So if you’re a certain age, you’ll be familiar with these stools, nearly every home had them or you knew somebody who had them, right?

Strong, sturdy, virtually indestructable, used in many a kitchen and dining room back in the day and beyond. But the true beauty of these stools was and still is that they could be re-painted and the seat pad re-covered, when the colour scheme in the house changed the stools could too. A feature of most households back then, gradually over the years many of them were thrown out, as they became perceived as ‘unfashionable’ and the advent of the fitted kitchen saw the demise of many a kitchen table and chairs or stools, unless you had a very large kitchen and even if you did then it was probably upgraded to a new table and seating.

Fast forward to now, folk are fighting to get their hands on them, they’re back in vogue and an upcycling dream. I’ve had multiple requests from folk seeking these stools wondering ‘if I can get my hands on a couple of those stools’. No matter how battered and chipped they are after many decades of use, the wood on these stools always comes up like new when stripped back or sanded down. The only very minor fault they have, if it can be called that, is that if being stripped down with paint stripping products it can also strip out the wood glue, but if you’re aware of this then it’s not a problem.

The two stools pictured here are likely to be made in the 1960s and were likely as not passed down the generations. They were initially varnished, then painted dark grey and finally painted a lighter grey. Stripping down wood usually results in a history lesson, you can usually ‘spot the decade’ when they were refurbished by the colour of the paint and/or the seat fabric! I stripped them down to bare wood then chalk painted them in black, waxed them and re-covered the seat pads with a modern velvet fabric. (The stools belong to a customer who is still currently using them but felt that it was time for a makeover).