French Footstool

I'm currently in the middle of about a half dozen small projects to fill up my space at "The Roost", most of which I am only about half way through. Why oh why do I begin a new project before I finish the one before it? I blame it on my age...if I don't jump on something the minute the thought comes into my head POOF it disappears. I suppose it would be simpler to just write the ideas down, but that would be logical and often for us creative types logic just doesn't fit into the equation.

Recently I stumbled across this sturdy, but 1980's ugly ottoman at the Goodwill for $7.99. It was a lovely forest green and pink velvet...way beyond its prime I would say. I have seen so many cute stools on blogs and Pinterest recovered to look fabulously French.

I was in need of a bench to stage with a beautiful 1930's vanity I purchased recently and thought this would work perfectly if I transformed it. I ran to my neighborhood Lowe's to pick up another drop cloth....what would we do without these now that we know how versatile they can be?

Another blessing in blog land, Karen at http://www.graphicsfairy-diy.com// provided me with a fabulous french graphic that I took to my local Kinko's and enlarged to 200%. It only cost a couple dollars and was the perfect size to cover my ottoman top. Now, I have used the freezer paper transfer method on pillows with okay results. Just recently I gave the Citrasolve method a try...it worked about the same. The newest method I found  was to use a heat transfer tool with a laser copy, color or black and white. I just happened to already own one of these little tools that I purchased years ago off of QVC.

I layed out my drop cloth and "dry fit" it around my ottoman for size. Then I did my best to center my printed design on the fabric and taped it down to avoid slipping. I preheated my transfer tool and worked in little circles across the design carefully lifting and peeking occasionally. Since my design was so large I cut the paper away as I went to keep track of what I was already done with. I have to say, aside from my hand getting sore from gripping the tool for so long, I was really impressed with how well the image transferred. I understand you can buy these on Amazon fairly inexpensively.

I removed the wooden legs, gave them a coat of ivory paint and distressed them. The pink velvet trim had to go! I used my handy dandy staple gun and upholstered my new beautiful design right over the top of the "seen better days" green. Once I screwed the legs back on it was good to go. All together it took me just a couple hours to complete. As impatient as I am...that's about perfect.

Linking up with these lovely ladies: