Updating the Outdated {Ottoman Reupholstering}

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Savers and came back with what I thought was the perfect ottoman (after many failed attempts) for my youngest son to sit on while he was watching television.  (Both of my boys have low vision so they can't see the TV from the couch.) I'm pretty sure my husband was horrified as he saw me wrestle a dated, dirty, worn, faded ottoman out of my SUV.  However, this piece was solid, sturdy construction and, for all its wear, had a fantastic cushion and padding.

 

I think I spruced it up quite nicely. 

 

 

 

 

Here's the before. I paid just $4.99 at Savers. Pretty bad, right? It was stuffed under a shelf and I honestly walked past it several times before it even caught my eye.

 

I started the makeover by removing the skirt.  The slash on the bottom portion of the ottoman was actually made by me.  I had intended to remove all the fabric, but once I opened it up I realized that all the stuffing and padding would just fall out and that was not something I wanted to deal with since it was in great condition.

I painted the legs a creamy white and added some foam (an egg crate for your mattress) to fill in the gap between the attached pillow top and the ottoman base to make it look like one unified piece.  I think doing this also modernized the look of the ottoman.

 

 

Next, I cut a piece of fabric (giving myself a little more than I needed) and layed it face down on the floor and placed the ottoman upside down on top of it.  To begin with, I just stapled once on each side to tack the fabric down. Then I began adding more staples to hold the fabric firmly in place on all four sides.  One tip I have is that I always kneel on whatever I am upholstering so that I can compress the cushion so that the fabric goes on nice, tight and smooth.

 



To do around the legs, I flipped the ottoman back on its feet and placed one staple on each leg to hold the fabric down.  You may need to cut excess fabric before you do this.

I then folded the wings of fabric towards the corner of the leg, stapling and cutting extra fabric.

This is after all the cutting and stapling:

 

 

 

Lastly, I covered the stapled around the leg with some matching trim.

 

While I was add it I recovered my older son's ottoman (it had been previously covered in drop cloth) and painted the legs to give a more cohesive look to the room.

 

 

Both boys are happy and I love the modern touch the fabric added to the room.  If you are interested in the fabric I used for this project you can find it here.  I went with an indoor/outdoor fabric to add to the longevity of the ottomans.

 

 

I hope you're all enjoying your long weekend! I had a couple of late nights updating the look of my blog...what do you think?

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