Vintage Camp Stool Refresh

For today's edition of Operation Garage Cleanout, I have a quick and easy little makeover project to share with you.

And if you stick around to the end of this post I'm sharing an episode of Hoarder's a video of my garage. If you're easily overwhelmed or bothered by messes you can skip it 😉

My project today is a vintage camp stool refresh!


I have had this little camp stool for like ever... probably 6 or 7 years by now. One of those things I just couldn't part with because I knew it could be so cute but for some reason, I never get around to it... until now!

Here is what it looked like before, it might have been an old military issue stool... the army green canvas hints to those origins.

Originally my plan was to restore the old wood and hinges and make a new seat for it but the wood looked like it had been stored in a damp environment because it had little mold spots all over it and sanding wouldn't remove them. So instead, I decided to paint it.



This is another no-spend project so I looked through my fabric and found this fun vintage pattern and then found some paint that coordinated.


I spray painted the whole thing, hinges and all with light pink first and then brushed on a couple of coats of the blue color "Cloudless".


I distressed it a little bit to allow some of the pink to show through.


I used the old (and somewhat nasty 😬) seat for a pattern for the new seat.


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I used an upholstery staple remover to get the old, rusty staples holding the seat fabric on. These work so nice if you do any type of upholstery projects!


The fabric I chose for the new seat really wasn't sturdy enough to act as a seat so I also had some thicker canvas fabric that I used as a backing for more stability.


I used the old seat to cut my two fabrics to size.


I just folded the edges over twice and used a simple straight stitch to make the new seat.


Then I just stapled the new seat to the stool the same way the old seat was attached.


Isn't it cute?!





Since the fabric is lined and you can't see the back it's even cute folded up!

And since it's so compact I might have to put it in My Vintage Trailer!!



And here is a little tour of my garage! Eeeek! 😭