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How To Easily Recover Bar Stools with Laminated Fabrics

DIY Home Decor

INSIDE: How to recover kitchen bar stools. Redo thrift store kitchen stools with foam, laminated cotton fabric and spray adhesive.

DIY reupholster kitchen barstools using laminated cotton fabric and foam padding.

Have you ever purchased something from your local Craigslist? Interesting adventure, isn’t it?! Once you weed through the weird and wacky, there are some awesome gems out there. Case in point, our kitchen barstools.


We were on the hunt for six of them. We found four stools from a former ice cream parlor, who once seated folks enjoying banana splits and extra spinkles, and found another two from an auto body shop, previously covered in grease and motor fuel.

See how new fabric can bring life to an old item AND how I added padded fabric to an unpadded back.

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How To Easily Recover Bar Stools with Laminated Fabrics

After spending too much time fabric pattern surfing online, I located a fun colorful, retro pattern that was most importantly laminated and wipe-able to withstand the meal chaos that are my three kids.

Separate the seat from the stool and let’s get the rehab started!

Seat Supplies
– Staple Gun and appropriate sized staples
– Hammer
– Fabric (I like to use laminated cotton fabric)

Padded Back Supplies
– Staple Gun and appropriate sized staples
– Hammer
– Foam
– Cardboard (or heavy duty board, like a cereal box)
– Fabric (I like to use laminated cotton fabric)
– 3M 77 Multipurpose Spray Adhesive


How To Recover Thrift Store Kitchen Barstools

Barstool SEAT Redo:
Lay your fabric down, wrong side facing up. Place the seat on the fabric, wrong side also facing up. Since our seats were round, I cut a larger circle shape.

Enough to wrap around the seat, be pulled tight and comfortably be stapled to the bottom.

Pick where you want to start, pull tight and staple. To avoid pleats in the fabric, pull tight and overlap the fabric on the bottom.

Continue in this manner until you’ve covered and stapled the entire seat.

How to easily and quickly recover barstools and add a padded back
Adding a Padded BACK:
Our seats already had a padded back on the front of the stool that I recovered in a similar manner as explained above.

However, it didn’t have anything on the backside of the stool except boring black metal.

Since these stools can be seen from our adjoining family room, I wanted to see a pop of fun color.

How to recover barstools and add a padded back
Now I understand that every stool is designed differently.

In my case, I had to figure out a way to work around two back posts.

After staying up too late and playing with different ideas on how to add fabric to the back, I came up with the idea of using cardboard and foam to create padded inserts.

How to Add a padded back to a stool

I cut the cardboard and foam to fit the shape between the posts. (The foam sits atop the cardboard, and the cardboard side sits against the metal back of the stool.)

I then proceeded to wrap each of these inserts with the fabric, spraying it with (very sticky and messy – work outside if you can) spray adhesive.

How to recover barstools and add a padded back

I was able to squeeze each padded insert into the sections between the posts.

If your stool is post-less, use a light spray of the adhesive to secure the insert to the backside of the stool.

diy bar stool makeover for kids and busy families

What do you think? From auto body shop to retro cool kitchen bar stools!

How to recover barstools and add a padded back

What will you recover today?

How to recover barstools and add a padded back
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Comments

  1. They look great and I love the fabric you chose. I wouldn’t have thought to add the padding on the back but that really finishes them off nicely.

    Reply

    • Thank you very much! Took me a long time to find something but when I saw this pattern, I just knew.

      Reply

  6. How cute! I love that the ice cream parlor stools and those from the auto shop all ended up living in harmony! Adding fabric to the back was a great idea, that is the side people tend to see the most!

    Reply

  14. You did a beautiful job recovering these fantastic bar stools. I love the retro fabric that you used and your tutorial is great. I have an old stool that needs recovering and your tutorial is going to come in handy. Thank you for sharing at Vintage Charm.

    Reply

  15. These turned out beautifully! I absolutely love the fabric you chose… it’s perfect. Thanks so much for linking these up to our Bewitchin’ Projects Block party last week. You are one of my Features tomorrow over at Recreated Designs. Hugs, Lisa

    Reply

  16. What a great idea to add the padded back, it makes them look so much more finished! Thanks for linking up with us at The DIY Collective! Please come back and party with us next Thursday! xoxo! -Cassie @ Little Red Window

    Reply

  22. These stools are super cute!! Love the print you chose!! I’ll be on the lookout for some of these cool barstools to revamp. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  26. Your chairs look fantastic!!! My husband loves doing the staple gunning part when we do projects like this. LOVEEEE the fabric choices. I’m just like you. I fall into a rabbit hole when I’m looking at fabric. =) #HappyNowLinkUp

    Reply

  27. How fun! We should really use Craigslist more around here. I think it’s the potential creep factor that keeps me away. Thanks for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!

    Reply

    • I’m still creeped out by the “creep factor”! But a great way to snag a great deal.

      Reply

  29. What fun bar-stools Victoria! I love re-upholstery because of the amazing transformations that can be achieved! You did a great job on them with such fun fabric. I love how you turned these stools from workshop ready to a design element in your kitchen! A great wow project!

    Reply

  30. Thank goodness for Craigslist and the staple gun! Two of my favorite things. I’ve recovered stools and chairs so many times, but I especially love how you added a padded back. Cool.

    Reply

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