New life for an old ottoman....
Old and nasty...but of course I neglected to take decent pictures BEFORE I tore it apart! But trust me...this thing came out of an apartment...and it was naaaaasty. And kind of old fashion and "froo-froo." It had a skirt...who has an ottoman with a skirt? (Oh yeah...I do...in my room...probably ought to fix that!)
Regardless, it is one of the many projects piled in my garage. And I have intentionally ignored it for one reason...it requires sewing...and you know how much I HATE to sew! But as I have said before, it is a necessary evil if you are going to tackle upholstery DIY projects. And truth be told, we had one of those spring storms blow through. It rained all day Wednesday and was colder than crud yesterday...and I can't strip and paint inside. So the ottoman was really the only project I could do entirely in the house since I had already painted the legs!
Originally the fabric was a yellow "formal" stripe...not terribly unattractive but seriously, it had a skirt and it was so nasty there was NO way it was coming clean. But again, good bones and structurally very sound. All I did was strip off the old fabric, paint the legs, add a little batting to the sides and recover! Good as new, and without the skirt it has a more "modern flare."
I find little trinkets like this in my apartments all the time...but even if you paid a few dollars for one at a thrift store, it is worth the time and effort to repurpose! Great way to add easy to store seating in a room or for a game room for the kids to waller on while they watch Barney (tells you how old my youngest is...Blues Clues and Barney!)
The trick to reupholstering any piece of furniture...pay close attention and take lots of pictures while "destructuring." Keep all the old pieces and use them as patterns for the new fabric! Ottomans are a relatively simple projects if it is your first attempt at recovering a piece of furniture. The structure is usually pretty simple, there aren't TOO many staples to pull and they don't take a lot of fabric (this one took 2 yards).
So find a really cheap ottoman and give it a shot...what's the worst that can happen...it can sit in your garage for a month or two...welcome to my world!
