stools and a yard of fabric! We were lucky in that the padding that the previous owners had used was still in good shape. If yours isn't, or your stools don't have padding, you can pick foam padding up at the fabric store. We used barkcloth, from the home decor section, for our new covers. A fabric designed for furniture is your best bet for something that will get a lot of use. Don't forget to take a coupon if you're visiting a chain fabric store, since they all have them!

Please be seated! What can I get you to drink?