When we bought our couch, I saw all these cool ottomans, but they are like $500 and that's bogus. So I decided to make one myself. This was a learning process and I probably still spent about $200 on this. It is by far my most expensive project, but it turned out really cool and I still saved a lot of money. Unfortunately I did a $#8! job of documenting this project with photos, but I'll explain what I did.

I picked up this weird coffee table. The seller was practically my neighbor. It was HEAVY! It's made of MDF or something, laminated with some fake veneer and was a solid box on all 4 sides. The bottom was also the same material. I knocked it off with a sledge hammer before I took any pics, so I apologize. It smelled kinda like cat pee, so I was glad to be rid of that part.

Once I took the base off it, it was only 7" high, so I began with the math of trying to add height to it. I started with little feet things I got at home depot. I got little brackets that I installed and then was able to screw on the feet. Then I drilled holes in the feet and added castor wheels. This thing was gonna be heavy and I wanted it to be easy to move.

I got 5" foam for the top and was still going to be a little short on height, so I went and picked up some 3' long boards from Menards. I made a frame of 3" wide boards, then I put 3 1'X3' boards across the top of that. It added just enough height to make this into an ottoman.

From here, I began the upholstery. I picked up this muted chevron decor fabric on sale. The colors worked really well with my new couch. Since the couch is grey, I wanted to tie in some yellow, warm beige colors, and a little grey just to warm up the room. I didn't want a real bold chevron print with hard edges though...but I didn't want anything flowery and loose either.

The problem is, the ottoman, after adding all the height, was too tall to wrap this fabric around.

I wound up making 4 large squares. I rotated each one to make a pinwheel pattern with the fabric and then sewed them up to make one huge square that would wrap around the entire ottoman. You will see the pinwheel effect later.

I also got one of those little button maker thingies so I was able to make a button for the center tuft. I used spray glue of some sort to glue the foam onto the top of the ottoman. Then I wrapped the entire thing in batting and stapled that down underneath.

I took a drill and drilled a hole right in the center of the top. Then I flipped it over and cut a big jagged hole in the bottom. This was for the tufted button. I installed that with a giant upholstery needle and stapled the crap out of it to secure it in place. It seemed unorthodox, but that's how everyone does it, I guess.

Once the button was secure and I was certain the fabric was centered, I started stapling the fabric around the whole thing.

I added a basket tray for placing things on the ottoman. It also protects my fancy schmancy button that I'd hate to see ripped off.

Weird Laminate Coffee Table Becomes Ottoman