Drop Cloth Ottoman...before and after!

Sometimes you really do have to be able to look past the grunge and smell to see the potential!!  This is one of those little "gems" I picked up at the apartments and as usual....NAAAASTY!   

I will admit, I am probably the last DIYer on earth to use drop cloths as upholstery material.  It's honestly not something that ever crossed my mind.  You would think with all the painting I do at some point I would have looked at the paint covered drop cloth beneath my feet and thought "WOW...that would look super cool on an ottoman." Nope...never crossed my mind! 

But I thought this was the perfect piece to give it a shot....

After all, it really couldn't get much worse.... 

Drop cloths really do make nice upholstery....very sturdy.  I washed this one 3 times with bleach and dried it each time...just to soften it up a bit.   It does have a tiny bit of a "wrinkle" look to it, but that kind of adds to the character.

For the piping I used a bias tape close to the color of the cloth....but it would look great with any color if you wanted to add a little pop!  

If you have followed me, you know I am not big on skirts...but this little guy had "cheap" wheels and if I removed them it would have been too short.  So I had to get a tad creative in order to compensate for the skirt.  So I added grommets and a little burlap ribbon bow to each corner just to give the skirt a little "flare." 

Too stinking cute! 

You could really do a lot of super neat things with this...add a nifty transfer to the top, or paint the fabric...maybe some red or denim piping and bows to match.  The drop cloths are literally a blank slate! But they are cotton and very sturdy and very easy to work with!  And compared to the cost of upholstery fabric they are relatively inexpensive!