So yesterday I promised you the how-to on he cushioned stool. Here's how I did it.
Because the stool had been used in a printing factory it needed major degreasing and cleaning before the base could be painted. I used white metal paint on the base but left the "screw" bit untouched besides from a thorough Q-tip cleaning session. I love Q-tips for fidgety cleaning!
To make the stool more comfortable I asked Martin to cut a piece of foam for it. Over the years we've used foam on quite a few projects and have realised it's pretty expensive. The cheapest solution is actually to get a foam mattress from IKEA and chop it up. We bought one years ago which there's still enough left over from for future projects. For this project it was a little to thick so besides from cutting the round shape, Martin also sliced it at 2/3rds. To cut the foam it's best to use a kitchen knife. Don't worry if it's a little uneven at this point.
Here the foam has been glued onto the wooden seat using PL600 adhesive.
I use this kind of synthetic wadding for all kinds of projects and always keep a stash around. I placed the seat with the foam on the wadding and cut around it leaving plenty which will then be stapled to the under side if the stool.
After cutting the round of wadding, I use a staple gun to staple the first four staples at even intervals.
The idea is to staple opposite sides all the time so you stretch evenly all the way around. Stretch the wadding a little bit so the foam gets a rounded shape.
This it what it looks like after all the staples are in.
Place the seat on top of the backside of the fabric of your choice.
Cut the corners so you get a round shape.
Tuck in raw edges and again start off with four opposite staples so everything gets stretched evenly in the end.
Continue by placing staples in between the first four, always keeping the fabric somewhat taught.
Then staple the rest of the fabric, pleating it in small pleats as you go along. Again don't worry too much if it's not perfect, remember this is under the seat so you won't see it later on :)
This is what it looks like finished. Not perfectly even, but like I said, not a big deal.
Martin wanted me to use a red fabric with white spots as he thought it looked like a toadstool. That would have been cute to! :)
Here's another project where we've used the same foam and wadding but in a slightly different way. I covered the stools we built completely with the wadding after adding the foam on top. I then sewed slip covers which I can simply throw into the washing machine.
