Little Stool Makeover

My friend Colleen is coming for a visit in a couple of weeks and I'm in high gear getting ready for her. I find houseguests provide a great incentive to get things in shape...like all those "temporary" piles that develop in my guest room get cleaned up and put away and my linen closet gets organized again...those sorts of things that I need a little push to get done.

I was walking through the garage last weekend and found this stool that she'd given me on one of my visits to her house. I have a thing for little stools and seem to have them all over my house. She'd found this one at a garage sale and thought I'd like to redo it. It was covered in some type of nautical polyester rope in blue and white and if I lived on a houseboat like the ones we saw in Seattle a couple of months ago, I'd be good to go, but it doesn't really go with my decor. So, it's been sitting in the garage along with another gadzillion projects waiting to be done and I figured I'd better hurry up and get it done before she gets here.

The square base is wonderful and sturdy with barley twist legs so, of course, the first thing I do is remove the rope seat and spray it with black satin paint. I spray anything that stands still long enough with that stuff and I always like it better. Then I asked St. Wayne to glue the joints just to give it a little more sturdiness. I left it to set for the week.

This afternoon, I dug out a package of left over drop cloth from last year when I made pillow and table runners. Remember those? I had plenty left over, so I cut out six strips, folded them in half, sewed them, then turned them right side out and pressed them with the iron. I then wove them across the bottom and stapled them underneath. That provided a base to attach a pillow. I lettered "No. 12" (because I have a thing for numbered things, too) and scanned it, ran a transfer sheet through my ink jet printer and ironed the transfer onto the cushion top. Sewed it up, stuffed it with polyfil, and glued the finished sides to the woven strips...and there you have it. I'm really happy with how it turned out...and it really didn't take that much time and cost about nothing. And we just won't tell Colleen it took about two years to get it done!