Faux Fur Footstool DIY

This has to have topped my charts as my favorite DIY project ever. I was in love with it when I first saw it posted on A Beautiful Mess, but even more in love with it now that I have actually created one of my own. It’s perfect for my little space. It doesn’t take up too much room, but adds just a pop of character, as well as an extra place to sit if necessary. I absolutely love this new little addition to my apartment. It was fairly simple to make once we got everything prepped (a huge thanks to my family for pitching in and helping me with this – I don’t trust myself to use a screwdriver and staple gun unsupervised)! Here’s how you can make your own DIY footstool at home.

Gather supplies. You’ll need:

• 15″ round piece of wood (I found mine pre-cut at Lowes)
• 2 pieces of 2-3″ thick slabs of high density foam (I found two 15×18″ pieces at the craft store)
• Batting
• Sstaple gun + 1/2″ staples
• 4 short legs (I found mine at Lowes)
• 4 leg mounting plates
• Stain and brush to apply
• Drill and drill bit slightly smaller than the diameter of the screw on the table legs
• At least 31″ in faux fur fabric (the original calls for 1/2 a yard, but I felt like I needed extra. I suggest measuring/adding everything up prior to making any cuts)
• Fabric scissors and a marker

Stain legs (if desired). I opted for a nice medium brown. Set aside and let dry.

I decided to attach my leg plates first, as opposed to after the fabric is on. (The original instructions say to do it after, but I wanted to make sure they were all exactly evenly spaced apart.) Use this method for finding the center of your circle, and to figure out where to place your brackets. Mine are about a half-inch from the outside. Drill into place (thanks, Dad).

Trace your wooden circle onto your pieces of foam. To cut out, we used scissors to poke all the way through once, and then used a serrated blade to ‘saw’ at it the rest of the way around. As you can see, it’s perfectly okay if it isn’t exactly even. Just make sure it’s 15″ in diameter all the way around.

Lay your batting down on the ground. Stack your two pieces of foam on top of each other on top of batting, and then top with wooden circle (bracket side up). This part will take a little folding, fidgeting, and possibly even cutting. Pull the sides of the batting up and staple right on the edge of the wooden pieces. We ended up piecing a couple of pieces of batting together to save fabric, and ours was far from perfectly stapled up, but it turns out okay (so no worries if it looks a little rough at this stage).

You’ll repeat this same process with your faux fur. I left mine in a square while stapling, and then trimmed the excess off after. Fold up all four sides, and staple once into place. Then, “pleat” the corners, and fold up and staple on each side. Once all four corners are stapled, staple all the way around, at the edge of the circle, to secure.

Screw in legs once dry, and enjoy your new footstool!