The Ottoman
It's Saturday night @ 10pm....do you know where your children are? Guess I'm getting too old for my parents to ponder that question. However, the hubby was wondering what happened to his wife when I left @ 9pm saying I was going to the garage for a few minutes and would be right back. An hour later, I still had not returned...hubby found me in the garage building an ottoman. "See what had happened was.....LOL!"
What can I say....I can't control when inspiration and genius strikes me (or so I think it's genius)! Long story short - we have an extra cushion for our couch. The story part is that the delivery guy accidentally marked a cushion with his ink pen right in front of us - on our brand new couch. So the company sent us another one. The funny part is the couch is microfiber so the pen mark came right off after a little scrubbing with water. Fast forward 7 years and here's this extra cushion that has moved all over the country with us and been annoying taking up space in our closets for years. Until now!
The genius part.....why not turn that little sucker into an ottoman/footstool type of thing. All it needs is a base of some kind. So I measured the cushion (20" x 20") but needed to check out my scrap wood selection. Hence my heading out to the garage for a few minutes. And since I was out there and dragging out pieces of wood...why not plug in 'ol miter bob and get all my pieces cut. So I cut the 1x3's @ 20" -> the plan being to glue them together to make one solid piece with 2 horizontal 1x3's nailed underneath to attach it all together. So then my thinking went something like this: "....if I'm going to build this tomorrow, I should glue it together tonight so the glue has time to dry." Totally logical, right?! Nevermind the fact that it was late, cold, and kinda dark (i.e. bad lighting in there). Note to self: take more lights and space heater to garage next time.
Well since I was already in the glueing process...why not nail the underneath support pieces and finish cutting the trim (I learned a new way to angle cut with miter bob - so fun!) Since almost everything was done I headed in for the night.
On Sunday morning, after painting the fireplace wall and coffee table, I headed back out to sand and finish assembling my ottoman. The weather was not cooperating - totally windy, raining, and cold. Building in the gargage with the door closed is fine but it's best to sand outside. Oh well....it's a small project....how much dust could it possibly generate?! Yeah - everything in the garage is covered now (guess I'm cleaning the garage again next weekend)! Darn Minnesota weather!
I moved the ottoman base into the living room and put the couch cushion on it's new home. And it's PERFECT! Not only does it look way cute but it's so comfy and super functional. It practially turns my leather club chair into a chaise of sorts. I think it's my second favorite project to date...the bed, of course, is the best-est ever!
And what's even more amazing is none of this cost me a penny more. I used wood scraps, glue, nails, and screws already in my possession - mainly all supplies left over from building the bed.
Update: 2 coats of some gel stain and I'm in love with my ottoman!
