How to re cover a footstool: How to Upholster a Footstool

How to Upholster a Footstool

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In this post, I will show you how to upholster a footstool. This is a great beginner upholstery project and I will show you step by step how to upholster a footstool!

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how to upholster a footstool

Upholstered footstools can be found in several places. Estate sales and auctions, yard sales, and vintage re-sell stores. I have found many footstools in places like these.

And they are usually not in the best of shape.

Like this one. Worn out red velvet fabric, rusted tack nails, and a bit smelly to boot!

All these antique pieces need is a little love. That’s what we are going to do today! Share a little love with this tired footstool. This is a great beginner upholstery project!

list of supplies:

• antique footstool (yard sales, thrift stores, auctions, estate sales)
• grain sack style upholstery fabric
• upholstery weight batting
• upholstery jute webbing
• braided jute trim
• cambric dust cover
• Fusion Mineral Paint
• scissors
• pliers
• tack remover
• pneumatic staple gun
• air compressor
• 3/8″ staples
• glue gun and glue sticks
• shop vac

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how to remove upholstery tacks

Removing the upholstery tacks and staples is time-consuming. It isn’t a hard job. In fact, it really requires no brainpower!

I turn on a podcast or audiobook and start pulling out the upholstery tacks and staples.

You will see in the video tutorial below the tools I used in action. Basically, I used spring-loaded pliers and an upholstery tack remover to get the tacks and staples out. This piece is pretty old so I only found rusted upholstery tacks – no staples in this piece.

BTW, did you notice there were two layers of different fabric on this footstool? Yeah, I notice too!! 😉

Be careful when pulling out the tacks, they can fly all over the place and would be on your workspace floor. Wear safety goggles too and pay attention to your hands. They can get banged up while you are working. You can use gloves to protect your hands!

Some of the tacks broke off so I couldn’t remove them. I removed as many as I could and then tapped in the rest with a small hammer.

how to prep for upholstery

After removing all the tacks I could, I pulled out my shop vac. The footstool was covered in leftover batting and years of dust. The shop vac is the best way to remove all of the yuckiness!

I also ran the shop vac over my workbench and the floor. Those tacks are sharp and rusted and I don’t want to step on them!

how to attach upholstery webbing

Usually, I do the dirty work of upholstery outside in my workshop. Then I bring the piece into my indoor workspace for the pretty part 🙂

The burlap ‘seat’ of the upholstered footstool was sagging. The burlap itself didn’t need to be removed and neither did the thick upholstery piped edge.

I decided to shore up the sagging burlap with fresh upholstery webbing. I wasn’t able to use my upholstery webbing stretcher because of the framework of the stool. So I just stapled one end, flipped the stool over, and pulled the webbing as taunt as I could with my hands, and finished stapling using my pneumatic staple gun and air compressor.

I used two pieces of upholstery webbing across the widest part and one piece in the opposite direction, weaving the pieces through each other.

Did you notice I painted the legs on the footstool? I will talk about that in the YouTube video below!

You can see below that the sagging burlap will be just fine with the webbing shoring it up from the underside. You can also see that the thick piped edge is in perfect condition. If they had not been in good shape, I would have replaced both.

Pro Tip: if the burlap is musty-smelling, spray it with Febreeze and let it dry completely before finishing the upholstery.

what fabric is best for upholstery?

There are so many upholstery weight fabrics out on the market today that it can be hard to choose. I have used many over the years including dropcloth (use at least a 12oz weight!)

Lately, I have been hooked on the neutral, easy farmhouse look of grain sack. Real grain sacks are beautiful but they are pricey too.

We try to keep our prices as low as possible for our local customers so I found an amazing reproduction grain sack fabric that can be purchased by the yard. It comes in several authentic grain sack colors like blue and red. I love the neutral color of the one you see below.

You will notice that I have also added a layer of new upholstery weight batting. Again, watch the video for more details about the batting!

how to staple upholstery corners

Upholstering around curved details like the gorgeous legs on this footstool can be tricky. The key is to take your time.

Let me say that again: TAKE YOUR TIME!! (smiley face emojis and heart emojies!!)

After the underside was stapled and secured well, I tackled the corners.

I carefully pulled the fabric close to the curved section of the leg and using my fingers, felt around the curve so I would know exactly where to put each staple.

I worked slowly from the bottom up towards the center part of the curve and then did the same on the other side.

This creates an excess fold that you will see in the video. I used the fold to create a pleat that I think you will love! I even added a vintage button to the pleat!

Don’t forget to cut away the excess fabric after stapling!

Here is a look at the underside after all the corners were finished. I double-checked myself to make sure all the fabric was secured to the frame of the footstool.

how to attach upholstery trim

I love easy upholstery projects like this! They move along so well (at least most times they do!) and then I get to this part of the process.

The jute trim. I’m not kidding when I say I love this stuff! It creates such a farmhouse touch to upholstered furniture!

And it is super easy to attach. I use a Gorilla Glue gun and Gorilla Glue Sticks and slowly move around the pretty carved legs of the footstool. I worked in small sections at a time.

You can see in the image how I finished off the ends inside the frame of the footstool.

Pro Tip: add a bit of glue to the end of the jute trim to prevent it from unraveling before your next project!

upholstery finishing technique

The last step in this how-to upholster a footstool project is to finish off the underside of the footstool. Cambric is also called a dust cover. It is a black (usually) fabric that gives a professional look to the piece.

I cut a piece a little larger than I need and fold over one edge. The folded edge will be inside the frame of the footstool and won’t be seen. I stapled at the center area and worked my way outwards to the legs. When one side was finished, I did the same to the opposite side. I did the same to the other two sides of the footstool.

Pro Tip: Don’t iron the cambric!! It will shrink and sort of melt!!

upholstered footstool reveal!

So what did you think of this tutorial on how to upholster a footstool? Pretty simple, don’t you think?

If you have ever wanted to learn how to upholster, I encourage you to begin with a small project like this one. Take your time and think through each step before moving on. In no time, you will have a lovely upholstered footstool like this one!

I’m sure of it!! Feel free to ask any questions that might pop up while you work! I would love to help answer your questions!

We have a whole category of upholstery projects. Check out the menu above called Textile Tutorials and you will find so many great posts on upholstery projects!

Here is the video I have mentioned several times. You will find it so helpful! While you are over on YouTube, I would love it if you subscribed to our channel. I have continually added all sorts of reinvented home decor and furniture tutorials and projects for you to learn from and enjoy!

YouTube video tutorial

Let’s look at some of the finished details! What do you think of the grain sack style fabric? It’s such a nice contrast to the black carved legs, don’t you think?

Speaking of the legs, you will notice I did a little bit of distressing to the Fusion Mineral Paint (I used Ash) After two coats of paint, I used my fancy distressing knife (aka thrifted knife!) to scrape off some of the paint.

I also added vintage buttons to each corner over top of the pleat we created with the excess fabric. Each corner has a different style of button!

Do you see why I love the braided jute trim??

I hope you choose to tackle an easy upholstery project like this upholstered footstool! Too many antique and vintage pieces are tossed into the trash and filling up our landfills when all they need is a little love.

Let’s be the kind of people who show a little love for a piece of furniture and the craftsman that made it 🙂

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How To Reupholster A Footstool With A Tea Towel

When clearing out my kitchen cupboards the other day I came across a collection of souvenir tea towels. I was particularly struck by a map tea towel and decided to use it to reupholster a footstool.

Some of the tea-towels were mementos from vacations or I had been gifted them. There were some Christmas themed ones which although very attractive, I wanted to use an all year round tea towel.

There were a couple of map tea towels in the stash which is not surprising as my love of maps is well known. I decided to use one of these map tea towels for this DIY.

It was a toss-up between a tea towel of a vintage map of Canada or one of a map of Brighton. I decided to go with the Brighton one in the end. Brighton is one of my favorite cities in the UK and I visit it regularly.

It’s such a vibrant and diverse city and it’s by the sea. I really miss the coast and it’s good for my soul to visit it every so often. Lucky for me Brighton is really easy to get too by train from Bedford.

Upcycling A Footstool With A Map Tea-Towel.

Because I love maps so much I have quite a bit of map themed decor in my home. Such as DIY world map desk in my study with a map Moppe storage drawers.

In my lounge, I have an IKEA map lamp hanging from my ceiling and personalized map pillows on my couch. But it doesn’t end there, my travel-loving son has a map mason jar bank in his bedroom. Along with a map magnetic board above his desk and luggage tag pillows on his bed.

As you can see I’m a bit map-obsessed, but in these rooms, there was no map footstool!

Footstools are an underrated item of furniture. I’ve upcycled a couple in the past from my handy denim storage ottoman and velvet DIY floor pouf.

Now that more of my family is spending more time at home the footstools are becoming a hot item. For some reason its more comfortable to rest your feet on a stool when lounging around watching telly.

Personally, I use my footstool as an extra side table to keep my coffee and magazines within an arms-length, when lounging on the couch.

To ease the pressure, I managed to find an old footstool to upcycle and add to the collection. Here I show you how easy it is to reupholster a footstool with a tea towel.

No sewing or specialist skills are need with this quick, easy and affordable DIY.

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What You Need To Reupholster A Footstool

• Footstool – you may have one already that you want to change to fit your decor. Or you might want to make it more personal with a souvenir tea towel of a place special to you. Footstools can easily be found in junk/thrift shops.

• Tea towel – most tea towels should be more than big enough to cover the average-sized footstool. Choose a tea towel that you like for the colors and pattern or because it has personal meaning to you. Just make sure that the pattern of the tea towel will fit the footstool you have chosen.

If you don't have a tea towel that suits your needs you can find  wonderful vintage tea towels on Ebay, Etsy and Amazon.  Cavallini makes a collection of tea towels based on vintage images and maps.

• Paint if the footstool needs it
• Electric staple gun and staples

How To Reupholster A Footstool

1.The first thing I did remove the upholstered seat from the base of the footstool. Often this just involves removing screws from the underside of the footstool.

If you are changing the existing cover, remove the old cover.

2. Next, paint the base of the footstool if you need to. I painted my footstool in graphite chalk paint.

3. To reupholster the footstool pad with a tea towel, first, lay the tea towel over the top of the seat. The tea towel is likely to be bigger than the seat pad, so you will want to arrange the tea towel to make sure you get the pattern you want on the top.

4. Once you are happy with the positioning of the tea towel, turn over the seat pad. If you have lots of excess tea towel fabric you may want to trim it.

However, I didn’t want to cut my tea towel in case I wanted to use it again in the future for another project.

Attach the tea towel to the base of the seat pad using the staple gun. Staple down the sides first pulling the tea towel taught. Next, staple the corner folding them in as you go (like hospital corners on a bedsheet).

5. Finally, all that is left to do is to fix the newly upholstered tea towel footstool to the base.

I love my new footstool as it reminds me of one of my favourite places, Brighton. Also, if I fancy a change it would only take me about 10 mins to remove this tea towel and replace it with another one.

I could even perhaps replace it with a Christmas themed tea towel when I put my decorations out in December. If you have a few tea towels then you might want to check out these cool tea towel crafts.

I still have quite a stash of vintage tea towels and I used another map one to upcycle my dining chairs with. Just like I did with my denim patchwork chairs.

Prep Time
20 minutes

Active Time
10 minutes

Total Time
30 minutes

Difficulty
Easy

Estimated Cost
$5

Materials

• Old footstool for reupholstery
• Tea towel in pattern of your choice
• Chalk paint

Tools

• Electric staple gun
• Paint brush

Instructions

1. Dismantle the seat pad from the base of the footstool. It should just unscrew.
2. Next, paint the base of the footstool in the color of your choice.
3. Place the tea towel over the top of the footstool and arrange how you would like the design to fit.
4. Turn over the seat pad and tuck the tea towel around the edges.
5. Next, using a staple gun fix the tea towel to the base. First, staple the sides and then staple the corners. With the corners tuck the tea towel as you would on a bed when making hospital corners.
6. Finally, reattach the newly reupholstered tea towel to the base of the footstool.

For more upcycled furniture ideas visit cheapthriftyliving.com

Footstool Dublin – Visit us for styling advice

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Footrests

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Upholstery:
Beige Lazio fabric 3091

Legs:
Black matte lacquer

Designer
Henrik Pedersen

From € 993. 00

As shown
€ 1,162.00

MSRP

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Dimensions and weights

• Height:
  41 cm
• Width:
  63 cm
• Depth:
  51 cm
• Weight:
  8 kg
• Maximum load:
  125 kg

Lazio

Due to its heavy appearance and uneven structure, LAZIO has the appearance of a bouclé fabric. This fabric is able to unfold in completely different ways. Get up close and take a look at the intricate structure and its mixed color palette. Move a little further away and you will be mesmerized by the interaction of fabric with light and shadow. It is a fabric that you want to touch, it attracts with its softness and adds beauty to any shape. This cotton and wool blend is designed in the heritage of Italian fabric house Mario Sirtori.

Materials

• Compound:
  34% acrylic, 24% cotton, 14% wool, 12% viscose, 12% polyester, 4% linen

• Leg/base:

steel

• Fabric lining: Nonwoven (90g/m2), Nonwoven (50g/m2), Jacquard fabric with Boconcept logo

Finish

• Leg/base: powder coated

Assembly

This product does not require assembly. Just unpack and use!

Assembly instructions

• product sheet
  (~100KB)

Item number

406014653091075

Craftsmanship

The Dublin chair is handcrafted with exquisite stitching. The backrest features vertical stitching that accentuates the shape of the chair and adds a tactile softness to it – the stitching is especially noticeable on the leather versions.

Beauty in everything

The Dublin chair is constructed using molded foam for superior comfort and a consistent look and feel. The seat cushion is also molded in foam, which ensures that it retains its shape.

Stitch

To create a more sophisticated design, various stitching techniques are used. Double stitching has been applied to the front and footrest, and a hem has been applied to the edges.

Optimum comfort

For perfect comfort, the frame of the Dublin model is slightly tilted back. The slender metal base lends flexibility to the design of the chair, allowing it to combine scale with refined proportions.

Charismatic form

The charismatic form of the Dublin model is not only an eye-catcher. The high back provides comfort and gives a sense of privacy.

Footrest: comfortable at home and in the office

Footrest This is an item that we should not do without in our home. This is a work that helps us correct the situation of all of us who sit in front of the computer every day. But also a great helper to relax the legs and improve blood circulation when we enjoy leisure time.

The footstool is, by definition, the part we lean on when we sit. However, not every thing serves as a footstool if we want to experience its benefits. It is important that it is non-slip and suitable height ; otherwise it may harm us.

Index

• 1 Benefits of using footrest
• 2 Footrest for office
• 3 Footrest for home

Benefits of using footrest

There are many groups of people who are advised to use footrests: the elderly who need to recover from surgery, men and women with varicose veins or circulatory problems, workers who spend all day at the computer . .. Footrests help everyone to correct posture and avoid possible back injuries.

Posture correction and back injury prevention are without a doubt the most important benefits of this product. However, in Decoora, we wanted to briefly refine all the benefits of use this piece of furniture both at home and in the office:

• Let people with bad posture fix it.
• It promotes the correct posture of the body, thus reducing tension and fatigue in the legs , back and neck.
• Therefore they offer correct rest of limbs.
• Rocking chairs also help people with varicose vein problems as they stimulate blood circulation .
• In view of the above, provide comfort to the user both at home and in the workplace.

Office footrest

More and more offices are united under their own Work tables footrest. The height of an office chair should provide full support for your feet on the floor, as well as your knees at or slightly above your hips. Otherwise, footrests will be the best helper to correct the error.

The footrests relieve the pressure of the chair on the legs, improve lumbar support and keep the feet firmly in contact with the floor. As a result, leg fatigue is reduced and sitting posture improves. We also avoid crossing our legs, which improves the reverse circulation .

Footstand Recommended Features

• Anti Slip, so it doesn’t move when you put pressure on it.
• Multi-position, to be able to adapt it to our height.
• Swing, to improve circulation
• Non-slip texture prevents feet from slipping when leaning over

Footrest for home

For proper rest, also needs to maintain good posture. A footrest in the living room or reading nook guarantees maximum comfort. Furniture firms are aware of this and usually include footstools in their catalog that keep the same line as the sofas and armchairs they offer.

Sets scandinavian inspiration These are the most sought-after items for decorating modern spaces today. Its clean lines and soft colors suit different environments. It is also common for the parts to be ergonomically designed to fit the shape of the body in order to provide greater comfort.

Combine sofa and footstool brings restraint and elegance to our living room. If we want it to have a more casual and/or fun nature, it’s ideal to bet on individual elements. Parts with a different pattern or different color as you see in the second picture. .

Home footrests are usually designed not so much to rest the feet as to support the feet . It is very important that they have the correct height so that the feet are aligned in a comfortable and not forced position.