Outdated Ottoman Upgrade

Ottoman After

Ottoman Before

Worn and threadbare, this ottoman had seen better days. The original material had a quilted top and at one time was very fashionable, however after many years of use, it needed a major upgrade with new material. 

The seams were barely held together with stitching that had long since deteriorated, with the cushion pushing through an opening created by the torn material. This was a Queen Anne style ottoman, with traditional curved wooden legs, commonly seen on this style of furniture.

This ottoman proved to be a complex upholstery job, because of the way the top cushion had been attached to the underside of the cushion's section. There simply wasn't any way to install a cushion in this type of application without having some sort of access to it, like a zipper. Through extensive removal of staples along with the original material, I discovered that sure enough, there was a zipper on the underside of the cushion. The adjoining sections were attached to the zippered section, then all were stretched as one unit over the ottoman starting from the top and continuing all the way to the bottom edge and secured with staples. I added three rows of cording as was in the original design, which gave the update ottoman the final classic finish it deserved. 

My customer had provided the fabric which was a nice geometric design on a blue background. The fabric was great to work with and durable enough to last many years to come. 

Mission Style Chair Cushion

New Cushion on Back

This is a unique Mission style arts and crafts chair. My customer made the chair and the ottoman and used a leather  hide to make the seats but didn’t have a sewing machine so he hired me to make the seat’s back cushion. He purchased a large hide for the material so I worked with authentic leather instead of vinyl. This was my first leather job and I found it was not too difficult to work with as I had anticipated. Of course it was quite a bit heavier than vinyl, which makes this chair very durable. 

Cushions are deceptively difficult to cover because you must make the cushion cover smaller than the foam so that when you insert the foam, it fills the cushion to the edges snugly. You never want a saggy, larger than foam cover. As most cushions, I installed a zipper on the underside so it can be slipped over the foam. There’s really no other way to create a cushion cover without a zipper. 

The installation itself is challenging because the larger the foam, the deeper you must reach to push out the foam to the material’s edges. This wasn’t a boxed cushion, but more like a pillowcase, so it was a different process that required rounded edges instead of the traditional boxed-cushioned edges as used on couches and large chairs. The chair was finished and my customer could enjoy his efforts as well and mine. 

1970’s Ottoman Overhaul

Ottoman Before New Fabric

Ottoman with new fabric

In the 1970’s, this plaid fabric was quite popular on furniture. Although still functional and in good condition, it was dated. In December, 2021, I made couch cushions for this same customer using the original fabric to create new cushions for a couch. 

They also had a chair and ottoman which needed new fabric to match the rest of the furniture. They chose a nice gray tweed, which looked great with the oversized, hand carved wood. 

The cushion itself was in good shape and didn’t need replacement as the couch cushions did. This cushion basically sat inside the sides of the ottoman, but was still screwed into the angled brackets in the corners for a safe and secure fit. The new top needed little sewing, just enough to fit the corners, which involved a 90 degree cut and sewn sides to create a box. Then the rest was overlapped and attached to the board on the underside of the cushion and stapled to it. No zipper required! Zippered cushions are a lot more work as you need to include boxing on the sides as well as at the zipper placket, which is always larger than the rest of the boxing. 

I love the simplicity of this nice ottoman as well as its sturdy frame. Fabric upgrading is a relatively inexpensive way to make an old piece of furniture look new again.