$7 Ikea Table to Ottoman

Several months ago we bought a giant, ugly arm chair from a thrift store. Actually, this was what we did as part of our date the night before our youngest unexpectedly joined the family a month early. She 

must have been so excited to help... refashion spit up on ... the chair that she just couldn't wait. Well, here's the issue with the chair, other than being bright orange with red polka dots: it didn't offer a place to put your feet! We needed an ottoman. I couldn't find one I liked that was in our budget and it hit me one day while poking around Pinterest and saw a pin for reupholstering kitchen chairs. My feet were resting on an Ikea Lack table. DUH!! And so our Ikea table-to-ottoman project was born. 

Supplies needed: 

Ugly, comfy cheap chair. 

• 1 Lack table from Ikea. Ours was $7 new several years ago. We've seen them for $3-$4 in the As-Is dept. Check there first. 
• 3" foam- it's pricey stuff so we'd suggest waiting for a 50% off coupon to use at Joann Fabrics. It was the bulk of the cost for this project.
• A small package of batting. Ours was about $4 at Walmart.
• A piece of scrap wood (we used ply), cut to the size of the table top.
• 2 yards of a fabric of your choosing. I HIGHLY recommend using Home Dec.
• Spray adhesive (optional, but useful) 

Tools needed: 

• Good sewing scissors
• Sharpie
• Staple gun & staples 
• Table saw (or like) 
• Serrated knife
• Screws
• Screw driver

To do: 

1. Figure out the final height you want your ottoman. We were super scientific with our measurements. I measured from the top of the chair cushion to the floor and subtracted 2 inches because I like my feet down slightly. 

Table

2. Taking the thickness of the foam into account, mark the table legs to their final length. Cut. Don't be surprised if particle board/scrap clumps fall out of the legs. Remember, this is a $7 table you're working with. 

Hollow legs

3. Lay the foam on the floor, flip the table top down and trace the shape using the sharpie. The foam that we were able to get was narrower than the table was wide. You'll be piecing that "scrap" in later. Using the serrated knife, carefully cut along the line. Be careful to keep the knife vertical. It's easy to unintentionally shred the foam. My mom prefers using an electric bread knife to cut her foam. It works great but know that if you use it for this purpose, you may not want to use it for bread anymore. 

Marked foam

 4. Repeat the above step but this time with the ply wood. Cut it 1/8" smaller than the table on all four sides. We cut ours a little bigger than that but 1/8" should be sufficient. The allowance is for the fabric and batting.

Plywood cut 1/8" smaller 

 5. Using the spray adhesive, lightly attach the foam pieces to the plywood. The spray adhesive will also help keep the the foam in place with all of the wiggling that is to come.

Attached foam

6. Remove cat from batting before wrapping the foam.

Our "helper." Not very helpful. 

7. Lay batting on the floor, flip the foam & board onto the batting, foam side down. Begin wrapping batting up onto the wood. Starting on the sides, staple the batting down, leaving the corners for last. 

 8. Finish the corners like you're wrapping a gift. Cut off excess for a nice, clean finish. You won't want  to skip the batting as it gives the ottoman a little extra "poof" and smoothes out the sharp edges of the foam. And if you didn't cut it exactly straight, it should hide some of those imperfections, too.

Trim off excess (before)

Wrap corners like a gift

9. Following the same steps as above, cover in the final fabric. 

Generous use of staples

Neatly tucked before stapling

10.  Place the table, face down, on top of the ottoman pouf. Drill holes through the table and then screw the table to the plywood.

11. Flop on the floor next to the finished ottoman.

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