Another snow day, another chair situation

 

Aren't the new stools so pretty!It’s snowing. Again.

Seriously, we’re so over the snow around here.

Sure, it’s beautiful, but being homebound again is making all of us restless. The children manage by alternating Seriously. Sleeping here. running through the house in bursts of feral energy with whining and falling dramatically to the floor in boredom. The dog glares at us all for disturbing what would've been a peaceful day of napping.

 

Me? I handle another chair situation.

I feel a little like cheating by showing you this before picture. Here it is, in the horrible lighting and nasty backdrop of the workshop. But, seriously, I never remember the before picture until I’ve already started. (You can see the top of the second stool already popped off and on the ground behind this one.)

Imagine in a less gross environment.

And here is the after.

 

 

We got these two stools from Kohl’s shortly after moving and realizing we had a breakfast bar. Since then, we’ve painted the cabinets white and the island gray. The dark wood frame and brown faux leather seats just didn’t mesh well.

So I took some fabric left over from an old project and got to work.

First I popped off the top of the seats by undoing the screws. Then I mixed up some chalk paint and painted the chair legs white. This happened to be during the whining time for the kids. My youngest: “Why do you paint everything white? White is so boring. Everything is white. Or gray. And these are white and gray.”

And it’s true. I do paint everything white or gray. Tables, coffee tables, chairs, picture frames, the dog. (Just kidding.) In fact, our walls are a bluish gray and I’m really thinking more of a gray-gray would be better. Or maybe a white. Or maybe I just have a sickness. I don’t know. But gray and white have been my favorite combination lately.

I laid the seat tops down and cut an outline of it from a foam mattress pad, also leftover from a previous project. I used spray adhesive to stick it to the faux leather seat and then laid the combo over the fabric. I cut around it, leaving enough extra to reach the wood frame of the seat. Then I staple gunned. Bam, bam, bam! It’s pretty cathartic, actually.

I used “hospital corners” at the edges, folding under and making it tight. Not perfect, but better than previous efforts. I distressed a little, too. I love distressing furniture! It takes the pressure off being the first one to muck it up. That being said...

Finally, I Scotch Guarded the heck out of it. Even so, the first child to wipe his or her Eggo waffle fingers on the seat …

So that’s my latest project. Stay tuned. Another snowstorm is supposed to hit us on Wednesday. And Saturday. And Sunday.