Everyone needs a place in their home where—after a long day at work—you can kick up your heels and enjoy some BRAVO Housewives or a crossword puzzle. I’m working on decorating ours right now, but I’ve had the hardest time finding the right ottoman. Everything is too high, too tufted, too leather, too steampunk, or just too damn expensive. So when I stumbled across one that was cheap as dirt and just the right dimensions, I nabbed it: with plans to reupholster immediately.
I’ll likely need to recover it every year or two, so I kept the job quick and easy-to-replicate. Using some neutral fabrics I already had, I came up with a simple design that would do the trick and withstand some wear and tear.
Here’s how I took this piece from fugly to fab in under 20 minutes:
I cut the base fabric with a little excess and stapled it taught to the underside of the ottoman. It was a little tricky around the legs but—once stapled in place—I was able to loosen the legs, then pinch the fabric to the ottoman. I cut 2 wide strips of the striped fabric, laid them perpendicular across the ottoman and stapled them taught as well, one at a time. I trimmed the excess fabric and tacked the overlapping strips in place with a few simple stitches here and there (so it won’t get mangled from foot traffic).
