Farmhouse Style Footstool Makeover

February 27, 2019July 19, 2020 by Michelle

Give a thrift sale footstool new life with some new fabric and a little bit of paint. Keep reading to find out how easy it is to turn a thrift sale footstool into a farmhouse footstool!

I found this cute little footstool at a church yard sale years ago and I just loved it. Something made me think I didn’t need it, though. Three times I picked the stool up and looked it over.

Three times I put the stool back.

But when I started to walk away I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I had to go back and get it and I knew then that it was coming home with me. After all, it was only $3. It just needed a little love.

So I decided to turn this thrift sale footstool into a farmhouse footstool.

Turning a Thrifted Footstool into a Farmhouse Footstool

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The top cushion

Personally, I hated the fabric on the footstool. It was dirty and felt so weird. Plus I didn’t really like the pattern or the color. I decided to remove it and throw it away immediately.

Removing the fabric was easy because it was just stapled underneath. I removed all the staples and then removed the fabric.

Guess what I found. Another layer of fabric! Looks like this footstool had already had a makeover at some point. So, removed that fabric, too. Fortunately, that was the last layer.

The fabric that I had to cover the top of the footstool came from my mom. I loved this fabric because it reminded me of a pillow my granddaddy had when I was little. It was filled with duck feathers and I thought it was the neatest thing ever. I loved the way it settled under my head as I laid on it. I loved that sometimes a little feather would make its way out of the fabric. I loved how it always stayed cold. Needless to say, I knew this fabric would be perfect for my farmhouse footstool makeover.

(You can find similar fabric here.)

To recover the cushion with the new fabric, I just stretched the fabric over the cushion and stapled it underneath. You have to make sure you keep stretching as you staple or it will get all wrinkled up.

I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of the corners, but unfortunately, I forgot. (I was too excited to get this farmhouse footstool done!) Basically, I just folded the ends of the fabric over each other and stapled them underneath.

The bottom

The legs of the footstool needed cleaning, so I wiped them down with my homemade all-purpose cleaner first.

Then, I painted the bottom of the footstool white with spray paint, so it would match the furniture in my bedroom. After the paint dried, I put the top back on. It was super easy to put it all back together because it just required a few screws.