I was on the hunt for functional yet stylish seating for my kitchen bar. During the process of redecorating my living room and dining area I noticed the barstools I had no longer fit into my color scheme. As I was searching I found a few barstools that I thought would go perfectly with my decor. Being that I needed four, the price of the barstools were a bit pricey. So back to the drawing board I went. I took a look at the barstools that I currently owned. They weren’t terrible, I just did not care for the brown leather seat cushion.

Reupholstering my barstools was an easy solution as long as I found the perfect fabric. So I decided to take a trip to Hancock Fabrics. I began looking for a cream fabric but quickly fell in love with a leopard print upholstery fabric that I decided I just had to have. Leopard print was not what I went in looking for but who can say no to leopard print?! Cream colored fabric for barstools would not have been very practical. I consider leopard a neutral, so I knew that it would easily mesh with my color scheme. I had 1.5 yards cut and I was on my merry way.

Now it was time to reupholster these bad boys. This was a fairly easy, quick and cheap revamp. All I needed was:

• screwdriver
• fabric scissors like these
• upholstering staple gun like this one here
• your choice of fabric (mine is on sale now!)

Unscrew the seat of a barstool and separated it from its base. Next, lay the fabric decorative side down on the floor and place the seat cushion on top of the fabric. The underside of the cushion should be facing up. Cut the fabric around the cushion leaving enough fabric so that it can be stapled to the underside of the cushion. After the fabric is cut you can start stapling the fabric to the underside of the cushion.

I started with one side, pulled taut, and stapled that side skipping the edges and corners. Being that I did this by myself, I found that placing my knees on top of the cushion and placing my weight on it allowed me to pull the fabric easily and I could get the fabric very tight. I then moved to the side parallel to it, doing the same. After those two sides are finished, do the same to the last two sides. Once all the sides are stapled you can move on to the corners.

For the corners I pulled the fabric and made sure it folded over evenly and stapled a few times (be sure not to cover the holes for your screws!). Make sure all of your corners are folded the same. If you have a lot of extra fabric once you are finished, feel free to trim it away. Now just screw your cushion back onto the base of the barstool and you are finished! This was such a simple and cost effective way to revamp my barstools and they look brand new! Can you believe this revamp only cost me $25? Win!