French Inspired Ottoman Overhaul

Here's another treasure from my "Ethan Alley" Collection!

I lugged the big ottoman down our alley wondering whether it was worth it. 

Someone had just put it outside for trash pick up. It seemed to be in pretty sad shape 

with a shapeless tan slipcover and that brown speckled finish on the legs that I don't like.

But those legs were curvy and it was a nice size. 

It seemed to have a solid frame, looked clean and the price was certainly right.  

Hmm.

When I got it home, I tore off the slipcover and discovered a pink tapestry cover 

ripped in several places as if two cats had gotten into a shredding competition 

on it. I thought I'd just pull out a few staples to see what I was working with.

Ha!  It must have had 500 staples holding that fabric in place. 

And when I finally got one side free of staples, I saw several more layers under the tapestry. 

A strip of cardboard stapled to the frame, a piping cord border stapled to the top, 

a spring with a torn gray fabric stapled over it, and a layer of white wispy stuff over the cushion. 

All of it stapled securely to the frame.

It certainly was well made.

But I like a challenge. 

My tools were three flathead screwdrivers of varying sizes, a needlenose pliers, and 

a staple remover. Soon my empty deli container was full of staples and 

my palm was aching from pushing the screwdriver under all those staples.

When I finally got the tapestry off and could take a good look at the ottoman, 

I realized I didn't have a clue how to reupholster it. Because of the springs, it wasn't a simple "unscrew the top, staple on a new cover and screw it back on" situation.

Then the weirdest thing happened. 

When I removed the gray fabric covering the springs, I saw some writing. 

And it was my name!!! How weird is that. Meant to be, I guess.

I decided to remove the bumpers around the edge just to simplify things. 

Once I got all of the staples out, I sanded the wood frame 

then gave it two coats of cream-colored paint.

Next, I decided to cut the new fabric (Lowe's drop cloth) to size and play around with it until 

I figured out what I was doing. I stapled the middle of all four sides and worked my way out.

It was going fine until I got to the corners.
What to do with all that bunched-up fabric? 

I fiddled with it and trimmed it until it fit, tucked it under and stapled it together.

Whew! That was close.

I then attached some burlap ribbon around the edge of the fabric to conceal the staples using upholstery tacks. But every single tack bent when I hammered it into the hard wood. 

Argh!!

Ron came to the rescue with a great idea. 

He trimmed the points down to make the tacks shorter and they went right in and, 

would you believe it, stayed in place!

I revived this old beat-up ottoman destined for the landfill for only $2.47 for the tacks. 

Everything else we had on hand. 

Not bad for a beautiful piece of furniture and perfect for the guest room.

Another lovely creation from the "Ethan Alley" Collection.

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