Tufted ottomans are a great solution for many small spaces that need something that can not only serve as extra seating but also as spot to set a tray down in a pinch - but they are often quite expensive. Over at Five Days ... Five Ways they repurposed an old coffee table that had seen better days into a fantastic looking tufted ottoman.
Considering that these ottomans usually run new in the many hundreds of dollars the cost breakdown for this project is quite impressive.
- Coffee table: $40
- Foam: $24
- Quilt batting: $8
- Buttons: $6
- Paint: $3
- Upholstery thread + Needles: $8
- Nail-head trim: $12
- Fabric: $15
TOTAL: $116
See the entire tutorial at Five Days...Five Ways.
(Images: Five Days...Five Ways)




White Enamel Flatwa...
It's really beautiful and they did a really great job. Am I the only person thinking that for $116 they could have just bought a tufted ottoman off of Craigslist and skipped all the work?
nice job..but just one question..is there an alternative to foam...its not a very earth friendly product i suppose...would be great tosee what elsewould work!!
unfortunately that expensive foam is sort of par for the course if you want some squish in your upholstery project.
the only earth and wallet friendly alternative i can think of is to find someone who is giving away couch cushions and re-use the foam inside. however, there is a possible ick/bed bug factor with that.
anyone have better ideas for this??
Sweet! I've been looking for a tutorial for exactly this project.
Oooh, love this! The only thing I don't really care for is the nail head trim. I think it would look better if the material was just nailed up under the bottom of the table. The nail heads just seem a little excessive and distracting. Otherwise, very pretty, and a great job!
I went browsing this weekend. Saw one super similar for $2800 (yes...that's the right number of zeros). It was a very upscale place as you can tell from the price. I also went to normal furniture stores and prices were in the $600 to $800 range. So, the cost for this is very good and it'll be the color you want. You can probably get coffee table a lot cheaper at Goodwill/Salvation Army. A lot of them get donated when the top gets all scratched up, which wouldn't matter for this project.