J.Crew Indigo Top becomes Footstool Upholstery

Maybe it was the sudden early-fall chill in the air this weekend, but it was the perfect few days to take on a few projects around our house. Aside from today's project, we got busy tackling bathroom tile demolition that I'll share more about soon!

Today, I wanted to share my first DIY in a very long time--an antique footstool brought back to life with, of all things, a J.Crew cotton top.

A weekend or two ago, my mom and I spent a few days in Maine to celebrate my cousin's baby shower (hi, Faith!). While there, Mom and I stopped into a few antique shops and, among my finds, was this intricately-carved small footstool for $12. Its size and shape was perfect, though the wood frame and cushion needed some TLC. Almost as soon as I saw the footstool I knew how I'd reupholster the seat: with a much-loved, well-worn favorite J.Crew top.

My first step was to clean up the battered frame of the footstool. It clearly had been loved, but a few swipes of Restor-a-finish brought it back to life.

Then, the fun part began: the upholstery. This may sound silly, but I knew I wanted to use an old J.Crew floral indigo top to recover the footstool cushion. I lovingly wore out this top last year, resulting in a few holes that relegated it to the rag pile...but it was too cute to toss out.

The pattern and color of the top also reminded me of Kate Forman's "Agnes" print in blue. See the resemblance?

(via Kate Forman)

I laid out the shirt to be the sure that the back of the top would provide enough coverage for the small cushion. It did, so I quickly ran the iron across the top, cut the portion of fabric I needed and got to work stapling the new upholstery right over the original fabric.

It's worth noting that the reason this top works is because of its weight. This approach might not work for every top in your closet, but this shirt had heft that's necessary for light-use upholstery.

And like that, in no more than 20 minutes from start to finish, the footstool had a whole new lease on life.

Footstools and small ottomans are really versatile little pieces. They can travel from room to room and, to prove that, I snapped a few pictures of the various places this stool would work in our home like the living room...

...and certainly our dark blue den, which is where the footstool will ultimately live.

(all images via Meet Me in Philadelphia)

So now, we've got another way to kick our feet up in style and a favorite top can live on.