ottoman facelift

Okay, so I'm getting married outside in a friend's gorgeous yard. Yes, the wedding is in April, but I've got to plan on good weather. If it ends up being bad, I'll adjust. I believe in planning for the best case scenario and then being flexible when nothing goes right! Anyway, her yard is absolutely gorgeous and I am so grateful for her generosity. For the wedding luncheon, I'm picturing tables set up around the garden (this will all be in bloom) and orchard area, but also having a basket filled with picnic blankets in case people want to eat their lunch picnic-style. I'd also like to have furniture set up (small side tables and chairs and brightly covered ottomans) in places so people can sit and chat with one another in a more comfortable setting. I found these two ottomans at Value Village for less than $10 and couldn't wait to cover them with the $4/yard fabric I got on sale at Hancocks. My goal with my wedding decor is to create pieces that will be used in my house later on. This ottoman will DEFINITELY go in my front room. I love how it turned out.

Sadly, I did not get a picture of the ottoman before I took it apart. I guess I was just too excited and got about halfway through before thinking about taking pictures. This is sort of what it looked like, only without rolling wheels, and the fabric was shiny blue on blue striped and frayed.

So as usual, my first step is always to take things apart. When reupholstering, it is really important that I take it apart methodically and take note of how it is constructed. I will usually put it back together in the opposite order I took it apart. After pulling the fabric off the old ottoman, I found out what the strange powder was--it was the foam pad. It had totally disinegrated and was at the point where it was hard and would break off into a fine powder when touched. Pretty disgusting--that went straight into the trash and I had to take a trip to the fabric store for new foam. So what I started with was the wood frame from the old ottoman (complete with springs in the undercarriage, and a piece of thick foam that sits on top of the wood frame. To keep them together and add a bit of padding, I used thin cotton batting to wrap the two pieces together so the foam doesn't shift around while I work with it.

Next, I lay my fabric over the top of the foam, sew the corners, and staple it to the wood frame. I made a piping with extra fabric and layed that down before covering the wooden frame. Once covered, I stapled the fabric along the bottom, replaced the foot plates and the feet, and Voila! Three hours later, I've got a brand-spankin' new piece of heaven!