Rug Upholstered Rolling Stool

I spotted this small woven rug in an isle with kitchenwares at Walmart. At the time I wasn’t looking for a small rug, nor did I need one, but I was really drawn to it - I love the texture (it sort of looks like shoelaces sewn together) and the combination colors (it’s got a mix of blues and reds, and single stripe of neon orange).

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with this rug, but I had to have it, and fortunately it was less than $5.

Not long after I bought the rug, I realized I could use it to reupholster this stool. Note - rugs make great upholstery material because they're inherently durable.

A little bit of history about this stool - It has been floating around for so long that no one remembers where it originally came from anymore. My mom said it’s possible this stool has been in each of the five houses we lived in over the course of my childhood. It does not have a ton of sentimental value, but when my mom decided recently to get rid of it, I asked to have it – it’s classic and versatile, though a little worse for wear.

Before I reupholstered the stool, I freshened up the wood a bit. I scrubbed away white scuffmarks using the green side of a kitchen sponge. I dabbed some Old English on the scratches. And I rubbed at thin layer of Pledge Orange Oil over the whole thing.

When I reupholstered the stool, I didn’t even bother to remove the existing navy velvet, I just stapled the rug right over it.

(Note: I don’t have a fancy staple gun, just this light duty model that’s less than $10. It has served me well for quite a few projects, like this one, and this one, and this one.)

After I reupholstered the stool it sat in my living room like this for a few weeks, just looking pretty.

Meanwhile I was in need of a desk chair. This stool was a few inches too low to use as my desk – until I had the epiphany that I could add casters which would make it the stool the necessary few inches taller, and more desk-chair-like to boot.

I bought casters at Home Depot (for $3 each). I chose these casters because of their short (one inch) stem – a stem longer than one inch would have required a deeper hole than could have been straight drilled into the small curvy feet of this stool.

I didn't really shop around for casters, but I kind of wish I had because I've since come across all these pretty options on Amazon - here, here, here, and here.

I measured and taped off a one inch depth on my drill bit to make sure I didn’t accidently drill too far in.

The caster stems should fit snugly in the drilled holes. I mistakenly used a drill bit that was too big, so my casters were a little loose, and fell out when I picked up the stool – but I was able to remedy this by wrapping each caster stem with a tiny bit of mounting putty.

Ta-da, here's my new desk chair:

I'll be back next week with details about my new desk - I'm pretty jazzed about it - I built it, and it fits in my closet.