I spent hours and hours looking for the perfect bar stool for my new place and just couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. So I made it!!

Using an Ikea bar stool and a little imagination, I came up with this gorgeous creation…

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After searching and searching for a bar stool at a reasonable price, I found this NEW item from Ikea – the Ekedalen bar stool. I loved the color and design but was not too keen on the grey fabric seat.

Then, while shopping for fabric, I stumbled across these gorgeous pillow covers in a mark-down bin at Fabricland. And a bright idea developed.

Would they work as covers for the bar stools? Yes, they did! With a little tweaking, they turned out just awesome. Here’s what I did:

Step 1 – Remove the zipper

After trying to put these covers on “as-is” there was no way they were going on. The zipper had to be removed. Armed with my trusty seam ripper, off it came.

The first seat just slid right in, but when I tried the other two, they were too snug.

Step 2 – Let out the Seams

My pillow covers were 17″ x 17″ and when trying to slide these on to the seats, two of them were very snug! I believe an 18″ x 18″ pillow cover would be perfect.

Once again, armed with my seam ripper, I undid the two side seams and seamed them back up approximately 1/4 inch from the edge, giving me about an extra 1/4″ per side – times 2 per side – times 2 sides – would be one extra inch. I used one regular seam, then reinforced this with a zigzag along the edge.

Voila! They fit.

Step 3 – Whipstitch closed

Once my covers were snugly in place, I whip-stitched the opening closed, forming the cover to the shape of the back of the seat. I did cut the fabric slightly at the corners to reduce bulk where they needed to fit to the back of the stool.

DONE! And I have the most awesome and unique bar stools.

Let me know what you think! Do you like my new stool? I love to receive your comments and don’t forget to share!