My Granny's Stools
My Granny lived to be 102+. I will forever remember going to her house and sitting on these stools at the little short counter along the wall of windows in her kitchen. She had my uncle cut the stools down and she didn't like them as just hard wood and put a cover on them (a toilet seat fuzzy cover ). I hope I can find a photo at the counter. At a family only estate sale, I purchased these and let my parents use them for plant stands for 11 years. They are now back home with me and I am going to reintroduce them into regular use with a little makeover.
I started by cleaning them and adding wood glue to the separated wood pieces on seats. I do not have clamps so am making due my way
Side view shows the pre-primed appearance and the condition/extent of uneven and separated seat boards.
I primed the legs and the primer turned a weird beige as it dried..I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me in the heat. I am guessing the discoloring of primer is the result of years of nicotine/smoke they endured, even after I had cleaned them. Ps- There is an extra table in the pic as I was repainting a kid's table for my daughter.
3 stools primed and 1 still taking on glue. I actually had to tape underside of seat so the wood glue would not drip through. It still was very uneven so I added some wood putty to try and even up the seat surface. That helped but still was not smooth; probably due to inexperienced user and the working conditions- it was HOT out there! 95 degrees..
Attempted to smooth out by adding wood filler and yes did this after I had primed 3 of them.. Not on purpose. Just was not happy with the seats.
Disclaimer: I am a DIY worker in motion and learning on the job... Would've, could've = Should've
After 2 primer coats, I finally was ready to add cute colors and spray painted with these two awesome colors. Pistachio and Seabreeze...
Next... My first decoupage project and I am using napkins that I removed the 2nd ply. I wanted one stool to be kind of vintage themed and my sweet neighbor Charlotte gave me these butterfly napkins. Colors were perfect.
Wished That I had enough for both pistachio stools.
Separating the 2-ply napkins. Pretty easy.. wet your thumb and press against the white side corner and it will pull apart.
For the Seabreeze stools I went with tissue paper and did a full stool cover instead of in pieces.
3 items needed... Mod Podge, sponge brush and tissue paper
Methid: Work fast
Smoothing out with a sandwich bag
This is after mod podge was applied on the stool, pressed paper down starting from one side and smoothing over with a sandwich bag over my hand. Watch any youtube on decoupage... I cannot give you any new advice YET
topcoat of mod podge on the butterfly stool.
Stools drying and the bottoms are not finished as I did not glue down at this point.. I could not decide what to do there at this point. I am still considering using a nail file to age them all a little on the edges. Fourth stool I went with napkins with the circle detail. The napkin only had this on the edges so the seat is a lot of 1, 2 and 3 circle pieces glued down.
Okay, I added a second coat of mod podge after 24 hours (make sure does not feel tacky) to tops and the bottoms are now mod podged to underside of seat. I may add some color to the rungs but this is it for now except a couple coats of varnish to finish off.
The entire project took about 4 days of time.. but I strung it out over 2 months as had other things pop up including rainstorms. I literally was painting and a downpour came and I moved everything to where I was essentially painted out of my entrance.. I waited the rain out LOL
Hope you enjoy!
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Trina Davis Strong on Jul 31, 2020
Super cute! The reason your primer turned off white is probably bleed through from the wood. I good blocker, can't think of the name, would keep it from happening. Also, use a hand sanding sponge to even the seam of the repair...beats putting on layers of wood filler. Very cute and a job well done!
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Trina Davis Strong on Aug 01, 2020
Kilz is great but this was a transparent stain like product. My memory sucks!
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Frequently asked questions
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You did a great job....how are they holding up? I've used mod podge on a table too, and it's still going. That's why I asked. Glad you saved these beauties!!
How do you keep the decoupage item from being sticky even months later?
Why did you need varnish ? I thought several coats of Mod Podge would be enough.