Before & After Ottoman

I have many favorites in my latest project. (The fireplace arrived and was assembled last night so more progress! Almost done.)

 

The show stopped in the room has to be that amazing ottoman!

When the color story was set at blues, whites, and creams I knew the perfect fabric to use. To my fabric closet I went and whipped this out:

It was a steal from the Brunschwig & Fils sale last year.

 

Now I know many people use old coffee tables and foam and batting, etc to make their own ottomans. Well I was on a time crunch and didn’t have time to hit all of my favorite thrift stores and craigslist was coming up empty handed so I came out with a solution.

 

I ordered a coffee  table/ottoman from Wal-Mart.

It was only $89 and the perfect size and shape!

 

Here is what we did.

 

1. First step was to flip over the top and remove the tufted buttons.

2. Once you snip the string in the back you just give the buttons a little pull and out they come.

3. Now my original thoughts were to remove the leather and add my fabric. Turns out that would have been a mess so we went with plan 2, which was way easier. I took some quilting batting from my craft closet and we covered the ottoman in that.

Here it is all finished. Covering it in batting helped add more padding and covered up the dark brown that would have shown through our blue floral fabric.

 

4. Now it’s time to attach your new fabric. Make sure it is nice and ironed first. You can start stapling the sides. This is pretty easy. The corners is where it gets a bit tricky.

 

You are going to have a bunch of extra fabric so you must smooth it all out and fold some of it over the top.

Now as you can see below Jon’s arm there is more extra fabric. You need to make sure it’s smooth as well and then fold it up in a 90 degree angle.

Now you have a nice crisp fold and no bunching.

Then holding everything tight you can start stapling it into place.

Here it is all finished:

 

5.  Now the next step is adding the tufting buttons. Make sure you have a contrasting fabric for the button covers, button cover kits and an upholstery needle.

Making the buttons are easy. It just takes a good amount of strength to push everything together, but it’s not too bad.

 

6. With all buttons done you can now get to work.

The only upholstery needle I could find at JOANNs was on the small side so before I had a major freak out Jon came to the rescue and came up with this:

They are some sort of tongs. This set is not necessary if you find a larger needle. I just couldn’t find on in a local store.

 

We threaded the needle and then slowly poked it through the hole.

When the thread comes through you can thread the button.

 

Now the best way that we able to attach the button was to thread it through the button once and then make a small knot at the bottom.

Then with the help of your needle you grab the end with the knot and stick it through the opening.

 

The needle and thread will come out this whole and then you can make sure your button is in the right spot and staple away.

 

Voila you are all finished! We had to do that 5 more times.

The project was really simple! I now want to make a bunch of them for all of my clients. It was that easy.

 

Many people emailed me about the fabric. The one I got was from a warehouse sale, but I saw this great look alike.

Available here for only $4.99 a half yard.

 

* I’m going to update the AFTER post and list where all of the items are from for all that asked.  I will also be doing a budget breakdown for the UES living room. Stay tuned.