Upholstered Ottoman Using Throw Blankets

 

Friends, my sitting room has been a s-l-o-w work in progress over the past year. Late last year we painted the fireplace wall and I re-faced the fireplace. I added some new chairs , and then about a month ago, I decided to paint the mantel/surround.

One of the items I’ve really been wanting for the space was a round coffee table or ottoman. So I ventured into a Homegoods recently and came across not 1, but 2 ottomans both on clearance! Winning!

I couldn’t decide which one I wanted:

After I inspected them both, I decided to go with the Blue ottoman due its scale and simple design. The other ottoman was slightly damaged (the lid) and they didn’t want to bring the price down (even though it’s been in the store for MONTHS.)

I carried the blue ottoman up to the register and brought it home with just a slight chip on my shoulder, because honestly, although the faux leather one was damaged, it would have been less work for what I originally had in mind.

After sitting with it in the house for a few days I decided to finally take a leap and get working on it. My original plan was to use a faux leather fabric that I found at Walmart to recover it. But when I went to have the fabric cut, the clerk never came to the desk. Not feeling 100% sure that was the route I wanted to take anyway, I decided to pivot—

I went back home and decided to play around with some fabric that I already had on hand.

First I tried an old velvet curtain that I had on hand, and then I turned and looked at the throw blanket on our couch and a lightbulb literally went off in my head. “What if I used this blanket instead?”

I love this blanket so much that I actually included it in my fall favorite things post.  It comes in multiple colors too!

 

I also shared on my Amazon storefront a few other contenders for this type of project.

I knew that I’d need more than 1 blanket so I went online and ordered 2 for overnight delivery—as soon as they arrived I got to work.  If I’m being honest I had no real plan, I was totally winging it. Keep in mind –I am far from a seamstress.

So here’s what I did to recover this 36” ottoman with throw blankets:

First, I carefully laid out a blanket and secured it with string to maintain a straight pattern as I cut it to size.

Leaving about 2 inches all around.

Then I spritzed it with spray adhesive to keep everything in place.

Next, it was time to cover the sides. I had originally planned on wrapping the blanket fabric around the sides horizontally to create a more modern, tailored look. But when I draped the blanket over the ottoman, I loved how the fringe looked like a piece of furniture with tassel trim.

So that’s how I decided to use the fringes to my advantage and create the fringed skirt—-I cut both ends off of the second blanket and neatly folded the top edge over about an inch, aligned the pattern with the top of the ottoman, and pinned it into place.

Since I decided to go with the fringed skirt look, and used the shorter end of the blankets, I had to do a small patch job.  If I had used that long side of the blanket I would have had 2 sides to connect, but with the patch job it left me with 3 side seams–which I was okay with, it makes it . . . “unique.”

Once the sides were all aligned and pinned into place. It was time to secure them.

Using upholstery thread and a curved upholstery needle, I sewed the skirt into place along the top folded edge, creating a stitch that was about 1/4″ from the top of the fold (I eyeballed this).  Also, please note, that this stitching process was incredibly time-consuming but totally worth it!

Once I was done I couldn’t help but notice how much it looked like upholstery piping (something I could never get right in the past!)

Finally, I finished it off by stitching up the side seams. 

When I started doing this, Kyle came over and said “I wish I could help,” and I have to be honest, normally I would say something along the lines of “not right now,” but today I figured why not?

I showed him how to use the curved needle and he got to work. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, so will I need to go back and restitch? Absolutely! Will I do that any time soon? Probably not 😂😂😂. 

And this is how my perfectly imperfect blanket upholstered ottoman came to be.