Growing up, camping was a big part of summer vacation. I have fond memories of sitting around the camp fire on little folding stools every evening, packing them away in the car-top carrier every morning.

A few months ago I started thinking it would be nice to have a few vintage wooden camp stools around the house. I was looking on Etsy and eBay, daydreaming a little. And then one night I was driving home and spotted something special on the curb. It turned out to be a vintage camping set: several wood-and-canvas cots inside canvas bags with heavy zippers and two very sad, dirty wooden folding stools. Success!

I loved the wooden cots, but had no real use for them. But I folded up the stools in the trunk of my car and brought them home. They were covered with dirt and spider webs, the white canvas was fraying and coffee-stained (ah, camp memories). When I unfolded one, a big beetle fell at my feet and scurried away. Eeep. They were in decent shape, but needed a little work. Project!

original stools

original stools - folded

This week I finally got around to thoroughly cleaning and sanding the frames. So much potential here! After sanding, I coated the dry wood with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax three times, and the wood positively shines! Here they are yesterday, after the first coat of Feed-N-Wax:

stool frames - after

It’s hard to imagine that the canvas seats, with their raw edges and sloppy corners, are original. Who knows? But I had leftover outdoor canvas from the porch cushion project, which I think will make a sturdy, weather-resistant seat that will last. After prying out a lot of rusted staples, I made a rough pattern from the original seats. I’ll take this moment to point out the gorgeous new shears my brother gave me as a present last year.

tracing a pattern
shears

Don’t look too closely at the seams — I usually would use a twin needle for that stitching, but I don’t have a heavy-duty twin needle, and didn’t want to risk break a lightweight one on thick layers of canvas, so I just sewed around the perimeter twice.

seat fabric before and after

It’s definitely an improvement from the original.

The project is now so close to done, and of course, I’ve run out of gray upholstery thread. Back to the fabric store! Expect the finished product to show up here in a few days.

 

July 21, 2011

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