The Weathered Door: DIY Tufted Ottoman (Part 2)

I have finally finished the tufted ottoman I have been working on! It took WAY longer than I anticipated, but I think the finished product looks pretty great.

Supplies:

· 3” foam - $18.99

· Spray adhesive (for the foam) - $6 (after 50% coupon from JoAnn's)

· Automatic/professional nail gun - borrowed from a friend

· Buttons - approx. $14 (on sale)

· Cord (stronger than thread for tufting) - $5

· Paint (for the legs of the table) - leftover from another project

· Upholstery needle - $3 (with 50% coupon from JoAnn's)

· Drill - already owned

· Nail head - $18 (Lowe's)

· Fabric - $20 (2 1/4 yards)

· Hammer

· Batting (1”) - $10 (with 50% coupon)

*Note: We went multiple times to the fabric store because we did not realize we needed some of these things.

TOTAL: $95

The coffee table started out looking like this:

And after paint:

DRILLING

After painting the legs and sides of the table (more on that here), I started by calculating where I needed to drill holes for the tufting. I was using 12 buttons, so I calculated and drew out where they would go so that all of them would be evenly spaced. For those of you wanting to know, the measurements of my coffee table were 32” x48”. After marking the holes, I drilled each one out.

The size of the coffee table I had was too large to buy a single piece of foam (with no seams) that did not cost over $85. We got a tip from one of the works at JoAnn’s to check out Fred Meyer. Back in the sporting goods section we found foam and it was CHEAP. Even at JoAnn’s with a half price coupon and a seam it was going to cost $60 plus adhesive to piece the 3” foam together. At Fred Meyer we got a 30” x 72” piece of 3" foam for $18.99. That made us happy!

FOAM

Next I cut two pieces of foam. The way to cut foam is with an electric turkey carver. My mom had gotten hers at Value Village for about $4 a while ago. We used the spray adhesive (specifically for foam) to adhere the two pieces. Spraying each side with the adhesive with a thick coat worked best, but the can has more instructions. After reading this blog about making a tufted headboard, we decided to also hollow out holes halfway down into the foam for deeper tufts. (If you want to know more about the steps we followed, refer to the link) After making the holes in the foam, we sprayed the top of the table with adhesive and stuck the foam to it so there would be no shifting while we were tufting.

Note: Instead of the pipe tool she used, we used an apple
core tool and picked out the foam to make the holes for tufting. I think it worked just fine.

Batting

Before we started tufting, we laid the batting out and staples it to the under edge of the table (the top overhang) so it would not be wrinkled. The batting can stretch, so there was no way it would rip while tufting.

Tufting

Note: This is a two person job! You need two pairs of hands. Or at least we did.

We laid the fabric out so it was centered on the ottoman, then I poked the upholstery needle (ours was about 7in) up through the bottom of the table, through the foam, batting and fabric to know where to come back down. We doubled our cord up for a stronger hold. The loop at the end was stuck through the button, and then the two ends of the cord were pulled through the loop (if that makes any sense). Next we threaded both ends through the needle and threaded it through the fabric, batting and foam and lastly through the drilled hole. This part is difficult. You have to get the right angle and poke around until you find the hole. I was lying under the ottoman, and when the needle came through, I pulled until I saw the cord.

I had to pull each side to figure out which was attached to the ends. Once the ends were through, my mom held the button down to create the tuft, and I used the staple gun to staple each cord to the bottom of the table like shown below. I zigzagged each end to hold the tuft, and tied a knot so it would not come undone. Some of the staples were not in all the way, but a quick hammering solved that problem.

Note: Safety goggles are recommended. I realized this after getting something in my eye. After a three hour trip to the urgent care at 9PM and a possible scratched eye, my mom and I finished the tufting at 12AM. Everything was fine and better after a couple hours. I got an antibiotic to make sure I did not have an infection. It was a funny story!

Here is the top of the ottoman without the edges and corners stapled:

After the tufting was finished, we stapled the fabric underneath the overhang of the top. (Also we left the corners until the very end). Then, instead of taking the fabric down, and underneath, we cut and folded ours. The corners can be done many different ways. It is all up to personal taste. My mom is the one who is good at this kind of thing (even if she does not enjoy it) so she pleated the corners and I stapled then down. The last thing to add was nail head. This was time-consuming because it was unbelievably hard to get them into the wood. I ended up pre-drilling through the fabric and into the wood partway to make it easier. We did not own a rubber mallet, and a regular hammer dents the nail head, so we put a garlic shaped rubber jar opener on the nail head to prevent dings and scratches. (that is what you see in the picture)