Fred gets a new do

This post was written as a guest post on DIY by Design - thanks so much, Judy, for letting me post!  I thought it might be nice to share how Fred turned over here, too.

Fred came home with me in April from Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I think he cost me all of $25.    Here's how he started.

The lighting here isn't fantastic (sorry!), but you can get a sense of Fred's graceful curves and dark wood finish.

Fred is a bit of a veteran, and like any other veteran, he has his battle scars.  I could have sanded the scrapes out and stained Fred, but I had visions.


I had this fabric that I had bought back in April.  

It's hard to tell here, but that's a chocolate brown and off-white canvas - very sturdy.  I've used it in other projects, like reupholstering one of my former dining room chairs:

I found a gorgeous shade of kelly green spray paint (and it's common knowledge that I'm a spray paint addict), and got to work on Fred's makeover.

Fred got a light sanding followed by a quick coat of grey primer.  I sanded the primer once it had dried and began spraying light layers of paint all over.  I'm afraid I wasn't quite as patient as I should have been with this, so I ended up having to deal with some drips.  I sanded those out between layers, and tried to remind myself to sloooow down.  This is what Fred looked like after priming and his first layer of paint.

Looks sort of like he got a camouflage paint job, doesn't it?  Fortunately, that's not the case.

Finally, after many layers of paint, Fred looked like this:

 At this point, Fred spent about a week drying in the garage.  When I brought him back out, I noticed some spots that needed another coat of paint, and of course, I couldn't just leave well enough alone.  I went and got all fancy.

That's Rustoleum's Hammered Copper spray paint, with a little creative taping - the feet were just screaming for a pretty detail, don't you think?

After yet more drying time, I brought Fred inside and upholstered him.  I didn't manage to get any during shots (since I don't consider myself an upholstery expert), but I used a layer of foam topped with a layer of batting to soften the edges.  One thing I do want to point out, though, is that I removed the legs to get the folds around the corners right, and I pulled the fabric very tightly while I was stapling.  I think that's the key to having a piece that looks - if not professional - tidy.

Here's the final product!

 Isn't he hawt? 

 And this is about when the cats started helping.  See the tail on the left of the photo?

Yet more help from the cats. 

So, there you have it: my table-to-stool makeover.  The stool is pretty sturdy, and I think it looks adorable in my entryway.

Apparently, so do my little helpers!  Fortunately, cat hair comes off quite the canvas fabric easily with a little lint-rolling.

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