Today I'd like to share a fun and really quick project - one of those things that I'd had sitting around the house already for a while, but never quite got around to... recovering an old vintage footstool covered in old, cracked vinyl fabric.
Wanna know my secret?
A vinyl tablecloth! Here's the details:
The first step in any vintage "recycling" project is to find the right piece of furniture. This footstool/step stool looks really ragged (cracked, hard vinyl, old rusty nailheads...), but the metal base and legs are amazing, and super sturdy! The rest, I knew, I could deal with.
I bought a vinyl tablecloth on Amazon after searching a few local stores (like Target) and coming up empty handed. I'm pretty picky about designs. I bet if I looked around certain holidays (like Valentines or Halloween) I could probably find one that I liked. (Mental note for the upcoming holidays - stock up on cute vinyl tablecloths!) I also bought a pack of decorative nails at my local hardware store to replace the old ones. They came in a pack of 20 and I would need 16 for this project. If you want more fancy-style nailheads, I did see some on Amazon... like these square pyramid nails - they're pretty flippin' sweet.
The first step was to remove the legs from the main wooden box of the stool, which was simply removing two screws in the base frame. Then, I used a flat head screwdriver to pry up the old nails on each corner. I decided not to remove the original vinyl, and instead just apply the flannel-backed tablecloth on top of the old vinyl (if I removed the old vinyl, I'd probably have to deal with re-padding and cushioning the wooden box... just didn't feel like tackling that this time around.
You may have noticed that I also removed the canvas on the underside of the box. I chose not to replace it because Iggy is fond of flipping the stool over and standing on it, so it seemed like leaving it open would be a safer choice (a new canvas could tear and Iggy could fall in/trip/etc).
The next step is to lay the top of the stool on your tablecloth, and cut your tablecloth slightly larger than needed. (I ended up only using half of the tablecloth, so I stashed the rest away for the next time it needs to be replaced!) I used a staple gun to fold up and secure the vinyl to the frame of the wooden box (when attaching fabric to the perimeter, I work in a "cross" shape: top, bottom, left, right - and then fill in the rest of the perimeter, carefully folding over the corners kind of like wrapping a present).
The decorative nails on the corner were fairly simple to tap in with a hammer. I chose to just estimate/eyeball the placement, but if you're feeling really precise, you could use a ruler to space them out evenly all the way around. Each corner has 4 nails total. Also, I had to work slowly - if I tried to hammer it in too hard, I ran the risk of bending the nail itself.
Once the top of your stool has been re-upholstered, it just needs to be attached via screws to the original base, and you're good to go! I had a little bit of wrinkling on top from where the tablecloth was folded in the package, but it will relax over time.
As you can see, Iggy is very fond of the finished product and climbed up onto the chair right away using the "new" stool!
Rock on,
Jen @ Hell Razor
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