I wanted to do a quick post showing how I took a pottery barn counter stool from a thrift store and gave it a new seat using repurposed belts that I picked up from the same thrift store!
Materials:
- stool with rush seat (preferably a torn one, so you're not ruining the rush on top)
- about 11-13 canvas belts from a thrift store (or maybe you have that many of your own lying around that you don't wear!)
- paint of your choice, steel wool, polyurethane, and steel wool (for distressing)
-Heavy duty staple gun and scissors
I was too eager to start on my project, so I didn't take a before picture....but I picked up a Pottery Barn counter stool at a thrift store for $25...It looked kind of like this one, except the rush on top of mine was torn pretty badly:
On my stool (like the one pictured), the rush seat part unscrewed from underneath, so after I removed it, I used my scissors to cut off the rest of the rush seat. This left just a wood frame that would eventually be placed back on top of the stool and re-attached from the bottom.
I chose to paint my stool in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, "Graphite", then do some distressing with steel wool on all of the edges, and finished it with a coat of General Finishes Flat polyacrylic.
Next, I "put on" the belts going around one side of the frame (alternating which way the buckle was facing), buckled, and tightened them as much as they would go.
Then, going the opposite way, I wove the belts in and out of the others, making a pattern and tightening/buckling those as well.
I placed the frame with belts back on top of the stool and flipped it over, screwing it back into place to attach it to the base of the stool. Then, using a heavy duty staple gun, stapled each belt in place on the bottom and cut off the excess of the belts so it looked like this:
Flip it back over and you're done! Here's my finished product, which is available for purchase in our Etsy shop (click on picture for link to the listing!):
What other ideas can you guys think of for thrift store belts?!?
