How I gave an antique footstool a fresh update and a new life with a pretty duck egg blue paint and canvas drop cloth

I so so so wish I had a before picture of this little footstool...but I can't find one 😟

I bought this antique footstool off Craigslist to use in my shabby craft room when we lived in Florida, in my pre-blogger days. The stool didn't look anything like this!

Picture this...orangey-brown legs...and a big pillow on top, in a vintage pink chenille pillowcase with a ruffled edge. I really think I bought it for that pillowcase, LOL. Vintage chenille is so shabby chic!

That pretty pink pillowcase was hiding a dirty little secret.

The actual footrest of this little stool was completely rotted. Yes, rotted. I was dumb enough to not even check that before I purchased it...I was so swayed by that pink chenille.

The fabric and wood were actually disintegrating, as was whatever was inside. YUCK!

After living with it for a little while, even that pretty pink chenille pillow didn't make me feel better. I cringed every time I saw this footstool, knowing what was hiding underneath! I had to give this stool a makeover. I had to fix the problem.

This stool was my first big furniture fix.

I single-handedly tore all the old square nails out, the horsehair, every disintegrating, disgusting bit of it (yes, I know it's an antique but I'm sorry, there comes a time when stuff has to go!). I took it down to the frame, which was basically the legs. The top was rotten, like I said, and it went it the trash.

Mr. DIY bought me a new plywood top, cut to fit and I nailed it on all by myself. It took two tries (we won't go into that, it's a bit of an embarrassing story, 😄).

Here's a really old (bad) phone pic of the footstool shortly after refinishing it. Note the drop cloth covered wing chair, created by following Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial.