Our Hopeful Home: DIY French Burlap Storage Ottomans

November 30, 2012

It was love at first sight. Ballard Designs had done it again. I wanted their French burlap storage ottoman!

Ballard Designs

But at $279 {sigh} it was not meant to be.

I had burlap storage ottomans on the brain.

Kathy Kuo Home $353

And the other side of this cube:

It was torture I tell you.

Then one day I saw this in my daughter's closet, filled with stuffed animals.

Gotta love the gray plastic wheels.

It was a great rolling storage bin for a baby's room. (Her theme was "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon.") But it had seen it's day and I knew just what to do with it.

Since the top was a bit uneven I glued Dollar Tree rulers to each of the four sides at the top to make them more even and better suited to accept a lid.

I knew it would make my life easier later when I tried to upholster it.

Then I added batting all around the cube to try and make it appear uniform all the way around.

Then I did the same "wrap" with burlap.

Now I'm getting somewhere.

I used individual nailhead trim tacks to keep the burlap in place.

Notice how I changed out those plastic wheels with some industrial style bronze casters? Even little changes like that can really make a difference.

Much better.

Next I stenciled on the French text with black acrylic paint.

Here's the first side.

Here's the second side.

Gotta have at least one fleur-de-lis.

And now side number three.

I know this side looks a little wonky since it's not perfectly straight, but I'm gonna go with the "imperfections equal character" motto here!

I thought the star added a nice touch. But seriously, what's missing from this picture?

Exactly.

A nice bottle of wine.

I left the third side blank.

The final task was to create the lid. I used some foam we had lying around the house from a long-ago dining room chair reupholstery job. It was a bit too thick so Mr. CBD sliced it in half. No easy task, but he managed it.

Then I glued the foam to some particleboard to give the lid stability.

I cut the corners of the board at an angle so I wouldn't be left with rigid corners that might look funny under the burlap upholstery. Then I swathed it in, you guessed it, batting.

Finally I covered the entire lid with burlap, stapling the underside as I went along. It's nice to be gaining more confidence using the industrial sized stapler. I would have loved to add some tufting but this girl can only do so much.

Overall I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Added bonus: I can ~~hide the mess~~ store stuff in it!

Oh, and that perfectly sized square tray I put on top? $2.99. At Goodwill, of course.

I can see switching out the tray from time to time depending on my mood.

I'm guessing my French burlap storage ottoman cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of around $25.00 (probably less) to create.

Now that's more like it!

For some reason it took me F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to finish this project. My family got sick of seeing parts of it strewn all over the house for weeks. I'm so glad it's finally done!

Now I can sit back and enjoy the view.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about how I transformed that old storage cubby on wheels into something worthy of living room stature. With Christmas rapidly approaching I can't say I'll actually have time to blog about my Christmas crafts and decor, but I sure will try!

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xoxo