Farmhouse Stool Makeover

It’s Monthly DIY Challenge day!  A quick recap for those of you who are new around here.. each month we get together with a few of our favorite blogging friends, and we each create a unique project based on the same item or theme.  This month our challenge item was leather.  

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I have to admit I struggled a bit this month.  I’ve never really worked with leather and I’m a novice at reupholstering furniture.  I knew I wanted to incorporate it onto a piece of furniture, but also knew it would have to be something relatively easy.  

Enter my super cheap, totally beat up stools.  I bought these stools for our kitchen for $20 each when we first moved into our house 5 years ago.  I had no clue how I wanted to decorate our house and just needed something for our kitchen countertop bar.  As you can see, we’ve gotten our use out of them.  I’m almost embarrassed to show these to you because they literally look like something I pulled out of the dumpster.  

I have two of these stools and they both look this bad.  Other than the cracked and broken seats, the stools themselves are in pretty good shape, though.  I thought the leather would work perfectly to give the stools a fresh new look.

The seats just screw onto the base, so it was easy enough to remove the top.  I chose a beautiful piece of brown leather from The Leather Hide Store, who was kind enough to sponsor this month’s challenge.  Covering the seat was easy and I reused the existing cushion.  I used an electric staple gun to attach the leather, and started at the center of one long end.  I pulled tight and stapled as I moved to the outside edge, then did the opposite side the same way.  I did the short sides last and again, just pulled and stapled.  For the corners I didn’t do anything fancy, just folded it, tucked it under and pulled it tight.  

As you can see in the picture below, I was happily stapling away and didn’t pay any attention to where the screw holes were so I could reattach the seat.  I had to go back later and dig them out.  

For the base, I painted it with a couple coats of Annie Sloan’s Old White chalk paint.  When that was dry, I used Velvet Finishes Enhance Dark Glaze.  This is a fun product to work with because it’s similar to dark wax, but it’s easier to use (in my opinion) and has a stronger finish.  It has a brownish-gray tone which I prefer to the traditional brown of dark wax, and the best part is you can poly over top of it.  Perfect for pieces where you want a dark wax look but want to seal it with something stronger.  

To apply, I simply brushed it on then used a dry rag to wipe some of it off.  When I was finished with that I ran a sander over the edges to distress it just a bit more.  

The leather upholstery from The Leather Hide Store is beautiful, high-quality leather.  I love how well it compliments the new paint finish I gave the stools.   

The Leather Hide Store has kindly offered to give one reader a full hide of leather upholstery.  Contest is open to residents of the US and Canada, and the winner will get to choose a full hide from their “Our Collection” or “Special Collection”.  Both collections can be found here: leather upholstery.  To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below.

Ready to see what the other girls came up with?  Check out the pictures below, and if you see something you like click the photo to go to the full tutorial.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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