Aye yi yi, what a crazy Easter weekend we had! I was so excited to have my hubby home for four whole days straight that I got right to work on some antique makeovers that I’ve had sitting around for ages (ok 12 months, yep that’s so bad I know).
Last year I picked up this adorable Queen Anne style dressing table and mirror with a pretty rubbish stool. The dresser was fab, but the stool had had some kind of textured paint put on it and I’ll need to strip it back at a later date. But a few months back I came across a perfectly matching Queen Anne bench stool and it was perfect so I nabbed it. The dresser had cost me just under $100 and now I’d found a long seat to match for $35. Not a bad haul I thought.
I had them in mind for photo props both in the studio and for photobooths at events/weddings. They look amaze-pants.
Here’s how I did the main re-vamp.

Materials I used:
* Sandpaper
* Sanding block
* Palm sander and sanding pads
* Flood brand ESP (easy surface prep) – this actually negates the need for sanding and helps paint bond to the existing surface. I sanded back purely to be able to have the dark wood finish peeping through.
* Clean rags
* Paintbrush
* Paint (I used an outdoor gloss because I needed a hardy finish that could stand up to a little more abuse, and outdoor use) – My colour was Dulux White on White
* Some beautiful burlap/hessian to re-upholster the stool
* Staple gun and staples

First I pulled all of the hardware off everything and removed the legs from the stool. Then removed the old vinyl cover from the stool.
I cut some burlap to fit the stool and foam top with about an inch to spare. I folded the edges under (so yes, no sewing!!) and stapled the edges to the underside. Top finished.

For the paint work all I did was use the palm sander to remove as much of the old paint on the edges as I could so that the original timber finish was showing. Then prepped with the ESP by rubbing on with a clean rag, then rubbing off the a new clean rag. I left it all overnight and painted the next morning. Second coat went on as soon as the first coat was touch dry. Left again overnight for the paint to cure. The following day I used a medium grit sandpaper on the sanding block to remove enough of the paint on the edges to let that timber colour come through again.
I re-attached the existing hardware, because the old handles were gorgeous, and put new bolts into the mirror backing to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere.

Here are the results (along with some shots of some cute kid I found in front of them)

Alright, so it was a pretty windy day and little Miss’s hair was everywhere. We only got to shoot for about 10 minutes before we were all fed up and had to pack up.