Barstool Makeover

We have been in our home over 6 months now and I am finally getting around to posting some DIY pictures. We have several things we want to do in our new place but with an toddler and one income we are doing them one project at a time. 

One of the first things we noticed we needed was barstools. In our contract we asked the previous owners to leave theirs but they declined. Which was fine by me because I really didn't care for theirs anyways. 

I found two different ones at Pottery Barn that I really liked but they were around $200 each. We needed the taller height which cost more and we needed 4 of them.

                                                    Love the back design on these.

Love the color options on these. 

 I looked at a few places around town and didn't find anything. So I went to Craigslist and late one night and I found 4 at the height we needed for $160. That's $160 total!! The next day with Paul in the SUV and Harper and I in the car we headed out to look at them. They were about 45 min away and Paul was not very excited to go. He hates doing things like that but I knew if they worked out he would be happy with the money we saved. They were the perfect height, shape, and they still had plastic on the seats!!

It took us a few months to decide what to do with them. I really wanted to paint them a fun color but nothing seemed to fit. I then sanded them, to get rid of the stencil detail, in hopes of staining them again for a rustic look but that was a complete fail. So I painted them black which would have been much easier the first go around. Trial and error taught me a lot. My good friend Bekki is a pro at painting furniture so she sent me the best tutorial with helpful hints and this is the final product.  

With the help of Bekki I was able to distress them, which is hard to see in this photo but trust me it turned out great.

We covered the seat in a linen with pale blue stripes but that will have to be changed out soon because the linen is tearing.