Easy Vintage Tea Towel Ikea Stool Hack

This is such a simple project utilising those brilliant Ikea stools that have been around for years and are a design classic (I think they are anyway). Although they have changed the shape since I wrote this blog a couple of years ago, and I'm not sure I love the new shape? Anyway, this upcycle idea came from the abundance of vintage tea towels I had lying around. I knew they would be good for something and I just love the retro designs that they come with.

You will need, a tea towel, a stool, some Modpodge, a stool, some scissors and a brush.

Start by cutting your circle shape out. You can do this much more carefully than I did, measuring how much you need to leave to create a neat fold over on the stool, I just did it by eye and cut a rough circle out of the tea towel a bit bigger than the stool seat. Then brush a layer of Mod Podge onto the top of the stool seat. Lay your tea towel on top and smooth out the fabric, then turn it over so you can paste some Mod Podge onto the underneath and the sides. Once you’ve done this, start to fold over the edge of your tea towel material.

Once you have folded all of the fabric round onto the underneath of the stool seat, add another layer of Mod Podge to seal down the folded edges of fabric.  Stand the stool seat on it’s side, or prop it up for an hour to let it dry, and then add another of layer to the top and sides, to seal the fabric. This will make it wipe cleanable, so this is great for a coffee table too, no need to worry about spills or mess! Leave to dry again, screw the legs on and you’re done!

That's it! Super easy. I've still got loads of old tea towels to upcycle and a plain stool crying out to be upcycled so I'll try and do a Youtube tutorial on this soon. Let me know if you have any questions!