Ottoman re-done

Irving had an Ikea ottoman from before we were married that he really wanted to keep. It was covered in this faded blue canvas and just looked very "college-y". So of course it had to be re-upholstered. It was tough deciding what to use, but I finally decided on an Amy Butler home decor fabric. I wanted something that wasn't too loud or colorful, but still modern and interesting.



I love that this ottoman is really a box: the top comes off like a lid, and the inside is great for storing throws and blankets. The upholstery is attached using Velcro all around the edges of both pieces, so it's pretty easy to remove it for washing. (I discovered that Velcro is not cheap, especially since I needed about 5 yards of it -- so I ripped the Velcro from the old cover to sew onto the new one.)



The trickiest thing about this project is the shaping. I had naively thought everything fit together like the sides of a box with right angles, but realized later that some of the corners are actually rounded or angled... so I resorted to some quickie not-so-elegant fixes rather that ripping and re-doing. I tend to be a little lazy when I'm making things for myself. I think it's also a little looser than it should be - I should've taken my measurements in just a bit so that the fabric would stretch over the frame and fit more snugly. The Velcro edges allowed me to stretch it more tightly though. Good lessons for future projects.