No-Sew Stool Cushion + Makeover

I’ve decided that our breakfast bar was looking very very blah, and was in much need of a makeover!

I ordered some stools online from Walmart a few months ago and made no-sew cushions to brighten them up a little.

I purchased espresso to match our dining room table but I got suuuuper tired of how dark they were. After all, I’m really a light and bright kind of girl!

I started by sanding them down. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a super slacker when it comes to sanding and I really just aim to get the gloss of the previous finish off.

After dusting them off, I applied a coat of primer and then three, yes THREE coats of white paint and the espresso was still showing through.

I learned that cheap paint just doesn’t cut it on some things. My normal beloved can of white paint ended up freezing in the garage when we had below zero temps for a week straight. Short on cash, I ended up getting the cheapest I could find at Lowes and it’s like this stuff is mostly water—it’s soooo thin!

Anyways it ended up working out because I decided that I’m going to do board and batten along the wall, so I need the stools to have a little bit of contrast.

So I mixed up the light brown that I had left over from my DIY Entry Table with a little bit of the white and I ended up with a chalky brown. It’s gorgeous and it kind of reminds me of a Wendy’s frosty 🙂

I put on two coats of the “good” paint and finished it off with a coat of Polycrylic in satin.

Now to the really fun part! To make a cushion that didn’t require hours of me trying to get along with my sewing machine (we have a love-hate relationship…) I cut out a circle of foam the same size as the stool, and a circle of material big enough to tuck underneath.

Somewhat of a circle anyways haha–it doesn’t really matter 🙂

Next, I folded the edge in and used a staple gun to secure it.

I then created a pleat in the fabric, stapled, created the next pleat and so on.

It’s really easy to change out the fabric by using a screwdriver and pliers to remove the staples if you get tired of it.

I really like the way that the pleats look.

You may recognize that this is the same “high-end designer fabric” that I found at Walmart for $4 a yard and used on my Goodwill chair re-do. I originally had intended to use a patterned fabric, but I decided that I like the simplicity better on the stools and I’m going to put the patterned fabric on the chair instead.

Yes, my indecisiveness drives myself crazy sometimes!

I’m really excited to get the board and batten up. Here they are against my planked wall to get an idea of how they will look with against white. (Ignore my toddler’s crumbs on the floor!).

I can’t wait to finish the walls!

Linking up to these awesome parties!