A Dainty Stool Goes From Plain to Sweet and Charming

A neighbor gave me this little stool. Plain. Early American. Kind of sad. It's been holding a stack of extra towels in the upstairs bathroom for the past few years. It kept telling me it wanted to be something else. Sometimes you have to wait for things (like ideas and materials) to come together.

I had a set of 3 of these little round pieces of needlepoint that I inherited. They were each in round little frames and I'm guessing they are about 50 years old. I'm saving the other two for the new guest cottage which I want to have a cozy cottage feel. And that gray burlap. Well, I'm just in love with that.

I started this project by attaching the needlepoint piece to the burlap, stitching it on with an upholstery needle.

After I started I thought it might be nice to stuff it a bit to give it a 3-D effect. I had some leftover batting so I tucked it inside and finished sewing it up.

I painted the legs with chalk paint and used a little aging wax to finish them off. Then I cut some batting to fit the top.

After the needlepoint was attached I was unhappy with how rough the edge looked.

I cut off the end of the burlap that had stitching to keep it from fraying. I cut it to make a bit of trim and attached it. Huge difference!

I couldn't put the burlap right over the batting so in between I used my favorite fabric for all kinds of projects, a painter's drop cloth. I tacked it under using upholstery tacks. Then I sprayed a little adhesive to hold the burlap in place and repeated the process.

That's it! a quick little project. Perfect for a hot afternoon when it's too hot to do anything big.