Barstools

 Does anyone else hoard magazines because they have good articles in them, or things that you like? Today, I spent the whole day going through a tote of magazines that were giving me a rash. I decided that it would be more productive if I cut out all of the things that I loved, organize them and put them in binders depending on their content. It took the whole day just going through them and organizing them into their categories. I am a super organized person and I HATE clutter. Tomorrow, I intend to put them into clear sleeves, divided by tabs according to content and into binders which I will then label. I am pretty sure that I will end up with four binders. Fashion, food, home, and wedding. Well, I already have a binder that I have done this with for our wedding. I will share more on this later; once I have the project completely finished. 
 Back to the point of this blog... I ramble a lot. 
 So, another intention of this blog is to track home improvement projects that I have accomplished. I have a lot of projects already done to blog about and a lot more projects planned for the future. Today, I am going to tackle a simple one- since my show (Parenthood) is going to start in 10 minutes. I am also excited that Private Practice starts tonight. However, I have yet to finish season 5 so I can't start watching season 6 yet... I have a lot of shows. Parenthood, Revenge, Private Practice, and Grey's Anatomy to name a few. Plus, I LOVE anything reality. What are your favorite shows? I'm rambling again... Now onto the barstools project.

 Our house has a wonderful eat-at peninsula. When we moved in we didn't have any barstools and we needed 5! I was soon in shock over how expensive barstools are. We try to be cost-effective people and spending over five-hundred dollars on barstools was just not something I felt comfortable doing. So, we ended up buying these not-so-pretty brown leather-ish barstools from Bed Bath and Beyond. From day one I wasn't satisfied with the look of them. So, I decided I was going to reupholster them. I headed off to Joann Fabric to pick out the fabric. We have a teal accent wall in our living room; our house is completely open concept so the eat at peninsula is what divides out kitchen from our living area. I knew that I needed something to go with the accent wall- and we also have 3 IKEA paintings that hang on the wall opposite to the accent wall which have pink in them; so, they needed to go with that too. Pink and teal it is. My two favorite colors. I ended up deciding on indoor/outdoor fabrics thinking that it would be more durable (which it has been). 
 I came home, fabric in hand (I think that I ended up buying 2 yards of each, however the people that work at fabric stores are super helpful so just explain to them what you are trying to do, I took one of the barstool tops with me, and they will tell you how much fabric you need) and started the pretty simple project. 

Reupholstering Barstools

First, remove the seats from the bases. It's pretty easy- I did it myself and am not so handy when it comes to tools.
 Second, remove the horrible dark brown leather-ish fabric that already exist. And, ALL of the staples. Which takes forever- and leads to blisters. (If you have standard wood topped barstools you could easily exchange this skip for adding padding to the seats).
 Third, figure out the size of fabric you need to cover the top and wrap a few inches underneath, on all sides. Cut the fabric. Make sure any patterns that you like are going to be centered or any lines that you might have are straight.
 Fourth, flip the barstool over (so the top is facing down) and start stapling the fabric. I found it easiest to keep things straight by putting one staple in the center of all sides and then filling in the gaps. I put in the staples about 1.5 inches apart. Also, I didn't get all of the staples all the way in so I had to go around and hammer them in the rest of the way. 
 Fifth, (this step is probably optional, but I think it makes them look better and also keeps your fingers safe from getting cut by staples when moving the barstools). You are supposed to use mesh fabric backing but I happened to have a roll of the black stuff you put down in landscaping to keep weeds from growing on hand so I used that. I just folded it a few times over (so that it was thicker and stronger) then stapled it to the bottom. I didn't use quite as many staples on this step as I did for the fabric (about 3 inches or so apart).
 Sixth, secure the barstool tops back onto the bases. I did not manage to accomplish this task on my own. My fiance had to run to the rescue. But, he seemed to do it pretty easily. 
 And, whew, you're all done! See, not that bad!

 Here are some pictures of the finished project. Unfortunately, this project was completed long before I even thought about starting a blog so I don't have step-by-step pictures. However, this was one of the easiest home-improvement projects I have ever accomplished so you should be able to do it, too!

This is what they looked like before. 

The completed teal ones from far away.

Close up of fabrics together. And, Josie's leg. She was inspecting my work.

Finished product.

 A future project is to put white bead-board over the brown (which is the back of cabinets). I feel like white would lighten up the space so much and look a lot better. If this inspires you to tackle your own reupholstery project- please share your results with me! Enjoy.