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!

Diving for treasure

Over the weekend Steve and I went treasure hunting- of sorts. Friends of ours recommended we hit up the local tip shop, saying its a great place to find second hand furniture ripe for restoration. I'd been when I was much younger and back then all I thought was it was people's left over rubbish. I didn't have the imagination to see their potential. 





Steve said we should only purchase if we see something that isn't too large as of course we don't yet have our own house to store them in. I had my eye on gettting a coffee table to turn into an ottoman for the end of our bed, kind of like this. So when I spotted this 1960s vintage telephone table it got my mind racing.

I contemplated taking the drawer off and replacing the plether seat cover with some new material and wadding to make it nice and comfy. Perhaps a coat of white paint, the possibilities were endless.

I also like the look of the drawers in this old closet.

I was contemplating making some storage under our bed simply by adding some wheels to the bottom of old drawers.

But at $80 it was a little steep to buy an entire closet just for some drawers, and then I would have the problem of what to do with the closet.
Alas, I couldn't make a decision and Steve's shopping patience was dwindling so I held off on purchasing until I did some more research on what I could transform them into. I'm going to head back this weekend and see if the telephone table is still available or whether there's a more suitable piece to make into a coffee table! Wish me luck!