Decorating: The Stool

June Challenge: Decorating

I had hoped to have a bunch of projects to show you in this post but unfortunately, I have had a bad head cold. Last night, I couldn't stand the thought of not having a post for today, so I picked the quickest thing I could think of to finish.

My footstool.

Ever since my husband built a new leg for it, I've been meaning to stain it to match. Not that it will ever match exactly as they are different woods. I figured that if the staining didn't work, then I would paint the legs instead. Of course, that would mean making a decision about paint colour!

The cover is also loose, so I thought I would replace it at the same time.

I love that green burlap underlayer, but unfortunately it is in very bad shape. I should have just gutted the whole thing to "re-do" it properly, but that much work was beyond me. Plus, buying new foam for padding just isn't in the budget.

And that's why this project stalled for what, two years?

I have been dithering about my living room even longer than that. I wanted to choose some pretty fabric and recover the footstool with it. But what colour? What pattern? Compound that with the fact that fabric selection in my city is dismal and I was guaranteed to have a procrastinated project on my hands: because short of falling in love with something on the spot, I'd have to choose something that would go with everything else --which of course meant deciding everything else!

In the last few weeks, I've even been browsing Tonicliving and fabric.com.

Last night, in the spirit of just getting it done, I took it down to the basement and applied two coats of Minwax stain in chestnut.

The newly stained one is the right front. I did not put any polyurethane on it. I really did not want it to be shiny. I don't want any of the legs to be shiny.

I brought it upstairs this morning and just dealt with the fabric already on it.

I removed the old nails. Actually, they were stair tacks.

I stapled down the green fabric, put it in front of the rocking chair, set down the flowers and took a pretty picture.

Done.

Fortunately, my cold seems to be loosening its grip on my head, so I hope to have more organizing, decorating and cleaning projects for us soon!