An art room should be a garden of visual stimulation, born of creativity, inquiry, critical thinking and intellectual conversation--and a little collaboration is not a bad thing either! When the author unpacked the new stools for her art room at the high school, she envisioned something more beautiful than the brown masonite circles that represented the seats. She knew she would have to think about what she wanted to see there and what she wanted to teach to achieve the final outcome. What she decided upon in the end was a journey into art history to explore artists and their styles. This article describes an art project where students transformed the plain brown seats of the art-room stools into beautiful works of art and creative references for studying art history. This activity was aimed at: (1) discussing art history as related to artists, periods and styles of particular movements; (2) working in design teams to plan and execute designs for art-room stools; (3) creating drawings, transfer drawings to stools and paint their designs; and (4) completing a self-assessment in their design teams.