At Home readers, you are in for a treat! Live the Home Life blogger and DIY extraordinaire Cara Wilkerson is now a monthly fixture on the At Home in Arkansas blog, sharing her tips and tricks-of-the-trade for bringing new life to old furnishings! We were blown away by Cara’s first post (she makes refurbishing this ottoman look so easy!), and we cannot wait to see what else she has in store. Welcome, Cara!

Just over a year ago, I stumbled upon a lovely little estate sale ottoman that was just too impossible to resist, so home he came with me. With a simple fabric switch-a-roo, this guy was much improved, but I have to be honest, I wasn’t 100% happy with his transformation.

With a plethora of other furniture rehabs capturing my attention, this guy waited patiently in the wings until I could tackle him with plan B. Well, my friends, the time has now arrive to reinvent this furniture friend…again…so let’s get down to some serious rehab business.

First up, slight demolition. We’ll begin by removing the existing fabric. Needle-nose pliers work wonders in plucking staples from any upholstery project.

Once the cushion is stripped, our next step is to paint the base. For easy painting, we’ll hammer a nail into the bottom of each foot. This gives the legs a little lift to ensure that every angle of the foot is properly covered.

One solid coat of primer (I swear by Kilz) gives our future paint a solid surface to stick to.

Once our primer is dry, a couple of coats of white paint come into play. We’ll use a plastic bag to wrap our brush in between coats, keeping the bristles from drying out and saving us the hassle of washing our brush between each coat.

Next up, fabric for the cushion. For this part of the project, we’ll mix it up a bit and try something new. Painted burlap is definitely in the near future.

To create a striped effect, let’s use painters tape to outline our pattern.

My initial thought is to use black paint, but I feel the urge to opt for a charcoal gray instead. Wiping excess paint from the brush and applying in short strokes gives us a light, slightly aged feel and keeps the paint from bleeding underneath the painters tape.

While the paint is still wet, we’ll remove the tape and pat ourselves on the back for transforming our burlap from boring to brilliant.

Once our paint is good and dry, let’s flip the fabric over and work our way around the end of the seat cushion, attaching our fabric with a staple gun, flipping the seat over from time to time to make sure our stripes are laying straight.

Once finished, we’ll place our seat cushion back on the frame and admire all of our handiwork. A completely simple transformation, and I could not be more excited. This is definitely the life this little guy was meant to live.