Reupholstered Ottoman

Hi all, my name is Beth (but some call me Kat) Randall and I am a frugal wife. I also blog here but I am all about the bargains and diys! My latest undertaking was reupholstering an ottoman. For about two years we had this ottoman tucked into a vanity-turned footboard.

We have it partially for looks, mainly so Lilu, our corgi, could get on the Bed. Unfortunately it was made of vinyl, so after 2 years of corgi bounces it was ripping pretty badly. It was on the top of my hubs list for me to reupholster for awhile. Eventually the ottoman's day came when I was invited to a craft night, composed of other frugal wives, so I packed up my sewing machine and officially began.

Step 1.) I started by ripping out the staples on the bottom of the ottoman

Step 2.) I cut off the old vinyl in a strip around the base (so it was a long rectangle.) The top circle part basically fell off in chunks.

Step 3.) Then I saw this underneath, not what I was expecting. Thus I knew a future step would involve buying new foam. I put the white batting that you see here around the base to make sure the straw wouldn't poke through. I also changed my approach to more of a slipcover technique since the bottom was the only thing that could be stapled, there was no wood in the frame. This link was very helpful.

Step 4.) I used the strip of old fabric as a pattern and cut the new fabric to match, adding a little extra for seams. My fabric wasn't long enough so I had to seam two pieces together, (But I did my best at matching up the plaid stripes! See the vertical seam below)

Step 5.) Next, I re-sewed the piping into the new orange plaid. I basically cut a long skinny piece of fabric and wrapped it around the vinyl covered piping and using a zipper foot on the sewing machine (which will allow you to sew snugly right next to the tube of piping) sewed it up

Step 6.) Then I sewed one side of the seam allowance hanging off the piping onto the rectangle of fabric.

So now the sides are done, it basically becomes a tube of fabric with piping on the top. The tricky part is the circle...

Step 7.) Measure from the middle of the ottoman (there was a hole where the old button was) to the edge, then take that measurement and cut string to match. I pinned one end in the center of my square of foam ($7.50 with my jo-ann's coupon) tie the other end to my sharpie and drew a circle.

Step 8.) Cut out the foam into a circle, (make sure it fits the top of the ottoman nicely) and use that circle to trace another circle on the top fabric piece. Then cut out the circle out of the fabric with about .75" to 1" extra.

So this is the part that took me a few minutes to think though, I kept thinking I was over-simplifiing, I was so scared to sew a circle but all it ended up being was

Step 9.) I matched up the line that was drawn on the fabric with the seam line that was sewn when I stitched the fabric to the piping (the side that is showing the picture, farthest from the fabric is the side I sewed onto the circle of fabric). Making sure right (patterned) sides of the fabric are together. I sewed very slowly making sure the lines matched up and stitch by stitch we made it around the circle.

Step 10.) Once the base was sewn onto the top, the only thing left to sew was one side. I decided to do that one by hand in order to ensure a tight fit.

No my stitches aren't discreet, I used the thickest thread I had to protect my ottoman from numerous corgi leaps, plus you don't see half the ottoman when it is nestled in place.

Step 11.) we used the same thread to pull the same orange button through, using a hanger, it took a lot of nick's muscle but the straw gave way and it came through, tufting the top!

Step 12.) Last step was just to pull tight and staple the fabric to the bottom, (I misjudged how much added height I would need with the new foam so I ended up sewing extra fabric on bottom so that we would have plenty to staple.)

And it's done! I was glad to keep the pop of orange and the plaid adds another layer of texture to our space.

Lilu was happy to have it back, the 3 days it was out of commission she was a little diva about whining to get up on the bed.

That's it! I found the fabric at Tempe Sales, I think it was $1 a yard and I got 2 yards. the foam and batting were around $15, and it took about 6 hours, two 3 hour stints :) Nick was a happy camper.

Until Next time!