Werk with What You Got | Updating a Boring (Cheap) Bar Stool

Okay, so I try not to use the word cheap around here, because I honestly try to stay away from the cheap stuff. But, I had two of these Walmart bar stools on hand that I knew would be perfect for the round table in my home office. I plan to use the round table for drafting and taking photos of my pillows. You’ll get to see the table once I’m done painting it.

I wouldn’t use these bar stools in my living room, but they’ll be perfect in my home office, since I’m pretty much the only one that uses this room.

Y’all also know I like to share the easiest DIY projects, so this one is going to be a project that literally anyone can do. And, if you don’t already have these bar stools (or something similar), Walmart has these for like $17, seriously. Totally worth buying to throw some cute fabric on.

So, basically what you need is a bar stool, foam padding in the depth of your choice (I chose 2″ to make my seat sit higher), sanding blocks or a power sander, batting, spray paint, staple gun (electric, for the power), spray adhesive or simple glue, and a fun fabric.

So, the steps are easy.

You wanna make sure you sand down your bar stools really good, then wipe them down with a damp cloth (to get rid of the dirt and dust).

Then, give your legs 2-3 coats of spray paint. I used Krylon’s Metallic in the copper finish. This finish is so pretty. It also comes in gold and silver, I believe.

Once your bar stool’s legs are dried, you can now cut your foam padding to size and glue it to your bar stool’s seat. I had to piece my padding together, since I only had scraps, LOL! Then, glue your batting to the padding, making sure there’s enough overlap to staple to the underside of the seat.

Then, staple the batting to the underside of the seat and cut your fabric with enough overlap to be stapled, as well. Now, staple your fabric down. If you use a leather fabric as I have, you’ll need a heavy duty stapler to make sure that your staples and fabric lay flat. If they don’t lay flat, you’ll be able to see puckering at the bottom of the seat when you flip it right side up.