Stylish kitchen stools

Hands-on time: About 2 hours per stool.
Total time: Add 12 hours of drying time.
Skill: Moderate.
Cost estimate: $18.00 for the materials needed to do two stools (cost of stools not included).

Materials & Tools

• Kitchen stools (previously painted, stained or unpainted)
• Newspapers
• Sandpaper, medium and fine grades
• Medium steel wool
• Tack cloth
• Clean rags
• Latex or acrylic paints in two contrasting colours (I used black and celery)
• 1-inch and 2-inch paintbrushes
• Weathered-wood crackle medium
• Glaze (4 parts glaze for 1 part paint colour)
• Triple-thick clear glaze varnish by Krylon (produces excellent high gloss results)

Stylist stools can be a welcome addition to any kitchen or bar area. The emphasis for this project is on the glaze accents. The rich contrasting colours of deep black and light celery are the key elements to the dramatic transformation of these stools, creating an interesting impact.

Cover your work area with newspapers. Make sure the stools are clean, and sand if needed. There is no need to strip the stools for this project, previously painted stools can be used as long as they have been cleaned, lightly sanded and wiped with a tack cloth. For unpainted stools, sand the entire surface using medium-grade, followed by fine-grade, sandpaper and wipe with a tack cloth to prepare the surface for painting.

Paint the entire stools with a celery paint colour (or a light neutral colour of your choice) and let dry. Apply black paint to the legs only and let dry, about two hours.

To give the stools a slight aged look, use steel wool to lightly sand the stool legs and seat area, especially the sides and edges, and wipe with a tack cloth.

With a soft brush, apply weathered wood medium to the stool seats only and let dry for about 60 minutes, or as per product directions. Once dry, paint the stool seat with black paint (this will allow the celery and the lightly sanded areas to show through), and let dry.

Make the accent glaze mixture by mixing 4 parts of the glaze medium with one part of celery paint colour. Apply the glaze medium with a clean cloth and rub off with a slightly damp cloth. This will give the seat a sleek translucent appeal and adds softness to the two contrasting paint colours to give it style. Let the stools dry for at least four hours. In a well-ventilated area, apply two coats of Triple-thick clear glaze varnish, let dry between each coat.

Tips

• If the stools were previously painted in a dark colour like red, add a good primer base coat like Apprêt Tout by Benjamin Moore, let dry and paint with desired paint colour.
• Instead of a base coat on unpainted stools you can simply stain the entire stool with Early American or Pecan stains to give them a country rustic look.

Variations

• The same painting techniques as above can be used for kitchen chairs, Adirondack chairs and benches. For exterior furniture make sure you use varnish that is labelled for exterior use.