Design on a dime: Reupholstering an old ottoman

....and turning an ordinary ottoman into a STORAGE ottoman for less than $20!

Thanks to my cousin Kim and her blog TheDisserKnows, I got a great idea to reupholster my old ottoman that I was debating on throwing out!

I looked around at different ottomans to buy but just couldn't seem to find one that 'fit' me (I wanted one just like my old one). Ottomans are one of my favorite things! In my opinion, they are way cooler than your traditional coffee table. They come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors and some of them even have storage! If you can find a ottoman tray or any kind of tray for that matter that fits your ottoman, you can sit it on top for decor or as a multipurpose hard surface just as you would have with a coffee table. The reason my ottoman is so dear to me is because it is so comfortable and squishy, not to mention it is the perfect size for my living room. I don't like the look of reclining furniture, but I love that I can kick back and use my soft cushioned ottoman as a footrest (much more comfortable than any recliner!). The tray comes in handy for that as well because everything you have on top will be in it so that when you need to use your ottoman for other purposes the tray is easily relocated. My poor ottoman had been through the ringer, there were so many stains on it that no matter how much I cleaned and scrubbed they would not come out. I bought a stretchy cover for it but that didn't look right, so I was just done with this ottoman! One other quality my ottoman was lacking was that it was not a storage ottoman, which is what I really wanted. When I decided I was going to reupholster it, I also decided I was gonna turn my favorite little ottoman into my ultimate favorite ottoman by making it have storage...I was so excited!


This ottoman re-do cost me less than $20!!!!

Materials needed:
-Scissors
-Flathead screwdriver
-Fabric (I used a little less than 2 1/2 yards)
-Staple gun
-Glue gun (optional)
-Thin piece of board cut to the size of ottoman for base of lid (only needed if your turning ottoman into storage ottoman or if your ottoman top needs support for weight)
-Thin piece of board cut to your dimensions for the base of the inside bottom of ottoman (only needed if your turning ottoman into storage ottoman)
-Piano hinge (only needed for storage ottoman)

So here is what I did:

This is what it looked like before, also with the ugly slipcover I bought. I know...gross.

First, I flipped the ottoman over and unscrewed the legs off. I lost patience with using a flathead screwdriver to remove the old staples so I just used scissors to cut all the old fabric off, haha. The fabric on this ottoman was all one piece even though its sewed to look like the top is separate. Once all the old fabric was off, the top cushion was separate from the base. I stretched fabric around cushion evenly and glued the fabric on the under side of the cushion. I recommend putting a thin piece of wood or MDF cut to the size of the ottoman on the underside that you can stretch the fabric over and then staple. This is the only way you can add hinges for the lid to open and close if doing storage and if you use your ottoman as a seat, you will definitely need to do this because with out it, there is no support unless your ottoman already has built in support. For a more detailed look at how to do this, click here. I then cut the corners of the fabric down a little and then folded and tucked one side, pulling down and gluing underneath. I did not do the wood for the lid base yet, but I am going back and doing it...just didn't have the material at the time. Also, my ottoman has a support bar going across as you will see below, but that is being removed after I put the base on the bottom of lid.

For the base, I measured and cut 4 strips of material a little bigger than the width and height of each side. I stretched the material over each side and stapled. When I got to the corners, I did as I did before and cut down the extra material a bit and then folded and tucked under, pulling and stapling material under the base.

I then attached a thin piece of board to the underside of the cushion that I screwed the hinge onto. I recommend doing it this way instead, the way I did it was kind of thrown together because I went back and did it after I had already finished my ottoman. I then stapled a board in the inside bottom of the ottoman that I had cut to the size I needed. Again, click here to see how another person did the inside of theirs for an alternative way.

Here is the finished look...

Well, there you have it! If you have any questions, leave a comment!

**Other blog that I referenced to:  

Running With Scissors (Jessica @ Running With Scissors) / CC BY-NC 3.0