This is a classic Craftsman style footstool. It has beautiful lines and gorgeous wood. Unfortunately the orange velvet fabric is hopelessly out of date. Fortunately, the fabric is very easy to replace!
The upholstered part of this isn't attached with screws. It simply lifts off. The legs keep it snuggly in place so no screws are needed.
Typically old fabric comes off easily. This one wasn't giving it up so quickly. There were hundreds of staples on the edge and the underside. The velvet also left tons of tiny little pieces everywhere—on my clothes, on my workspace, on the floor—ugh, what a mess to clean up!
Thrift stores are a great place to find vintage and new fabric, particularly upholstery fabric. This piece was an from an upholstery sample book. Check with furniture shops or decorators and see if they want to get rid of old fabric samples. They work particularly well for footstools. The show up often at our local Goodwill store, where I found this one. I liked the natural linen, particularly for this Craftsman style piece.
This was already the perfect size. I added a layer of cotton batting.
Begin upholstering by tacking each side of the seat. Then I work my way around the seat, adding a couple of staples, then turning to the opposite side, adding a couple of staples, eventually working my way out to the corners. This keeps the fabric taut and will ensure there are no wrinkles in the fabric.
This image shows the staples to each corner. Finish the corners and it is complete.
These corners were a bit tricky since they were cut out. It was a learning curve for me. I had never upholstered corners like this. It was a little bit of trial and error.
Updating the fabric and cleaning the wood now makes this a footstool that can work in any type of decor from classic to modern farmhouse.
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