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Not all furniture is easy to make with your own hands. If you have little or no experience, try something easy. Probably the easiest thing to do is to make an ottoman. There are a lot of options, the result is usually good. In the process, you will gain skills in working with upholstery, which will help in the implementation of more complex projects. So, we make an ottoman with our own hands.
Ottoman from a wooden box
If you have a solid wooden box on the farm, you can make an ottoman out of it. The main thing is that it is strong enough to withstand the weight of an adult.
If the box is not found, knock it together yourself. You need four pieces of planed board, from which, using wood screws, twist a square or rectangle. To strengthen the corners, we fix the bars. They can also be legs.
Sanding and painting the base
If the krarkas will not be covered with fabric, it must be painted. A new, well-planned box can be painted immediately. If the wood is old, but strong and without any special flaws, it can be sanded if necessary, and then painted or tinted.
If the boards are too rough, we take sandpaper with a large grain in our hands, remove the top darkened layer, then go through the sandpaper with a medium grain and polish it with fine-grained sandpaper.
A grinder will help save time on grinding. For this work, any, any type is suitable.
How and with what to paint the resulting base under the ottoman is your choice. With traditional opaque paints, everything is clear. We choose an interior paint of a suitable color that can be used to paint wood. Matte, gloss, semi-gloss – your choice. Apply as many times as needed to get an even coverage. Keep in mind that dry wood absorbs paint well, so three coats or more may be needed without a primer.
If you cannot find the paint of the desired color, we advise you to read the article “Mixing colors to get the right color.”
You can cover the base of the ottoman with wood oil. It will not paint over the fibers, but only tones, emphasizes the woody pattern. Oils can be both brightening and coloring. And not only in brown colors. Shades are very different, up to pink, green or blue.
How to make legs for an ottoman
The simplest thing is to buy legs in a furniture store. Color, size and shape – your choice. It could be wheels. Pay attention to the fact that these are load-bearing wheels (designed for heavy loads), and not auxiliary ones for drawers. The kit usually comes with fasteners. In this case, you need to install them at the corners of the base and secure.
Legs for a pouffe are easy to make with your own hands. Square can be cut from a wooden block of a suitable size, cylindrical – from a shovel handle. Cut four pieces of the same length, drill a hole in the center of each for installing the screw. On one side, drill with a large diameter drill – under the head of the screw with a washer or under the nut.
Do not make the legs too high – it will be difficult to install fasteners, and you will also need to make crossbars for the stability of the structure. If you still want an ottoman with high legs, you will have to pick up a mount in a furniture store. Just putting the screw in the center of the leg will not work.
How deep should the screw that holds the leg go into the base? It must be minimally deepened so that the hat is completely hidden, as much as possible – 2/3 of the height of the “leg”. The length of the screw for attaching the legs to the ottoman consists of the thickness of the base, the distance that it must pass in the leg, plus the margin for the nut. You can do a little more, you can’t do less. The screw diameter should not be small. Still, the ottoman has a considerable load.
We paint the legs at the same time as the base. It is better to do this before installing them. After the paint has dried, you can put the legs in place. On the bottom, after installation, glue pieces of felt – this will protect your floor from scratches.
Making a seat
According to the size of the box or a little more (5-25 mm more around the perimeter), we cut out the lid from plywood. We take furniture plywood, thickness – from 5 mm and more. You can, of course, use construction plywood, but it is much worse in quality.
Corners are best rounded. Rounded corners – less abrasions during use, it is easier to cover the seat with fabric. And the result is a better look.
Next, you need furniture foam rubber or foam rubber. Ordinary foam rubber will not work, it is too soft and porous. You will find furniture in stores selling furniture fittings, building supermarkets, or in those that sell materials for homemade products. Thickness of foam rubber – from 5 cm.
If you need to make the seat higher, two layers of foam rubber are laid. Layers can be of different density – denser and more elastic at the bottom, softer at the top. But the foam should be furniture.
Cut a piece to fit the lid, glue it to the plywood. The glue will go with ordinary PVA. It can be furniture or another, from the category of “universal”. He must glue wood and foam rubber.
How to tighten: the order of work
After the glue has dried, you can fit the seat of the ottoman. To begin with, it is better to wrap with a non-woven material, for example, synthetic winterizer or batting. This layer levels the roughness of the plywood cut. This will protect the upholstery fabric from rubbing and the seat will be more comfortable.
If the fabric is dense, you can do without additional tightening, but it’s better, after all, do not skip this step. The result is much better.
To secure the fabric, a furniture or construction stapler with staples is required. Take staples with wide backs, otherwise they may break through the material or holes will appear at the puncture points. If the fabric is “loose” or not thick enough, or stretches too much, place a dense woven tape under the staples. Any. You can buy it at a sewing store.
If there is no stapler, you can fix the fabric with furniture studs, but it is not so easy to hammer them into plywood. It is advisable to always lay a sealing tape under them.
Cut the fabric to the size of the seat, plus add an allowance in all directions: twice the height of the resulting seat. Under the height of the seat we mean the thickness of the foam rubber with the backing and the thickness of the plywood. It is better to take the fabric with a margin – it is always easier to cut off.
How to sew upholstery
The main point of making an ottoman is to make a beautiful upholstery. And it’s not just the choice of fabric. More about how to pull this fabric over the seat. It will be easier if you know how to sew. In this case, cut out the pattern according to the size of the seat and sew it together. An example of a pattern is in the photo below on the left.
One important point: we make a pattern of the top of the seat according to size, adding only a seam allowance – 1-2 cm. On three sides sidewall leave the same seam allowance. At the bottom add 5-7 cm. This allowance is needed to secure the cover to the bottom of the seat.
The resulting cover is turned inside out and pulled over the ottoman. The left allowance is wrapped on the base and secured with staples or cloves.
There is an easier way – it is in the photo above on the right. Take a piece of fabric that covers the seat and is 5-7 cm longer than the sidewalls. Fold the corners, forming one fold, pin with pins. Stepping back from the junction of at least a centimeter, cut off the excess (triangle), sew it together. Get a cover with a minimum number of seams. Then everything is the same – we pull it, we fix it from below with brackets.
Upholstery of the ottoman seat without seams
What if you don’t know how to sew? You can secure the fabric with staples. This method is suitable for dense, non-shrinking fabric. With this method, it is important to make large, well-laid folds.
It is necessary to remember how and in what order they were made the first time in order to repeat at the next three corners. You can take step by step photos. This will make it easier to repeat.
How to make such a skin, you see in the photo above. In each case, the order of laying the folds will be different, due to different sizes, but the general rules are as follows:
- We make a fold / folds on the side, fix it / them to the end with staples.
- Carefully fold and, closing the sides, wrap on the back side of the base. Fasten there with staples.
It is impossible to describe in more detail, since each time it turns out differently. It is important to remember the order and repeat.
Ottoman with a drawer: how to attach a seat
If you make an ottoman from a drawer as described above, the ottoman seat will simply lie on top of the base. It’s non-functional as it will crash. How to fix it? There are several ways.
- Cut a piece of plywood according to the internal dimensions of the base. Or rather, a few millimeters less on each side. These millimeters will go away when cutting and edging, so you can simply measure the length and width inside the base. The edges of the cut piece must be sanded to a smooth finish. This fragment is attached to the bottom of the seat. You can plant it on wood screws. The length of the screws is 1,5 times the thickness of the plywood used. Quantity – at least 3 pieces along each side. If the long side is more than 50 cm, we put fasteners every 10-15 cm.
Seat fixing methods - Installing planks. On the underside of the seat around the perimeter, stepping back a little from the edge, we nail small-section bars processed to smoothness (30×30 or so). They must be positioned so that, when closed, the planks from the inside are tightly pressed against the walls of the base, ensuring the fixation of the seat. Before attaching the bars, it is better to tighten the back side with an inexpensive cloth, also securing with staples. It will hide the upholstery attachment points. Cut the fabric to the size of the seat, tuck the edge inward by 5-10 mm, shoot with staples. Already nail the slats on it.
- Instead of planks, put metal corners. 2-3 pieces on the long side.
- Fasten the cover on one side to the furniture hinge.
If you make an ottoman with a lid from a drawer, it can serve not only as a footrest or for “sit down”, replace a coffee or coffee table. You can put things in the box itself. If the pouf “fits” in the children’s room, you can put toys there, in the hallway – shoes, in the living room – magazines, books, every little thing like charging, which all the time has nowhere to put.
Cylindrical ottoman
A round pouffe can be made from plywood. For the seat and the lower part, plywood with a thickness of at least 1,5 cm is required, for the walls it will go a little thinner – 1,2 cm. Height and width are optional. Approximate dimensions of the seat – from 35 cm in diameter, height – from 40 cm.
Assembling the plywood base
From thicker plywood we cut out two identical disks, from thinner we cut strips, the length of which is the height of your seat. The width of these planks is 5-7 cm. They will form the walls. The smaller the segment, the smaller the edges will be felt. But if there are more than 25-30 boards, their fastening will take a long time.
We fasten the plywood planks to the carpentry glue, then, we also fix them with self-tapping screws screwed through the seat into the end. There are 2 screws for each plank. The length of the screw is double or triple the thickness of the plywood that was taken for the seat. That is, if it is 15 mm plywood, then a self-tapping screw is needed 30-45 mm long.
Before screwing in the self-tapping screw, it is better to drill a hole. Its diameter is a couple of mm smaller than the diameter of the self-tapping screw. Without pre-drilling, plywood can delaminate, so it is better to pre-drill. If you have a powerful enough stapler, you can fasten the planks with staples with long legs.
After we have fixed all the strips, we turn the workpiece over. We coat the second disk with carpentry glue along the edge, lay it on the ends of the planks, and fasten it also with self-tapping screws or staples. Next up is the upholstery.
Making hard soft
To make the pouf soft, we wrap the sidewalls with several layers of padding polyester. It turns out a rather thick soft layer that will hide the edges. We fasten the synthetic winterizer with staples. Install them after 2-3 cm.
From furniture foam or furniture foam rubber we cut out a circle of the same diameter that was made from plywood. We glue the foam rubber to one of the sides. If, as in the photo above in the center, we had to cut it from strips, we also glue them together.
In order to be able to quickly and easily change the upholstery in the future, and so that the synthetic winterizer does not deteriorate, we make a rough cover from a small T-shirt. We cut off the sleeves and sew them up, pull the resulting pipe over an almost finished pouffe.
That side of the cover, where the neck remained, should be on plywood without foam. Here we fasten the knitwear with staples. On the soft side, we simply sew the jersey. Special beauty is not required – this is a rough cover. We cut out the details of the cover from the fabric you like. In this case, this is a circle, the diameter of which is 4-5 cm larger than the diameter of the plywood. Actually, you can measure it yourself and add 2 cm to the seam. The second part is a rectangle. Its parameters are:
- the length is equal to the girth of the upholstered pouffe, plus 2 cm for the seam;
- width – the height of the pouf, plus 4-5 cm for the hem if you do not sheathe the bottom, and 2 cm if you add another circle of the same material from the bottom.
We sew the received parts. First, we make a sleeve (pipe) from a rectangle by sewing together two short sides. Then, on one side of the sleeve we sew a circle.
On the underside, you can also sew a circle of upholstery fabric. If you make legs, you can sew a simpler fabric at the bottom. Then, attach the legs to the bottom. In any case, it turns out a nice and comfortable ottoman. It can also be used as a footrest.
Pouffe from a plastic bucket
A bucket under the ottoman will go either from under food, or from under construction mixtures. They have stronger walls, withstand heavy loads. Ordinary, for household needs too brittle. You will also need a jute rope, a glue gun, a piece of plywood, fabric and foam rubber for the seat. To attach the seat, we suggest using Velcro tape. It can be bought in haberdashery, needlework stores.
You can make such an ottoman with your own hands quickly, and it is also very simple. Let’s start by removing the handle. If there is, cut off the loops and unnecessary protrusions. If it turned out too rough, level it layer by layer, removing excess plastic. Then we take a glue gun, a jute rope, and, turn by turn, glue the bucket from top to bottom.
The bottom will be the basis for the seat. So we glue one of the pieces of adhesive tape on it cross / crosswise. Next we make the seat. We take a piece of thick cardboard, fiberboard, plywood, put our base on it with the part to which the seat will be attached. Cut out the circle according to the markup. You will need another piece of foam rubber of the same diameter. Glue the foam rubber to the cut out disk.
Cut out a larger circle from the fabric. How much more? We add the thickness of the foam rubber to the diameter of the disk and 3-4 cm for the collar. For example, the diameter of the seat should be 40 cm, the thickness of the foam rubber should be 5 cm, plus 3 cm for fixing the fabric. That is, we retreat 8 cm from the edge of the plywood / cardboard circle.
In the center of the fabric circle we lay out plywood with glued foam rubber – foam rubber down. We wrap and fasten the edges of the fabric. We close the unsightly side with a piece of cloth or a disc made of cardboard, fiberboard. They can be glued, and on them we already glue the “reciprocal” part of the Velcro. So the seat is removable. You can drag or make a few seats and change “under the mood” or as it gets dirty.
How to knit a pouffe bag
Frameless furniture has been around for a long time. Most often it is a bag that resembles a chair. Polystyrene balls are poured into this bag. They are comfortable in that they take the shape of your body, perfectly adjusting to your posture. There are also ottoman bags, and they are easy to make yourself.
An ottoman bag is more common in two types: a cylinder and more rounded ones. But there is also a cube. Moreover, both a high cube and a low, flat one. In any case, you first need to sew a fabric cover with a zipper. Polystyrene balls are poured into it. This is the basis for a frameless pouffe. A decorative cover can be sewn or knitted – it’s up to you.
Patterns and sizes
Making the base of a cubic or cylindrical ottoman is easy. These forms are known to all. Their patterns, just in case, are shown in the figure below.
A couple of notes about sizes. They are not shown in the picture, but you can easily figure it out. So, the diameter of the cylinder does not raise questions. This is the seat size you want. The width of the side is also determined according to your desire – this is the height of your ottoman. What should be the length of the side? It must be calculated: multiply the diameter by 3,14 (pi number). That is, if you want the seat to be 45 cm, then the length of the side part will be: 45 cm * 3,14 u141,3d 1 cm. Add 2-XNUMX cm to the seam to this figure.
If you want to sew a more rounded ottoman, you will have to change the pattern of the cylinder. To get the desired shape, the dimensions of the cylinder pattern will have to be changed. There is no formula here, there are only general rules. We reduce the diameter of the circle by about 15% of the desired one, and increase the length of the side part by 20-25%. So, if we want a pouf 50 cm wide, 35 cm high, then the diameter of the circle will be 35-36 cm, and the length of the side part is 160 cm, the height is 40 cm. After we sew and fill it, we get approximately the given size.
We sew the cylinder as standard, only first we connect the side part (rectangle) with a zipper. It is needed to fill the filler. Then we sew two circles to the resulting pipe-sleeve. There are no difficulties here. But how to sew a cover for a more rounded pouffe, you better watch the video below.
With a cube, in general, everything is simple – it has all the sides equal. Just add an inch to the seams. But, if you want to make the ottoman low, but wide, you will have to draw a parallelepiped layout.
How to tie – watch the video.