I’m really excited about today’s post.  We have a guest post brought to us from Jen of The Yellow Brick Cottage.  She is showing us something that she hasn’t even shown on HER blog yet!  Do you feel special?  You should.  Jen is hilarious.  You need to start reading her blog.  She’s incredibly honest and un-sugarcoated.  She knows how to turn a salmonella-carrying reptile into a Ninja Turtle, which is a cooler thing than lemons into lemonade.

Here’s your taste of Jen!

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Hey All,

It’s Jen from the new DIY/Home Decor blog, The Yellow Brick Cottage (because, there obviously aren’t enough DIY/Decor blogs out there.) First of all, I want to give Kenz a big shout-out for allowing me to crash her blog and show you my newest project!

{okay, and to shamelessly plug my own blog…}

Kenz and I met through the blogosphere when I found her blog through a linky party and commented on a heart-warming post in which she admitted she gets high on spray paint. We soon became fast friends because I totally stalked her and when she offered to let me guest post a while back I was really excited, but didn’t have a clue as to what I could post about. However, when I came up with the idea for the ottoman re-do I’m about to show you, I knew it would be the perfect one for her to use as my guest post. (You’ll soon see why.)

Okie-Dokie.Here we go.

First, it’s important to know that upholstering an ottoman is said to be one of the easiest DIY projects out there. I think every blogger has done it and most have a tutorial on it. It’s quick and fairly simple.

Unless, you are me.

In which case, it will take you almost a month to finish which will include several re-do’s of the re-do, stress-eating by way of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and plenty of cuss words added throughout.

Anyway, it all started with this totally hideous ottoman that my sister gave me, which I loved instantly because us crazy DIY girls love ugly stuff, like Lindsay Lohan loves jewelry (except we usually get our stuff the legal way).

(You really can’t appreciate the orange-iness of the faux-leather from the picture, but let me tell you it was spectacular.) 

The original plan for the ottoman was to recover it with this beautiful light blue damask material that I had gotten from Home Fabrics for $4. Very shabby chic and romantic looking.

It was looking great and I had even managed to redo the tufting on the cushion…and then I got to the corners…which didn’t look so great, no matter how hard I tried.The frame for the ottoman was just too tall for me to make them work without doing any sewing and seeing that I actually got kicked off the sewing machine from my 7th grade Home-Ec teacher for destroying a potholder (okay, and there’s a slight chance that I maybe punched the machine a few times out of frustration), I wasn’t ready to try it, which was good because I didn’t have a sewing machine, anyway.

Frustrated, I nearly threw the ottoman through the wall gave up, but after a few Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (and taking my frustration out on my poor husband who tried to help which resulted in him volunteering to sleep in another bedroom that night), my mind cleared and I was ready to figure out what to do with it. I just needed some inspiration and ideas, so I turned to Google Images and began my search.

I found some great ottomans that I loved. The problem was that nearly all of the ones with the same shape of mine required sewing skills or the actual ability to reupholster, talents which I have yet to develop.

However, my luck changed when I saw this awesome ottoman from Restoration Hardware:

Like Kenz, I love Restoration Hardware and the unique furniture they sell (Although, I probably wouldn’t give up a vital organ like her, but if she wants to get into the organ selling market, who am I to judge?). I knew right away after seeing it that I could make my own version of that ottoman pretty easily. It was the perfect shape and style. I just needed to start all over, so I removed all of the foam and started over

The next day, I was at Lowe’s buying some fence boards to use as the wood planks, just like on the inspiration ottoman..

I cut the boards to the right dimensions and then stained them using two different colors of stain and some antiquing glaze. I did the same on the “feet” of the ottoman after I used some furniture stripping gel to get rid of the old finish on them.

Once the planks were nailed on with some finishing nails, I made the wormholes like the ones on the inspiration ottoman by using a hammer and nail setter in some areas for the bigger ones and just a finishing nail for the smaller ones.

Then came the part of adding the burlap and upholstering the cushion. I laid the burlap over the frame and then cut it to the size I wanted, then I added steel upholstery tacks that I found at Hobby Lobby to the bottom of the burlap just like what was used on the inspiration ottoman.

 I also applied an anti-fray solution on the bottom of the burlap to prevent…well, fraying, of course.

For the cushion, I used white canvas duck Instead of the tea-stained material that Restoration Hardware used because of the cottage look I am trying to create in the house and I wanted it to semi-match that look (No, I can’t believe with two kids, a dog, and a husband I chose white, either.) For the wheels, I used plain old casters I found at Lowe’s and even though I wasn’t concerned with function, they work really well to move it around. (I may start putting casters on everything from now on….)

Overall, I love how it turned out and I cannot believe the difference between the original “I wish I were back in the 70’s” version of the ottoman and the one inspired by the Restoration Hardware one, which ended up being MUCH cheaper than $895 (okay, so it was on sale for only $675…which is probably a great deal for those that don’t have to choose between it and feeding their family for the month.)

If you want to see more pictures and get more details on the process, or to learn more about me or my blog, I would love it if you took a stroll over here and checked it out.

Thanks for reading!

Jen

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I’m so glad Jen wanted to share her ottoman with us.  She better watch out, because the next foggy night we have I might sneak out and kid nap it right out from under her feet.  I love it so hard.  It would match perfectly with my bossy chair.  Viva La Deconstructed Restoration Hardware Furniture!

Make sure you go over to The Yellow Brick Cottage and make friends with Jen.  You won’t regret it.

PS- I redid my about page.  Have you seen it?

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