Easy DIY Vintage Bark Cloth Covered Stool

Vintage bark cloth is one of my favorite types of vintage fabric, and as many of you know, vintage fabric is my favorite thing ever! I was so happy to have found this wonderful curtain piece at the antiques festival in Liberty last year! I have been hoarding it until I found something that was worth me cutting into it. I found a stool last year at Target that I have been using quite a lot in the house. Daryl sits on it and plays his guitar, I use it for my laptop when I am on the floor working sometimes, and the Roux has made it his favorite sitting spot. I love the functionality of the stool, but wasn’t loving the style of it. It was a little boring for my taste, so I decided it needed covering with a fabulous fabric, and lucky for me I had the perfect thing!

Here’s What You Need:

*Upholstered Stool or Ottoman

*Vintage Bark Cloth Remnant

*Ruler

*Marking Pen

*Scissors

*Nailer or Stapler

*1/4-3/8 size Staples

*Screwdriver

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is measure your upholstered stool. Measure, mark, and cut a piece of bark cloth that is the length and width of your stool plus four to six inches to be able to wrap it around to the bottom. My stool was about 14″ square, so I cut my fabric to be at 18×18. It is always better to have a little excess fabric than not enough.

The next thing you need to do is disassemble the upholstered top of your stool from the legs. You can usually remove the top with a screwdriver. Set aside your screws and your legs or base.

Lay your fabric face down on a clean surface. Then lay your stool cushion top face down onto the center of the fabric. Take one edge of your fabric and staple it to the back side of your stool into the wood. Staple down the fabric a few inches away on either side of the first staple. Then pull the fabric on the opposite side taut and staple a few in the center and over towards the corners. Do the same thing with the other two sides, stapling in the center and over towards the sides, leaving the corners un-stapled.

If you have a rounded stool, you can just pull and staple your fabric around the corners, gathering it nice and tight. If you have a square corner like I did, you can wrap it like a present. Smooth the fabric on the side facing you straight down. This will form a triangular shape out to the side. Take that triangular area and wrap it around to the flat side overlapping it. Then, pull the fabric to the back of the stool and staple down. Do this on all four corners. Now you should have totally covered the stool top.

To finish off your stool, cut any excess fabric hanging loose off of the back side of the stool. Then screw the stool top back onto the base or legs.

I loved my stool before, but now I am head over heels for it! I adore the print of the vintage bark cloth! It looks fantastic anywhere we put it in the house. This project is so incredibly easy! It took me maybe a total of twenty minutes from start to finish to cover this stool. I love my bark cloth of course, but you can use any kind of upholstery weight fabric for this project. So, if you have an old or boring upholstered stool, give it a new life with some great fabric! It’s easy as pie! I’ll be back next week with another fun diy project. Until then…

Happy Crafting!