House Project: Ottoman!

I alluded to a house project that was almost finished, and I can finally share it.  It isn't using any CTMH products, but it is what I would consider a creative project... so therefore, I shall share it here.  HA!  There are some really neat blog posts on Pinterest (I know, right!) on how to create your own, inexpensive ottoman.  I had some leftover fabric and foam from making cushions in the living room, so I decided that I wanted to try to make one for our house.

Step #1: Have a good buddy who is always checking out garage sales find us a good base.  He did a great job, finding us this:



It was in great condition for little cost, absolutely perfect for the project and our budget.  My only concern was all the how-to's online were for square or rectangular shaped tables; I thought the oval may be tricky but probably still doable.

Step #2: Check out all the different how-to's online and determine what I needed.  I gleaned what I was doing from a few different blog posts, probably still pinned in my Inspiration board on Pinterest.  I really didn't need all that much. I had to get upholstery needles (scary looking!), buttons that I could customize, and batting.  I ordered what I needed from Amazon, and I waited.

Step #3: Everything is here!  Actually everything had been here for a while, I just hadn't really sat down and tackled the job yet.  First I had to get some measuring tapes and rulers to mark up where I needed the buttons to be.  This was not a one person job, my husband had to help me (probably a bit more than he really wanted to) with a few parts here and there.  His first contribution was drilling the holes for the buttons in the table.  It seems sort of sacrilegious to drill holes in a table that seems perfectly fine but just get over it.  After he drilled the holes, it was back to me again.

Step #4: I got out the batting, fabric and foam for the ottoman.  And I discovered a slight problem, a gallon of distilled water sitting by the foam had apparently for some reason decided to start leaking.  Lovely.  My foam was damp and in some places, really wet.  (* sigh  *)  Project put on hold once again as I dried out and ensured the foam wasn't holding any moisture before moving on.

Step #5: Foam is dry and good to go!  Yeah!  There seemed to be some differences between posts whether or not to use spray adhesive to attach the foam to the table.  Personally since I had some here already, I figured it could only help.  So Delaney was nice enough to spray the table for me in the garage (keeping me away from the fumes) a couple of times until it was ready.  Then I centered and placed the foam on top of the table, got out the cheap electric bread knife we got just for cutting stuff like this, and carefully walked around the oval table cutting as I went.  Next I centered and placed the batting, and then the fabric. 

Step #6: Creating the custom buttons for the cushion.  I had never done anything like this before, so to ensure I had a better idea of what I was doing I found some You Tube videos to watch.  Very helpful, so Delaney was talked into helping me make the buttons.  I used the template to carefully cut out the fabric, while she popped them all together.  It was definitely the easiest part of the entire project.  I was trying to get her to chat with all her friends that she was making custom buttons with her mom, but she declined.  Apparently her sharing of what seems like most everything, does not include lame projects with her mom.  :-)

Step #7:  It was time for Kenny to help again.  This is a two person project here; I really don't see how one person would be able to both wrap the needed batting and fabric around, staple it down, and hold everything at the same time.  So I was helping hold everything, getting the fabric in place, while he was doing the actual staple gun work.  Again, not too difficult.  The hardest part was trying to ensure that the curves were wrapped and draped in a visually pleasing manner.  :-)

Step #8: At this point, it actually looks pretty good even without the buttons, but I think the buttons will just give it that final touch (and we already drilled the holes and made the buttons already anyway).  Again, a two person project.  Kenny sent the upholstery needle through to me, I sent it back to him, and then he secured it down on the other side.  It was probably the hardest part of the entire process.  But now it is finished!  Ta-dah!



It doesn't even look like the same table, does it?  I am very happy with how it turned out; it is the perfect foot rest for watching television on the couch.  It is really hard to see the buttons in the picture, so here is a close-up:



That is it; the big project that I just finished.  I started making some art with September's Stamp of the Month set; I have a couple of cards made.  I have a couple other ideas to play around with, then I'll share all of those here soon!

Dani