– Anybody Can Do / DIY
Alright so today on Repairs101 I’ve got this great looking little footstool that has a broken frame and a leg that keeps falling off of it. So I’ll show you how I pulled off the cover, did the repairs to it and put it all back together again.
I think everybody has a piece of furniture that needs some kind of repair. I chose this footstool because it has a couple of things wrong with it. You see? This cross-member’s been broken and the leg won’t stay screwed in.
Disassemble carefully
First I pulled the staples from the drawer front. Then there was this ring of brass tacks holding the cover on. Then it’s just a matter of slipping the cover off – hopefully with all the padding in place. Here you see the top came off with it. So I traced the broken cross-member onto a larger, stronger piece of wood. I cut it to be a sixteenth of an inch larger all the way around for more strength. Then I measured and cut the notches for the cross-braces.
OK all ready to put it back together again after I pull a few nails. So the threads on this stud aren’t biting anymore and the simplest solution is to add some material for it to bite into, like this strip of maple. Just break a little piece off and work the stud down beside it. Now it tightens right up. I chose some longer staples for tacking the frame together and reinforcing it. So I popped a few more staples in for strength.
Orange crate
You know, this thing’s nothing more than a padded orange crate with feet and a drawer in it. Next I fit the cross-member with a bit of glue. Now the cover’s in good condition so rather than mess with it at all I trimmed the frayed edges and I put it back on just how it came off. And so continuing on in the reverse order of how I took it apart, I tacked the skirt back in place. So then I switched to some shorter staples to attach the fabric.
Tacwise A14013V
This is a really sweet stapler with power enough to go through aluminium flashing. The extended barrel makes it perfect for getting into tight spaces like this.
Here I wasn’t at all happy with the way I pulled the centre too tight so I pulled out a couple of staples and shot them again. Now I know it’s just a cheap footstool but it looks nice and with just a little bit of effort I was able to keep it out of the landfill site for a few more years. With the right tools anyone can repair upholstered furniture.
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