Black Damask Stool

As my husband and I have settled into our new house (which, after a year, is still a process), we brought with us several pieces of well-loved furniture. Starting out as a young, married couple, the funds are not readily available for brand new everything...which gives me the opportunity to exercise my crafting skills. One of our well-loved items was a Windsor back chair that was owned by my grandparents. I don't have pictures of the original, but it was similar to this: 

Courtesy: Random Google search

 This poor chair had seen it all. Five children, ten grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren. The back rods were coming out of the seat, the leg supports were dragging the ground. It had become so rickety that it was reserved as an emergency seat for the slim only, for fear of it crashing under any significant weight. But it's lines were beautiful and it held a history. So, as I'm bending over at the waist drying my hair one day, it occurs to me how nice it would be if I had something to sit on in the bathroom. And then I realize that I have the perfect candidate. We shall revive Mr. Windsor.

So, my husband so kindly took off the back of the chair for me and glued the leg supports back into their slots with wood glue. Then, I got to work. Here's a before shot:

As you can see, the dark finish had lost its luster. So, I gave the legs a coat of black paint. Since I knew I was going to cover the top, I went to Lowe's and got a sample can of black paint, and I have a ton left over. It cost around $3.99. This shot is mid-paint:

 After the legs were painted and had dried, I turned the now-stool upside down onto some foam we had left-over from another project. We originally purchased it at Hancock's Fabrics for around $7.00 per rectangular block, about 1 1/2 thick.

While the stool was upside down on the foam, I traced the outline of the seat with a Sharpie.

Once I had my outline, I used a box cutter and scissors to cut out the seat shape in the foam. I then placed the foam onto the seat and did some touch-up snips to make sure I had the correct shape.

At this point, I could have tried to secure the foam to the seat, so it wouldn't slip, but that didn't prove to be a problem. I also could have covered the cushion and secured it to the seat so that the wood edge would show around the seat, but due to the curved nature of the seat, I felt it was best to do it another way. Next, I turned both stool and foam cushion upside down on my fabric and cut out a large circumference around the stool to give me enough to work with. I then used my staple gun and began stapling the fabric to the bottom of the stool. 

Once I had everything stapled up. I could have just continued on from there, but this gaping hole in the bottom bothered me, though who but my cat would be looking at the bottom of my stool, I don't know. So, to fix that, I cut another rectangular piece of fabric and stapled it in place. Though, later I realized I should have checked to make sure the pattern all went the same way.

At this point, I was essentially finished, and I loved it.

But, as an experiment to add a little flare, I dug out some fringe I had purchased for some window shades that never got made, and decided to hot glue the fringe around the bottom of the seat. I began in the back, working my way around the front slowly, to make sure I got everything aligned properly.

With that final touch, I called Mr. Windsor finished, made over into a French boudoir stool with a name like Madame de Chevreuse...

After some time has passed, I'm still in love with my little stool. It's perfect to perch on in the bathroom, and raises the style factor in my soon-to-be black and white-ish bathroom. Here's Madame de Chevreuse in her natural habitat.

Excuse the kitty tail. She was just too curious.

So, I'm learning to revive well-loved items so that they can be re-loved by a next generation. With all the history and charm you just can't buy.