DIY- Reupholstering a Storage Ottoman (and Vinyl Office Chair Cushion!)

My ottoman has seen better days and it still looks pretty and functions well after 3.5 years of daily use! This was one of the things I really wanted to do to spruce up in my room.. it was just too girly (still is...) I've used this "chair" as my makeup seat/ foot rest/ backdrop for my food photos/ step stool/ study floor pad?... ! I don't want to get rid of it and I know ottomans are fairly cheap... but there's nothing wrong with this one...it's just a bit worn. I've always been inspired by every home improvement show that spruces up furniture and finally I've decided to tackle this....armed with my very first staple gun and brand new zipper foot!

I wanted to make it a bit more comfy and thought that adding batting would do the trick. I ventured to Concord to get my supplies... 2 hours of wandering the stores later... I finally decided on the color scheme... Initially I wanted to make the seat a different color than the storage area, but decided that I could do this for much cheaper ... (err.. savings of only 5 bucks..) if I just used the same fabric and added an accented solid color trim. I re-drafted my plans and calculated that I only needed 34 inches of the fabric to cover my entire ottoman! Excellent...

FYI- This was my first time using a staple gun/upholstering furniture... yes there are puckers, bumps, weird sewing lines, but hey.. not bad for a first attempt right?? I didn't think I could even do it!

Dimensions of my storage ottoman - 16.5 inX16.5 inX16 .5 in

Purchased 3.5 years ago at Target for ~ 30 dollars (Clearance/ Kid's furniture section)

Problems- Needs a facelift! / More age appropriate :)

Price goal- not to exceed cost of the original ottoman

Materials-
Home Fabrics Concord:
- 4 oz batting  (Sold in bulk- 3 yards, you don't need this much! ~1 yard is fine)  $5
- 3.5 yards of piping cord ( don't know the size... but I'll attach a picture $0.15/yard) ~$0.50

Joann-
-Main fabric -Reg: 19.99/yard, sale (so many coupons this week!!) ~$9.50/yard Bought 34in $9
- Accent color- Green Reg 8.99/yard  Bought 1/4 yard $1.35

Misc stuff-
Staple gun - Dritz Light Duty - after coupon $7 (worked perfectly for this project, no jams and little hand fatigue! (heavy duty one made by Arrow was painful after a a row of stapling))
Extra Staples - Dritz Light Duty ~ $2
Zipper foot - $7
Clothesline - had a new pack from dollar store (decided to get a thicker cord for the box portion of the ottoman but didn't want to leave the house, clothesline worked nicely!)
Scrap fabric (because I had to do the piping twice and half was not used... ran out of my accent color :( )

little wasted fabric!!! :)

BEFORE

Stapled 1 layer of 4 oz batting all the way around 

Tada! The cushion doesn't look so smushed anymore 

The liner! - Note: non bias cuts = puckered corners.. but it's not too bad... 

While searching ottomans after I finished this project I found this from Target! Don't know when this was sold... but the fabric pattern is TOO similar to the one from Joann!
http://img3.targetimg3.com/wcsstore/TargetSAS//img/p/14/14/14141289_120917110000.jpg

I digress... but man I miss my makeup view in SF.. I now have a view of a wall... :( Makeup table was $20 on Craigslist - bought $10 in paint/ sandpaper. Painted it black/brown to match my furniture from a cherry wood... all completed in my tiny dining room! But I guess you can say I gave my vanity set a whole new look! 

Well, partway through the project my mom presented me with another one.. with a time constraint. I had to finish by the time my dad leaves for work on Monday. Challenge accepted. I stopped what I was doing with my ottoman and began drafting out ideas for this cushion. 

These two projects were completed in about a day and a half of sewing/ stapling. My mom mentioned that my dad's work chair was torn, I didn't expect it to be totally ripped/ oiled... until I saw it. He helped me by removing all the fabric and staples and I went to work. The cushion was still in good condition. I realized that I needed only around 16 inches of vinyl for this project. The person cutting it gave me 19.5 in. Thank goodness. I had so much extra to make my piping that I didn't think I'd even get to because I had a fear that vinyl would be too difficult and thick to sew through. I couldn't pin because I didn't want to puncture extra holes in the fabric. Sewing vinyl (Marine Vinyl) wasn't too bad, the corners actually looked better than my ottomans because of the way it stretched. I wasn't too happy with that pucker in the right (photo- left) corner of the cushion but that was in fact my first corner ever with piping.. not to mention my first time sewing a corner on vinyl! I was careful with the second corner and I think I definitely improved! 

I ended up following the same design of this chair that was made in 1975... originally there was vinyl on the side and fabric on top, but we decided to do all vinyl to make it easier to clean.

My dad helped me stretch and staple the cover and he used his heavy duty staple gun. My light duty one was ok... but just needed extra hammering to get the staples nice and flush. My dad will be sitting on this chair everyday so I wanted to make sure it was nice and presentable/ sturdy. I may have stitched a few high stress areas 3-4 times to make sure it was strong... yea.. a bit of overkill.. I know. I gave it a much longer life and hopefully no seams will undo soon.. and there you have it... what 5 dollars worth in vinyl (and 2 dollars worth of extra duty upholstery thread) can do for an old tattered up chair!

If you don't look at that left corner.. I won't either :) 

The completed cover - pre-stapling 

And... this was the before... I don't know why my parents waited so long to show this to me!