How To Upholster A Footstool

Making your own furniture can certainly be daunting and may not be for the novice DIYer, but this little retro inspired footstool can be put together in under an hour and is much easier to put together than you might think!

How To Upholster A Footstool

Using a few basic tools and with the right supplies you will be able to put your feet up on your new stool in no time!

 

Supplies you’ll need to upholster a footstool:

  • 2 pieces of wood cut into equal sized circles (here we used wood circles 14″ in diameter)
  • legs (here we used 10″ retro tapered legs found on Etsy)
  • fabric
  • fabric scissors
  • batting
  • staple gun or upholstery tacks
  • spray paint
  • screws
  • drill
  • phillips head drill bit
  • regular thin drill bit for pre-drilling
  • staple gun with staples
  • sand paper
DIY footstool yellow

Instructions of how to upholster a footstool:

Step 1: Add legs

Start by making the base of your stool. Using 1 of your wood pieces, attach the legs. Our legs that we used came with plates to make them attach at an angle and allowed for the legs to screw into the plates. If using the plates or any legs that screw directly into the wood, pre-drill with a thin drill bit before screwing in the legs to attach them to the wood.

DIY footstool yellow

Step 2: Prepare fpr paint

Once the legs are attached to the wood, scuff them up with sand paper to prepare for paint. This step is optional if you want to stick with the natural color of the legs and wood.

Step 3: Painting process

Next paint the base with an even coat of spray paint. Let dry for the length of time indicated on the back of your bottle of spray paint.

Step 4: Prepare the fabric

While your paint is drying, prepare the top of the footstool for upholstering. Using the other wooden circle, trace a larger circle on your fabric (at least 6 inches in diameter wider than your original circle). Cut out the circle with your scissors.

DIY footstool yellow

Step 5: Upholstering process

To upholster the top, get your staple gun ready and lay your wooden circle directly in the middle of the fabric circle. Pull one edge of the fabric circle up over the wood and place down one staple. Do the same on the other side leaving a little bit of give to the fabric so that there is room for the batting.

Step 6: Staple process

Staple around approximately 75% of the circle. In the area that is not stapled, open and stuff with batting. Try to distribute the batting evenly around the top of the circle.

Step 7: Pull the fabric

Once your batting is in, finish stapling around the circle. Make sure to pull the fabric pretty taught at this point so that your batting isn’t too loose inside the fabric. Cut off the excess fabric from the bottom of the circle where you were stapling.

Step 8: Screw the bottom

Lastly, with the upholstered circle facing down, place your base on top and use a few screws to screw the bottom base into the top upholstered fabric. Make sure that you screws are long enough to screw through the bottom base and into the top but not so long that they will go past the depth of the 2 circles put together.

DIY footstool yellow
DIY footstool yellow
DIY footstool yellow
DIY footstool yellow

Pair with a corner lounge chair, put your feel up and relax, you’re finished!