Introduction:
The Clothing Stool: We have repaired an old bar stool and turned it into a clothing stool. Out stool was broken and it’s seat was missing, so we repaired its flaws and added a seat. Our aim was to upcycle the stool and make it to the clothing stool, we all have, that we use to store our clothes on.

Tools needed:

Saw.

Tacker.

Drill.

4 larger screws.

8 smaller screws.

Materials needed:

An old chair.

A piece of wood (no larger than 30x30x2 cm) (x2 if wooden shelves wanted).

Old clothes. An old sweater or foam from a fabric store.

Plexiglass - the colour of your choosing.

Step 1: Repair

First of we repaired the smaller flaws on the stool, with wood clue.
If your stool is not as broken as this one, this step is not needed.

Step 2: The Seat:

Take a flat piece of wood and cut out a seat for the stool in whatever
size you find fitable to your stool. We chose 28 cm x 28 cm. We found it nice to keep the squared shapes in the stool and thus we made the seat in a square. The shape of the seat is up to you.

The Corners:

After having cut the seat with a saw, round the corners with fine emery paper and make the surface smooth.

Step 3: Attach the Wooden Seat to Your Stool:

Place the wooden seat on top of your stool and make sure it is placed precisely. Then take your drilling machine and pre-drill four holes through the wooden seat and further into the legs of the stool.
Make sure to be precise and do not at any time remove the seat from the stool, once you have placed it correctly.

Once you have pre-drilled four holes, you have to screw in four screws with the right length. (This depends on the thickness of your seat and the width of your legs of the stool.)

Step 4: Upholster Your Seat:

We chose some of our old clothes to make it personal and to recycle the fabrics. Then cut it out in the perfect size of your seat (Keep in mind that you also need filling, and 1 cm for the sewing line).

Firstly secure the edges from fraying.
Then fold it inwards (1 cm approximately) and sew it, so that you end up with a nice edge on your piece of fabric.

For the filling we chose to use an old knitted sweater.
(It is also possible to buy some foam filling in any fabric store near you.) Cut your fabric out in the precise size, so that it fits your seat and that you have the amount of filling you want. We used 5 layers of an old sweater and one layer of flies. You can attach the filling with a staple gun to be sure it stays in place.

Next up, tighten a nice piece of fabric on top of the filling and attach it with a staple gun on the backside of the wooden seat, which is turned towards the floor.

Optional:
An option is to paint the stool in a brand new colour of your choice.

Step 5: Shoe Shelves:

First Shelf
To complete the look of a “clothing stool”, we added two shoe shelves. Hereby we wanted to expand the chairs functions. The material we chose for the shelves was plexiglass. However, this is up to you. First off, you measure the distance between the legs of the stool, then indicate these measures on the plexiglass (or any other material you are using) and cut the shape out with a saw.

Cut out 4 lists To keep the first shelf in place, cut out four fittable wooden fillets of the remaining wood. The length does not have to be precise as it will not be seen once you are done.

Attach the lists Pick up the drill once more and make two holes on all four sides of the stool. Drill through the list and into the side of the chair. Then add the screws.

Plexiglass shelf one: Take your plexiglas and attach some masking tape on the area where you cut your shape. This prevents the plexiglass from fraying and makes sure you cut more precisely. Indicate the shape you want to cut out, then cut it out with a machine saw. Finally, place your shelf on the list.

Plexiglass Shelf two: For shoe shelf two, measure the distance between the legs higher up, and repeat the previous process by indicating the size of the shape on the plexiglass, followed by cutting it out. On this chair the second shelf is able to rest upon the cut-ins on the legs. This is a challenge as you have to be very precise!