After I finished up with my big desk re-do, it became pretty obvious that I needed something to fill the big giant hole where a chair’s supposed to go. Except not a chair. I wanted something that would tuck neatly underneath to leave lots of room to move around, but that would visually take up a lot of space to hide as much of the ugly floor and walls and vent and everything.
I thought, “Hmm, if only I could find the perfect little stool, something plain that I could fix up. I wonder how long I’ll have to look through thrift stores until I find it? If only I had such a stool already. Say, sitting around somewhere like an attic or a basement. Just one lowly stool.” Oh wait! I have four.
This was just a plain square stool. Full counter height and from Ikea a few years ago. We cut it down to an unconventional height so it would fit exactly how I wanted it. I think it’s 23 and 1/4 inches.
I found this pretty leafy looking fabric for $5 a yard at the fabric store not too far from here. This place has tons of fabric choices on clearance! It’s like fabric heaven! I can find anything I want for almost nothing! And then I found out they’re closing the store in April. Well, I guess that makes sense then. I’d better stock up!
It turns out that my new giant table comes in handy when I have like 17 million yards of fabric to work with.
I measured the height of the stool and the circumference. To make it all floofy and pretty, I doubled the circumference measurement. Then I put the skirt together in two separate pieces, just to make it easier to work with.
I did all the hemming with hot glue (of course), but I used a needle and thread for the basting stitch to make the ruffles.
I used my staple gun to attach the fabric at the corners first and then added a few more in the middles for good luck.
The staples and stitches got covered up with a little grosgrain ribbon glued all around.
Then I had a stool! One more piece of the kitchen puzzle falls into place!
I ended up freshening the finish on the top of the stool a bit too. Just a quick sand, some stain and two coats of poly. It doesn’t match the desk, but they still seem pretty happy together.
Chris asked me why I’m always skirting everything. I have to say, I skirted maybe two things about 3 years ago once and then never again. I guess three things skirted ever is just too many ruffles for any man to take.
At least Marsha gets it. So I decided to skirt one more thing with all this beautiful fabric I have on my hands. I’ll show you next week!