A month before I graduated from college, I was preparing to move to North Carolina for my first Real Adult Job. I'd found a kitchen table off of Craigslist for $70. I planned to sleep on an air mattress in my new apartment. I had no art or lamps or throw pillows. But I did have four brand new pieces of living room furniture.
My parents had asked me what kind of furniture I wanted for my graduation gift, and it was an easy choice. Any old kitchen table would work, and I was the only one who'd have to sleep on the air mattress. But whenever anyone came to visit me, they'd be sitting in my living room, so I asked for furniture to fill that space. They bought me a sofa, love seat, oversized chair and an ottoman.
I spent many nights sleeping on the couch with my legs sprawled on the ottoman because the air mattress had a leak (before you feel too bad for me, you should know that I got a very nice mattress for my birthday that year). I spent many days watching movies with my feet propped up on the ottoman. When I moved back to Tennessee, it spent some time in storage and then moved into my new home when I got married. It served as a makeshift coffee table for when my husband Jason and I had movie nights.
In all of those years, it started to look a little worse for wear. The foam on top got a little lumpy, and there was a stain from spilled salsa. So when Jason asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday this weekend, I told him I wanted to update our ottoman. He gave me a look that said, "Really? You can do anything you want, and you want to work?" But since it was my special day, he was on board for whatever I wanted to do.
We set out for supplies and spent the better part of an afternoon working on the ottoman. And I must say, I'm tickled with the result! In case anyone wants to do something similar with their own ottoman, here's a 10-step tutorial. It looks hard, but if you can staple and sew a button, you can do it! f
- Staple gun and staples
- Button maker kit (found in upholstery section of fabric store)
- Fabric drop cloth (amount will depend on size of your ottoman)
- Adhesive spray
- Needle-nose pliers
- Twine/upholstery thread
- Peg board cut to size of top of ottoman
- Upholstery needles
1. Remove feet and underside of ottoman. The feet of our ottoman unscrewed, though I had to get my hubby's help because we'd screwed them on there pretty tight. Use pliers to take out the staples that hold the underside liner in place. 2. Cut the top cushion off the ottoman and remove fabric. Pretty sure this step almost gave my husband a heart attack. Just get your scissors and get in there. Don't worry, everything turns out alright in the end. Remove all of the fabric from the foam cushion. Our foam was in decent shape, so we removed the matted batting and used the foam we had. If yours is in bad shape, you might need to get a new piece of foam. 3. Map out your button placement. This was seriously the hardest part of the whole thing. I wanted eight buttons evenly spaced. Just be patient, grab a calculator and a friend who's good at math. Mark up your peg board as you work, and keep trying until you find something that works for you. 4. Cover your buttons. Follow the instructions on the button maker kit to cover your buttons with the drop cloth fabric. 5. Use spray adhesive to stick cushion to pegboard. Use adhesive spray to cover the underside of the cushion, and stick it to the unmarked side of the pegboard. Be sure you can see your button placement marks. 6. Cover cushion in drop cloth fabric. I ironed the fabric before putting it on, but you could probably skip this step. Simply place the drop cloth fabric over the top of the cushion and staple the fabric to the cork board. Pay special attention to the corners to make sure they look pretty. 7. Sew your buttons. Thread your needle and use the pegboard marks to sew on your buttons. Secure the twine to the pegboard using lots of staples. Use a friend to help you push the buttons as far into the cushion as possible while you secure the other end of the twine. Make sure the buttons are seated down as far as they will go. |
9. Secure underside lining and re-attach feet. Staple the underside lining back on the bottom of the ottoman, and screw the feet back on.
10. Fasten top cushion and base of ottoman together??? This is where I stopped last night, but I'm planning to find a way to secure the top and bottom of the ottoman together. I think I will hand sew the fabrics together to mimic how the fabric was connected in the original piece. You could also use velcro if you'd like to be able to easily change the cover fabric. But the fabric has enough texture to it that it stays in place pretty well without anything holding it there.