Turning a Chair into an Ottoman-ish Thingy

Earlier in the fall, I was telling a friend about my idea to make an ottoman to put in the big girls’ room.  They’re both teens now, and they love having friends over.  Although they are mostly here, there, and everywhere around the house when that happens, they do spend some time in their room talking and playing.  So I was thinking an ottoman would be great for them to have for sitting on, hanging over, or setting fun stuff on.  

My friend is a fantastic decorator, who has a great eye for re-purposing things, among her other many talents.  She had a spare chair without a back, and some foam and batting she thought would make a great ottoman.  She very generously gave it all to me!  

I love her.

I spray painted the chair base one day in the fall, when I was also painting several other things white.  Then I sprayed a few coats of polycrylic polyurethane over that for protection.  But after that, things got a little dicey around here between school and ballet and people wanting to eat meals at least 3 times a day, so the ottoman was put on a back burner.

Finally – it found itself at the top of my to-do list.  See what we did with it…

Here is the chair base:

You can see pretty much all the pieces I used for the project strewn around it. 

The foam and batting my friend gave to me fit great on top, and it even curled down a little around the upper edges, but I knew I needed a little more padding for the lower edges of the seat.

  

So I went in search of my garbage bag full of batting – which the girls are constantly using for different projects of their own (mostly related to Barbies, 18 inch dolls, or Calico Critters). 

I turned the chair over, and grabbed long strips of batting to wrap around the corners.   The batting needed something to help keep it from shifting, so I wrapped 2 old towels over the top and sides and then tucked the batting under the towels really tightly.  I have to admit, I don’t remember if this was Glenn’s idea or mine.   

Then Glenn helped out with one of his power tools, his pneumatic stapler.  I have a smaller stapler, but we (Glenn) thought the seat would be too thick for it, so we used 1/2” staples and his stapler to staple the towels to the underside of the seat.

I laid out the fabric wrong side up on the floor and we carefully situated the upside down chair with the towels and batting, etc. in the middle of it.

After that, we wrapped up the fabric around it as tight as we could, carefully folding it over at the corners around the legs.  Stapled the fabric in place.  And voila!  That was it!

 

                     Here’s Glenn smiling for me afterwards.  Pneumatic stapler at the ready.

              

                                                     He’s so cute.

 

                                        And here is the finished ottoman!

 

        

 

Alix and I decided it would look nice in front of one of the windows.

 

    

 

She was the first to try it out!

           She’s adorable.  Just look at that sweet smile…

 

Meanwhile, I thought you might enjoy a peek at what goes on around here when I’m busy with a project. 

The girls had hauled the Barbie House down to the family room, along with a whole bunch of their dolls, and were playing.

 

 

I’m not exactly sure why, but I was asked especially to take a picture of these particular dolls doing these particular dance moves.  I think it had something to do with the one named “Ken” lifting up one of the Barbies in an astonishing display of strength, while most of the others cavorted happily. (except for the one that looks like she’s either taking a nap or swooning)

 

 

How could I refuse?

And here is Alix – nearby, but working on beading projects.  (notice those cute ballet socks, which are also from the friend)

 

 

And the boys? 

One guess.

Yep!  You’re right!

 

Such handsome boys…

Have a great day!