Project Ottoman

So I haven't blogged much recently, as you can tell. Instead, I've been busy trying to get all these silly projects done around my house before the baby comes. I am not sure why I decided to tackle so many projects this pregnancy, but I just had this desire/need to...change a few things/be creative/make myself go crazy. Since February I have turned a coffee table into an ottoman, painted two rooms, re-did a dresser, made an entire crib bedding set including curtains, sewed a new blanket for Vienna, rearranged rooms, re-painted frames, knobs and even lamp shades, reorganized spaces in my house...the list goes on. All while trying to keep up with normal house cleaning/nesting urges, feeding and preparing food for my family, running after a two-year-old, exercising, growing a baby and trying to prepare for the upcoming birth.

Whew.

Maybe it doesn't sound like a lot, but it's felt like a lot--probably because some of my projects have taken me much longer than originally anticipated. Over the course of these last four months I have constantly had something to do. Its made the pregnancy go by extremely fast, I can say that, but now I sit 4ish weeks away from my due date and I still feel unprepared!

I will get there though. My goal is to have all the loose ends tied up by the end of the week so I can just focus on birth, read some more birth books and spend time relaxing. And maybe squeeze a bit more cleaning in the mix. ;)

So now I want to share all the hard work I've done. This was my first project. The ottoman.

I found this great big coffee table on craigslist for $10. Andy chopped off the bottom portion of the legs for me so it'd sit a bit lower, then I threw a coat of grey paint on the bottom frame and distressed it a bit with sand paper.

Then I measured where I wanted my tufts and marked them on the table and on the piece of 4in foam. Then I drilled. Broke a drill bit too, oops. It was quite tricky to drill indents into the foam, but I managed after many attempts at practice. Then I sprayed spray-adhesive onto the foam and attached it to the table so that the holes lined up.

Then I used a painters drop cloth for my fabric (because I'm cheap and I wanted something durable!) and started tufting. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to get the needle through the thick foam and find the hole in the table underneath...I spent far too much time sitting on the floor, straining my back and...I admit...cursing under my breath. But I finally managed to figure out a trick to it and it went much smoother after that! Once the tufts were finished I pulled the fabric tight around the edges and waalah!...here's the finished product.

I love it. It fits great in my living room.

Unfortunately, it's not 100% finished. I still need to varnish/seal the wood frame. And since I've never re-upholstered anything before, I didn't pull the fabric quite tight enough, so it's already starting to get loose. I'm going to have to re-do the fabric at some point but that's okay because it only cost $5, and since I've already done it I think the second time will go much quicker! But those touchup projects are going to wait until winter...!!