Redo A Wood Vanity Stool With Spray Paint And Fabric

I have a  sweet makeover for a vintage vanity stool today. The stool was in pretty bad shape and all I did was spray paint the wood and re-cover the fabric seat. And now it’s beautiful, a bit dramatic and a bit elegant.

The dark paint screams drama doesn’t it and how do you like the fabric? I have a surprise for you on that one.

The stool was $5 at my favorite junk shop. As you can see the veneer is missing from the back and you can see the individual wood pieces that make up the back.

You can see where the veneer is  missing on the back of the seat back too. Now, you guys know me. I’m not into doing a whole lot of work so what I did was just spray paint over all the wood.

I had some really cool fabric that I’ve used for various displays but never in a project. I matched the spray paint to the fabric then sprayed a small area of the wood to see how well the paint covered the wood. It covered really well so that was easy. The paint is Rust-Oleum Spray Paint  (find it here on Amazon) Ultra Cover Satin and the color is Expresso.

I removed the seat from the stool and spray painted the stool in about 4 minutes flat. You should always keep spray paint on hand for easy projects. You can just keep the basic colors like, black, white, gray.

Moving on to the stool seat which was still solid and the foam was firm. The fabric cover was in good shape except for the stains. I cleaned the seat with Simple Green then let it dry completely before re-covering with new fabric. The seat is easy to remove from the stool frame. I have a video showing how to re-cover a chair seat a little further down in the post.

This is the cool part…..the fabric is actually a curtain panel. I found it at the thrift store years ago and I just loved the brown color and the design. I think this is brocade fabric but not sure. As you can see the pattern is raised and kind of velvety.

You always start re-covering the seat by stapling the fabric on one side of the chair seat then move on to the opposite side. The do the remaining sides the same way. The corners are a little iffy because you have to work the fabric to wear no wrinkles show on the front side. Not always possible but most of the time the front of the seat will be smooth around the edges.

One important point that I used to forget all the time is to cut a slit where the screw holes are or the fabric will tear or bunch up when you screw the seat back to the frame. The screws don’t go in the fabric too well so that is the reason for the cut.

I got the seat all covered and the corners and edges of the fabric nice and smooth.

I re-attached the seat and wow, does that fabric and the paint look good together.

The fabric has a shiny sheen to it that changes colors a bit when light hits it a certain way. I like anything with texture and the fabric definitely has texture.

The Espresso color in satin has a nice sheen too. Of course no paint project is complete without a little distressing.

I distressed very, very lightly using a damp rag. The paint had just dried and of course the spray paint is a relatively thin coat so the paint wiped off pretty easily. I just did the edges and corners lightly and the distressed areas are hard to see in the photos.

Below is the video showing a prior project where I re-covered the seats and you can see all the steps…..

How to re-cover fabric seats.

Well, that’s it. How do you like the stool now? Do you like the color, the fabric? Leave a note if you have time and thanks for being here, Kathy

Kathy Owen

Website

Author: Kathy Owen
Kathy Owen is the founder of the home decor blog Petticoat Junktion where she shares tutorials on painting furniture and upcycling thrifty finds into unique home décor. Her DIY projects have been featured on the Home Depot Blog, Plaid Crafts, Behr Designer Series, and in numerous magazines. Kathy’s newest website is HappyHomeDIY.com