A sneaky way to remake a $3 footstool

Footstools are apparently the unsung heroes of the thrifted furniture world. They’re cheap, quick to make over and I can’t get enough of them.

My obsession started when I tucked a low footstool under my desk a few months ago. I couldn’t believe how much more comfortable I felt with my knees slightly raised. I felt like one of those happy 90-degree-sitting stick figures in an occupational therapy brochure on workplace health.

I marveled over that secondhand footstool and asked my thrift-savvy mama to keep her eyes peeled for more of them.

I redid one for our daughter’s bedroom — painting the legs gold and covering the top with fluffy white faux fur — but then she delivered one that had me stumped.

The price was right — three dollars — but it the foam was severely dented on one side, like the previous owner’s feet had stuck to a single position for years or even decades. If I was going to redo it, it was going to need a life-saving foam transfusion — stat!

After a couple of coats of white paint on the wooden legs (Casement by Fusion Mineral Paint), it was time to fatten up the footstool’s cushion.

I had two squares of foam leftover from another project (remember those extra-long window seat cushions?) but neither was large enough to cover the top of the footstool.

I didn’t want to be wasteful, so this is where I got a little daring and decided to see if math would be my friend (for the first time ever) …

Continue reading in my weekly DIY column, My Handmade Home … 

Continue reading in my weekly DIY column, My Handmade Home …