Ikea Lack Side Tables Turned Ottomans

I've been in the process of helping my mom with her TV room/den. You can see a little snippet of the reorganization we did here.  We also stenciled curtain panels, created a gallery wall, got a sofa on Craigslist, and bought a few new pillows and accessories.  I plan on posting more about all that soon.

Everything has been coming along nicely, but I knew it needed something and I had just the thing in mind.  The Ektorp sofa that we found for the room on Craigstlist is great for one person, but add another and it's not quite as comfortable. It's difficult to really stretch out and relax. So I figured the perfect Christmas gift would be a pair of ottomans customized to fit the room. Not only do ottomans provide a place to put up your feet, but they also function together as a coffee table and fill the space much better than the small table she had before.



Here are some photos of the process it took to make them.

Thanks to IKEA Hackers and all the lovely DIYers out there, I discovered that I could do this by upholstering LACK side tables, which are only $8 each!

I skipped expensive upholstery foam and bought a camping foam carpet pad at Home Depot thanks to Sarah M. Dorsey's tip for only $20.  With the table top lined up with the foam I cut along the edge with a sharp kitchen knife.  Duchess thought I needed some supervision. ;)

Then, you'll need some spray adhesive and batting.  I sprayed both the table top and the foam with adhesive and then simply slapped 'em together! Actually it took a little precision, but this part is easy as pie.

Next, I stapled the batting on starting at the center and stapling one side and then the opposite side to make sure it was evenly taut.  (If you're doing this project, when you get to the corners, make sure you don't cover up the hole where the legs will screw in.)

 

I used a hammer to make sure all staples were in there good and trimmed the excess batting away.

With Duchess's approval I moved on to the next step: stapling the fabric on. I used Ikea's Sofia fabric. Making sure to line the fabric up so that it was centered, I used the same method used for the batting and stapled away!

To make clean clean corners, I stapled down the side fabric first, pulled the fabric over the corner to the front, stapled again, and then folded down the front and stapled again. I'm not sure if that is super clear, but Sarah had great pictures of this on her post.

After the tops were done I wanted to cut some length of the legs so that the ottomans would be even height with the sofa seat.  I headed to Home Depot only to be disappointed to hear that they could not cut the Ikea legs because they were hallow.  I guessed this was because their large machine would split them, although I was frustrated at the time and didn't ask for specifics.  Instead, I asked Frank's cousin to help. He trimmed a few inches of each leg with a hacksaw and once sanded down, this worked great!

With all that done, I added a few coats of Scotch Guard for a little added protection.  Then I decided to wrap everything up separately, tie it in bows, and thoroughly confuse my mother as she opened each piece on Christmas (starting with the screws).  I didn't take any photos of the assembly process, but  all we did was follow Ikea's instructions and voila!  

My apologies for the dark photo.  By the time we got through Christmas festivities, assembling these, and rearranging some furniture, the sun was down.  But, check it out... success! Custom ottomans being put to good use by my lovely family!

A little candle light and a spot of tea in mom's newly transformed TV room was the perfect end to a wonderful Christmas visit with the fam before I took off to drive home.

Coming soon: I can't wait to show you the before and after photos of the room and tell you all that's gone into putting this space together. It's really been an amazing transformation!  So stay tuned!