before & after: footstool

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I'm 5'2"

I need footstools in my life. My feet tend to not reach the ground sitting in most normal furniture. I also can't reach the top shelf of my kitchen cupboards or our bedroom closet without some sort of vertical assistance.

I like being short. petite. whatever you want to call it. But it does explain my footstool "collection." I had to leave one behind when I left NY…no room in the car for even one more thing.

So when my husband had to go to the auto parts store, and there was a thrift store next door, with a bunch of stuff sidewalk-sale style outside, I was immediately drawn to the stacking footstools. Two for the price of one! And the price, my friends, was a mere $3.95.


As hideous as they were, I knew I could make something out of them. They were Ethan Allen, with totally sturdy bases and really hideously dirty and torn vinyl covers.




So I went to town, ripping out the 3 million and 2 staples holding it all together. The foam was still in good shape, as was the bottom board the vinyl was stapled to.


For some reason, whenever my husband and I are out and about and we see a zebra or other animal-print covered chair, he says we should get it. So I went with zebra.

I sanded down the base and spray painted it a glossy black, then I used the cover and piping I had ripped off as a pattern and sewed the top, top piping and side pieces together, then wrapped that around the foam and the bottom board and stapled the bottom piping on at that point. It was a pain. And yes, I've only done one…not sure when I'll get to the other one, as it hides under my desk, and it perfectly functional and invisible.


And I like it.

And yes, I realize that I have more before photos than after photos. And that from a photography standpoint, the before photos are actually better photos. And I see the smudge on my lens that I didn't see when I was taking the photos.

Perfection is not my game, procrastination is. But I'm posting this now, and not worrying about taking better pictures. Of a footstool.

3 comments:

Jenny @ Words on Wendhurst said...

That is really cool. And the price was awesome! :)

Victoria said...

Amazing...as usual!

Dave doesn't seem the zebra kind of guy. who knew?

becky said...

beautiful! I wish I had the time to do stuff like this again! I was in a fabric store with Dave last weekend (he was looking for something for is WWII stuff). I was perusing all the beautiful, soft fabrics and thinking...baby blanket :) The one you made is the most versatile blanket and goes everywhere Esther does.