DIY Ottoman (Featured on Tiny House Nation!)

When my husband and I relax after work, we like to sit and put our feet up.  Literally.  But we had a wooden coffee table, and that isn’t the most comfortable place to put up your feet.  Plus, I felt like our whole living room was brown, cream and white and I wanted something colorful and comfortable to put in our living room.

That’s where our new ottoman came in!

I give full credit to my husband on this one (I just provided creative direction and selected the fabric!).  I went hunting on Pinterest and found a tutorial from This Old House, but we weren’t about to pay the projected $200-300 …AND we didn’t want to pay $500 or more to buy a similar ottoman like this one or even this one.  So, my husband started drafting plans of his own…

In the end, it came out fantastic and ours ended up costing $92 including tax!

Here’s how it was done…

Materials Needed:
-Tacks
-Batting (for top and sides)
-Fabric (3.5 yards-but make sure it is the fabric on a roll, not a standard bolt since the roll is much wider)
-Particle Board (You’ll need two pieces of 2′ x 4′ x 5/8″ and one piece of 2′ x 4′ x 1/2″)
-Legs (you can buy wooden legs that are fancy, we just used scrap lumber and stained them)
-Piano Hinge
-Carpet Tape
-Carpet Pad (6′ x 4′)
-Cardboard Strips
-4 Threaded plates and 4 bolts (with matching thread count)
-Staple Gun (electric is HIGHLY recommended)
-Staples
-Drill
-Drywall screws
-Saw (table saw recommended…it’s just easier that way!)

Directions:
1) After getting all your materials (Hobby Lobby & Menards had all our supplies), cut your boards to size.  Be sure to plan your cuts so that you use all of the particle board.  Here’s a visual layout with all the cuts that will come from the particle boards.
Here is what the boards will look like once cut:

And here is a visual on where those cut pieces of particle board end up on the final product when you go to assemble:

2) Layout, pre-drill, countersink and assemble the sides (Item F inside Item C).  You can clamp the two like pieces of particle board and pre-drill both at the same time.

3) Layout, pre-drill and assemble the bottom rails to the now assemble box from Step 2. (Note: Item E is intentionally cut 1/8″ short for easy assembly.)
4) Upholster the box.  Start in the center back with the batting and the fabric layered on top and work around, stapling to the bottom underside rail.  If you chose a patterned fabric, be sure to keep it straight!  Use extra batting around the corners and end up at the center back again, and use cardboard strips to keep the seam neat.  Use tacks to finish. Fold fabric over into the inside, stapling at the bottom– you’ll want to staple within 1/2″ of the bottom.

5) Upholster one side of Item A, no batting necessary.
6) Cut your carpet pad into 4 pieces, each 1/4″ smaller length and width size than the last.
7) Upholster Item B using the 4 pieces of carpet pad and batting.

8) Attach piano hinge to the top (Item B).
9) Attach threaded plates to upholstered box bottom. Note that you will only use 3 of the 4 attachment holes since one of the holes falls in the bottom opening for each plate.
10) Cut, stain/paint legs (ours were 2.25″ square by 3.5″ tall)
11) Layout, pre-drill and install hanger bolts into the legs (make sure they match the thread count on threaded plates in Step 9.)

12) Once the legs are dry, attach felt pads (optional) and screw into threaded plates.
13) Attach top and piano hinge to assembled box.

14) Lay upholstered bottom from Step 6 into the box, no fasteners necessary.

And there you have it!  A DIY Ottoman that is super comfortable AND affordable!

Total Cost (including tax): $92!  And nearly half of that cost was the fabric. We had the staple gun, table saw, drill and drywall screws on hand already.

We LOVE our new ottoman.  Much more comfortable, plenty of storage space, and quite stylish if I do say so myself!  (And a special thank you on this project goes to my super handy husband…he’s a rockstar!)

UPDATE:  Our DIY Ottoman was recently featured on Tiny House Nation, a new series that just premiered on the FYI network! Check out the full episode here: http://www.fyi.tv/shows/tiny-house-nation

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