diy ottoman

Gratuitous living room pics, coming right up :)

As you may or may not remember, I recently revealed my new and improved living room. [I'll stop bragging in a minute or two, don't you worry.] For the record, I have loved every single corner of this room. While I've waited for my office to be finished, I've been working from our dining room table, facing the living room. And I smile.all.day because it's just so happy. I lovelovelove it. Is it okay to be this mushy, gushy over something you did? Is that arrogant? I sure hope not, because I can't stop :)

Anywhoey, when I first posted those pics, a few peeps wanted to know how I constructed the ottoman/coffee table. Allow me to demonstrate...

Supplies

• Wood for the top, cut to desired size. I used MDF and it's 35x35.
• Legs: I scored some scrap banisters from the Habitat Store and we cut them down to size. And by that, I mean The Boy cut them down to size. I read somewhere that the top of your coffee table should be slightly shorter than the seat of your couch [2 inches shorter, maybe?] so we followed that rule when measuring.
• L-brackets
• Foam
• Fabric
• STAPLE GUN!!

Position the foam on top of the wood and cover with fabric - pull it super, duper tight and staple it along the bottom side. Paint your legs and once they're dry, you're ready to attach them to the top. We had square legs and on all four sides of each leg, attached an L-bracket. Then you can screw the L-bracket into the bottom of the tabletop to attach the legs. I need to paint over the brackets, so they don't stand out as much, but that's for another day.

Does that make sense? Probably not, but it might make sense once you get it all laid out. I hope so, because I didn't take pics of that part :)

See? Isn't it pretty? And that cutie little tray is DIY, too. Remember this creepy little guy?

Well, he's broken. When I was taking him out to burn him, the frame shattered. Probably because it was framed in 1978 and fragile. So I robbed an old poster of its frame and did what I set out to do in the first place. Just paint the frame, frame a piece of fabric and you're done, sir, done!

And what did I do with our original coffee table, you ask?

It's greeting guests in our foyer, thanks to a World Market run. I'm not sure how I feel about those pillows just yet, but go with it. Maybe I'll cover them with (sshhh!!) Fall fabric :)