tiger print foot stool ottoman reupholstery vintage antique thrifting footstools DIY

Reupholstering tiger print foot stools

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, perhaps making it would be best – and come sooner than furniture lead times. I bought some vintage antique footstools and reupholstered them with a velvet tiger fabric!

tiger print foot stool ottoman reupholstery vintage antique thrifting footstools DIY

Footstools: Purchased from a friend / Velvet tiger print fabric: Annabel Bleu / Tools listed in blog post

W
here do I even begin on how well the intense summer heat is for me – instead of working outside in the garden which I miss very much, I’m back inside revamping everything! Yes it’s smokin’ outside but truth is, I’m staying pretty busy inside. I still brave the heat meeting up with friends and going to estate sales. (More on that to share later on the blog).

The new sectional chair cover has been ordered and is in production. We are going major blue here, light blue with a dark blue piping and pleats! Lots of little pleats on the skirt and crossing my fingers everything else around it works, like my favorite rug. Things are good around here, slowness of summer has been nice and I am beyond OK with it, in fact welcoming it because once October hits, I’m back outside until May, and hosting parties of course so nothing inside will get done haha!  Can you believe I haven’t been on a plane since Taiwan during the beginning of COVID with my parents? The only reason is because most places were closed so there was no point in traveling to me. I’m ready though to go international by next summer because I sure miss going to another country.

My friend Teri sent me an email with some photos of her late mother-in-law’s items that the family was trying to sell and though I am running out of room, I saw these footstools. They looked like this –

I just saw the detail of the legs and I knew I could do something fabulous with them. Since I had been looking for footstools for about 6 months or longer and finding no luck in terms of what I wanted paired with cost, I crossed my fingers the footstools would be affordable enough for me to invest some fabric and tools to reupholster.

Lucky and thankful me, I picked them up, and ordered the things I needed that night so I could get started right away. Taking apart the upholstery taught me a lot, I now see how they make furniture and it’s fascinating! It also looked like the upholster on it might have been a DIY itself and a very well done one that I observed and mimicked the technique.

I used a sewing machine instead of hand stitching it, bought new batting but realized it was way too soft and I liked the matted down look so I kept the vintage batting despite my “but there’s DNA” phobia. It’s fine, we’ll all be fine.

You can reupholster, you’ll know if you can if you have done other crafty things around your home. Trust me it’s not as hard as you think. Use a flat screw to pop off the old nails. Buy some new ones. Invest in a GOOD fabric. There’s a reason some fabric is $15 a yard. Don’t do it, it won’t even be worth your time. There’s a reason why fabrics are $100-$500 a yard, trust me. And always, wait until you find the right thing, don’t rush into buying something just to fill a spot, you’ll regret it later. Unless of course, you buy it at a steal then it’s worth the risk.

Materials used

Tips

  • Sew the corners – pin the fabric while on the chair so you can get an idea of where to sew.
  • If the staples don’t go all the way into the chair use a hammer to make it flat.
  • Always finish under chairs with a cambric fabric, it just looks more professional.
  • If the upholstery nails don’t look right, easy fix just pop it out and replace it.
  • Prepare a working surface – towels, drop cloth, something to catch the parts and not ruin your table – especially if you are working on the dining room table.

Diana Elizabeth decided to watch Downton Abbey again for the third time – the series. She just couldn’t find anything fun or worth watching and well, watching pretty scenery and good furniture and outfit is worth watching so, Downton Abbey it is! She thinks she needs to go back to England again to now see it, third time’s a charm – is it open yet?

Diana Elizabeth is an author, photographer, and obsessive thrift shopper. You can typically find her in the garden wrist deep in dirt, at a local estate sale or planning her next creative themed party. She continues to blog weekly.

1 Comment

  • Andi Fisher

    I love, love, love Tucson! Used to visit about every other month while we were in the Phoenix area. There is a lot to do there, especially outdoors, and don’t get me started on the food. I do like to go in late spring and summer when school is out as it is a lot less crowded, but I love it all year round. We used to members at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and drove by the International Wildlife Museum a million times, I ALWAYS wanted to go in, but we were always on our way to or from somewhere else and never got to go in! Thanks for the peek inside, I won’t miss the chance next time. I love Mt Lemmon at the end of September when there are thousands of monarch butterflies migrating through, it is incredible!

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