I love this little stool! My mother-in-law gave it me a couple years ago after she was cleaning out her house. She said it just looked like something I could use, and boy was she right! Our little dachshund, Bijoux, uses it to get on and off our bed. Plus, it has storage inside of it, and I like to hide Bijoux’s toys in it, and see how long it takes her to sniff them out!

When I got this cute little bench, it had a tiger fabric with a brass base. I reupholstered it with a fun black and white fabric and sprayed the base black. It’s worked great with our bedroom over the past couple of years but felt a little dark in our new light and airy space. So, it was round 2 with upholstering, and this time you get to see how I did it.

Reupholstering this bench was made easy by the fact that {thanks to the storage inside} it separates into two pieces. I started by unscrewing the metal base and the hinges, and removing the old fabric. The first time I reupholstered this stool, I simply stapled the fabric over the old tiger fabric. My fabric was thick enough that you couldn’t see through it, the extra layer of fabric added a little extra padding, and it saved me from having to remove the old fabric. Reupholstering this footstool was easier the second time around because I simply removed the fabric I put on it the first time and cut new pieces of fabric the same exact size. It provided me with a pattern of sorts.

In order to remove the fabric, I had to remove all the staples… lots and lots of staples. This is made easy with a screwdriver. There was also a black felt piece of fabric on the lid that covers up the seams of the fabric, so I removed that so I could reuse it. After removing the fabric, this stool’s wild roots were revealed as it’s tiger fabric surfaced once again. Swanky, eh?

The lid of the stool simply required a square piece of fabric that I stapled on starting with the four corners and then pleating the sides. I then re-stapled on the existing piece of black felt for a clean look if you open the stool. The fabric base required a 48” x 8” long strip of fabric to fit around the entire piece. I put the seam in the back, naturally. I do wish, however, I would have thought to line up the pattern of the lid with the base. The perfectionist inside of me is now tormented by this every day.

After the fabric was all stapled on, I spray painted the base with chrome metallic spray paint, let it dry for 24 hours, re-screwed it on, and VIOLA! This bench is on it’s third life. Maybe its tiger fabric means it’s going to have nine lives some day?