Dumpster Ottoman gets a Makeover!  Do you remember several months ago I found this, well, gross thing?  Check it out now!  

I knew it had potential, and lucky for me, the person who threw it out didn’t know it.  I began by cleaning it up.  A good wipe down inside and the legs.  Then skinned it.  Basically I pulled the horrid green fabric off.  It came off in pretty much one pull.  It was ready to be rid of the green carpet fabric.

I have a large, LARGE amount of stuffing and batting. Don’t gross out, but I rip up throw pillows that I find…or get at garage sales for pennies.  They are full of batting that can be reused, and since they are going deep into an ottoman, where your feet are going anyway, I don’t see the problem. 

I plopped a large amount of it on top, then wrapped the entire piece with batting.  As I learned from my friend Nia at Summerland Style, you only need enough batting to barely cover the stuffing. You don’t want all this extra bulk, so don’t cut it as big as your fabric.

Now comes the fabric.  I found this adorable graphic at Knick of Time Interiors. Angie has tons of FREE vintage and quirky graphics at her site.  I used fabric transfer paper, which I resisted using, because it is not cheap. But it isn’t getting any cheaper just sitting in the package I bought two years ago.  I printed it on my cheapo printer, then cut out the letters. I used painters tape to hold the letters in place while I ironed them on. My cheap printer does not print in mirror image, which you will need.  You want the wording backwards.  Did you know you can do this in the edit setting of Picmonkey? I didn’t!  But now I do. And so do you! 

I used a manual stapler for this job. It was quick and easy.  I went around the edges, doing sort of a napkin fold on the ends.  

You will want some sort of trim, I used black braided gimp.  I buy it online (whererever is cheap) in bulk, then I can have it on hand when I need it. I attached the gimp with my glue gun. I love my glue gun and it loves me.

The Ottoman looks happy in front of my oversized chalkboard, where it was so gracious to pose for me.

A little to the left, I think that is your best side.

It looks pretty good with this old chair too.  

From Dumpster to Divine!! It looks pretty Divine to me now. It didn’t get to stay, it went to Paris Flea Market for last weekend’s party.  If it didn’t go home with a new family, I might allow it back into mine.  I like to remind everyone who is No. 1 around here anyhow. 

Sharing my No.1 at these No. 1 parties: