How to: Upholster Bar Stools in a Jiffy

Nowadays everybody has an work island in their kitchen, or if you’re a carefree bachelor - a bar. With these pieces comes a great responsibility: bar stools. If you’re anything like me, by the time you’ve got to picking out bar stools you’re at the stage where your budget has run out and you’re looking for the cheapest option available. For me that means IKEA. Unfortunately, the simple stools are boring, and not easy on my aching tail bone either. So if IKEA it is, IKEA hack is coming up (in fact, even the fabric I used was from IKEA)!

We’ve had these bar stools for a while, and I’ve already posted their upholstered pictures when I posted about my home makeover. However, they’re so easy, cheap and fast to make - I decided that I must share.

The upholstery can be done with or without a sewing machine. If you do choose to use a sewing machine, you will get a cleaner look, and can even add piping for a more professional finish. But, if you just want to get it over with - go ahead with the no sew version.

Materials:

• Staple gun and staples
• Fabric marker
• Scissors
• About 1/2 meter of fabric for each stool
• Foam (enough to cover the seat)
• Batting (optional, it will soften the edges of the seat)
• A baby sitter for the kids (if you have them. Working with a staple gun when there are children around is a bad idea)
• Sewing machine and notions if you plan to make the sewn version.

Instructions:

1. Spread the fabric on the floor and place the batting over it. Place the chair seat upside down on the fabric. Mark a circle around the seat. Do the same with the foam.
   
   
   
2. Cut the foam on the circle mark you made in step 1. If you don’t have a good craft knife, use scissors. They cut foam well, and any uneven edges will be hidden by the fabric.
3. Mark a second circle around the first circle on the fabric and the batting, still together: If you are planning to make the sewn version, make the second circle about 1.5 cm larger than the first. Otherwise, make it about 10 cm larger (it should be long enough to cover the foam, seat and overlap enough to staple onto the seat bottom). Cut around the larger of the two circles.
4. If you are sewing: Measure the diameter of the seat. Cut a strip of fabric and batting 4 times that length by 12 cm wide (make sure that it will be enough to cover the foam and seat etc.). With fabric and batting held together, fold over one short edge 2 cm and pin.
   If you want to add piping, sew in on to the strip now, stitching very close to the long edge of the strip.
   Pin the strip to the circle, right sides together (batting on wrong sides…), starting with the folded edge. When you complete the circle, pin your raw edge behind the folded edge and cut the excess fabric and batting.
   Sew all around the circle. When you are done, edge stitch the folded edge of the strip to finish it nicely (any raw edges will be on the inside). Cut excess fabric and turn right side out.
5. Place fabric with batting on the floor. Place foam in the center of the circle. Place chair upside down on the foam. Fold over one side of the fabric and staple in place. Do the same on the opposite edge. Do the same in the center of both other edges. Start stapling around the entire seat, the closer the staples are to each other - the better the upholstery will hold, and the less loose ends will show.
   
   
   
6. Trim excess fabric.
7. Turn over and enjoy!

You could use easy to clean vinyl fabric for the upholstery, but I figure these are so easy to make, if they get dirty - I’ll just replace it with a new fabric!

Home Makeover: in the Kitchen

On these last couple of days I turned my attention to our kitchen. We have a convenient work island in the middle of the kitchen, which naturally turned into a junk pile. We decided, as a family, that junk was not the best use for that surface, and that it could be much nicer and cleaner. We also had these IKEA bar stools, and since I usually sit on them and they hurt my back, I decided that some padding would be nice.

To save time and money, I stopped over at IKEA and picked up some fabric and other home accessories and set out to get all the work done in a couple of hours. Well, not surprisingly, it took a little longer than that (but not much). While I was there, I decided to tackle the junk pile on our bedroom dresser as well, and got some candles and a lucky bamboo, which I hope will help keep the junk away in our entire home (and I like the way it looks and that it doesn’t need to be watered very often). It’s not particularly inspiring, just clean and neat, so I’ll spare you the pictures.

This is our kitchen before:

And here is what it looks like now:

I upholstered the IKEA stools (with IKEA fabric), and used a matching contrast fabric for the table top. Two wine glasses, a wine bottle and a black and white fruit bowl (which will be filled once I get back from the market) completes the soft yet elegant look. I’m very happy with the result. In fact, I’ve been stopping to look and feel proud of my work every time I go in the kitchen…

To complete the decluttering, I moved all of the unused fridge magnets to the side of the fridge, where they don’t show. Then, I wrapped a tin box with the upholstery fabric and glued a magnet on the back, to use for pens. I got the idea here, and I’ve been meaning to do it for a while now. Finally, no more hunting for pens when delivery guys show up!

You can just see our water cooler in the back of the kitchen, so you can see that we really like orange. I can’t get enough of the color (though I try to not go overboard with it).

Last but not least, I made a cover for our Kitchen-Aid out of the same contrast fabric. When I was almost done I decided it was too dark for the corner it was going to be in, and decided to add a bias tape finish made from the orange fabric instead of just hemming it. I’m happy with the result, and I will be sharing a tutorial soon (I’m planning to make one for my in-laws, so I’ll draft a pattern while I’m at it).

Perfect.

365 Project: Day 299 (Home Makeover Day 1)

Over the next few weeks I plan to make some long overdue changes to my house. Today my goal was to move an unused IKEA bookcase from the kids room to my bedroom and reorganize all my fabrics in “mini bolts” on the shelves. So I did.

I saw this idea on Pinterest somewhere. All of her bolts came out the same height and she organized the colors better, but at least I can see all of my fabric and access it now…

If you’re wondering how to do this - it’s super easy. Get some heavy weight cardboard, cut it into a rectangle about 5-7 cm less than the height of your shelf and about 13-15 cm wide. Fold your fabric so it has no rough edges hanging out and it’s just a tiny bit taller than your cardboard, and just fold it around the piece of cardboard. Super easy. The original post I was inspired by had a whole section on how to fold the fabric “just right”, but I’m not that OCD. Just being able to see and access all my fabric is good enough for me.

I made onion soup with crostini for dinner. As I was cutting the challah bread I was going to use, I noticed that the pieces looked just like clouds. I really liked the idea of onion soup with crostini clouds floating in it. Not only were they pretty, they tasted good as well. All in all I’m very happy with today’s work.