Ottoman Mania

When the boys are away, the girls like to play.... arts and crafts! Steve was away on a sailing trip this weekend so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to hunt down that coffee table/telephone table I have been searching for to turn into an ottoman for the end of our bed. And I was successful!

I hit up a Salvos store I hadn't been to before in Red Hill that was great. It had a huge selection of second hand furniture, chairs, dining room settings and hiding in the back was this perfect little coffee table.

And for a whole $10 how could I say no! I'd seen on Pinterest a couple of ideas on what I wanted the end product to look like, maybe this or a little something like this? So I went in search of some supplies:

1) Material
2) Paint
3) Glue
4) Tacks
5) Tuft Buttons
6) Foam

Now the first 5 items were easy enough to source. I hit up Spotlight for material and buttons, the local hardware store for paint, glue and tacks but the foam was a little harder to come by.

So many to choose from!

I narrowed it down to two!

Sadly Spotlight only sold foam in pre-cut cushion size sections. After a little googling I found Clark Rubber not only supplied a range of foam but actually cut it into any size you want! Huzzah!

I had initially picked a black enamel paint but when I got everything home, the wooden frame actually matched perfectly with our bedside tables so I decided all I needed was a little sanding and a re-stain. Fortunately I also had some left over stain at home, so no need to hit up the shops again.

Because I wanted to add tufted buttons I needed to learn how to use the electric drill. After a quick tutorial by David, my mum's partner, I was able to make four holes in the top of the table, and another matching four in the foam.

I had to glue the foam down to the table top before I could begin tacking down the material. Now that was the trickier part. I had ended up picking the black and white stripped material so I needed to ensure that ended up being straight, while pulling it taut. Thankfully by the time I was up to this step, Steve had returned from his weekend on the water. Four hands are better than two!

To get neat corners it was as easy as wrapping a present 

Adding the tufted buttons was a little tricky as I had to thread a needle through the material, foam and wood and fasten it to a washer at the back. After a weekend learning to sail I left the knot tying to Steve!

While he was on a roll I got him to re-fasten the base

So after a couple of hours the project was done and I'm so happy with the result! Not just functional, but oh so pretty too! And all up it cost under $50!