Wednesday 29 July 2009

Old Faithfuls

I have a couple of bits of furniture that were part of my childhood. Nothing special to anyone else, but they have always been there and are a bit of my history and memories. These two stools were around before I was born, (only just, as my parents married in the year before) and have had a few incarnations. Despite the toils of coping with children and grandchildren, they are still going strong.

One has been recovered once before, this one twice. The last time was probably about 13 years ago when my mum still had them. At that time, the wooden frame got a makeover too. They were painted a dusky pink and waxed. The colour matched the curtain material she used for the top. I have no idea why the second stool wasn't recovered at the same time. As you can see, the seat was looking a bit worse for wear and I just happened to find two squares of curtain material in my fabric stash. These were left over from some curtains I made when the boys were babies. I think I must have intended on recovering the stools even then. It has just taken a bit of time to get there!
Yesterday, I finally got out the staple gun and got to work. I found that it works better when the correct staples are used (I have two staple guns, though I can only find one-I couldn't work out why this one wasn't working properly until I discovered I had two sizes of staples!)
The seat tops lift out so it was an easy thing to staple gun the fabric to the wooden base, trim to size and refit. Hopefully these will last for another good few years. The next time they will need stripping right back to the base and the foam replacing.
I wonder if the boys will notice when they come home?

6 comments:

Annie said...

What a pretty choice of fabric. It's so nice to preserve all the memories those stools must bring back for you.

Terry said...

That fabric looks great on the chair seats! I'm sure the boys will notice! My kids always do! :0)

Sandy said...

Love the new material...good job!

Elena said...

Oh, I love the fabric you chose for them! They look just like new now!

Karen said...

I have a stool that belonged to my nanna and a ''bath'' chair, still covered with the original carpet (on the seat) that belonged to my great grandma. Such good memories.
By now your boys will be back....I bet you are excited to have them home.

Gina E. said...

Jane, where do your talents end? What a great job you've done on those stools, and how nice to save them all this time.