Tips for Reupholstering an Ottoman

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Hi, friends! Do you remember that DIY project I was telling you about a couple of weeks ago? Well, I underestimated the amount of time it would take me to get it done, styled and shot (oops!) but it’s finally finished and I’m happy with the result, so I thought I’d share the process with you, in case you need some encouragement to do a little reupholstering of your own.

A few years ago, while perusing furniture listings on Craigslist, I found a local ad for a pair of armchairs + an ottoman from Restoration Hardware. Part of a set, with turned legs on casters and upholstered in a brown, linen-like fabric – I felt like I had won the lottery. The chairs were in pristine condition and had been in storage for a few months, but the ottoman had seen better days. 

With a rectangular shape and proportions that fit well with a variety of furniture arrangements, the ottoman was my favorite piece of the bunch, even though the upholstery needed cleaning, and the corners had been chewed on by the owner’s five Rottweilers (I’m guessing). 

Well, here we are, four years later and I have finally found the confidence to take it apart, swap the tattered fabric, and put everything back together again. All by myself. 

Well, almost. Micaela Sharp’s Create Academy course on Modern Upholstery, which I took earlier this year and highly recommend, gave me the last bit of confidence I needed to take on the project, and I am very happy I did. Soon after finishing Micaela’s course I started looking for the right fabric – found a Performance Velvet from Pottery Barn that is a honey-colored neutral that goes with many different color schemes – and so I began.

The reupholstery process was fairly simple and consisted of a sequence of steps that could be easily applied to ottomans of different shapes & sizes, and to any chair with an upholstered seat. Just make sure to start with an inexpensive fabric for your first project so you won’t be too stressed out about making mistakes. There were three parts to the process: removing the old cover, making a new cover using the old one as a template (minimal sewing skills needed for this one), and stapling the new cover to the frame. By far, the most difficult part of the process was getting started, and removing the bajillion staples that were used to fasten the upholstery fabric to the ottoman frame.

Here’s what happened:

1. First I turned the ottoman upside down and removed the dust cover. 

2. Then I removed the many, many, many staples that held the fabric and the frame together.

3. Once the fabric was removed, it gave me a good estimate for the amount of fabric I’d need for the new cover. For my piece I ended up using about 1.5 yards of velvet, but if your fabric has a pattern that you’d like centered on the ottoman, you’ll need a bit more than the actual measurements.

4. Next, I unpicked the seams of the cover and used the old fabric as a template, making sure to leave an additional 5 inches all around the perimeter.

5. This step is optional, and I forgot to take pictures, but you can add an extra layer of cotton batting, using a spray adhesive suitable for textiles – I’ll link to my favorite low VOC spray at the end of this post. Adding a thin layer of batting will make your piece a bit more cushy and plump – never a bat thing.

6. Next, it was time to cut and sew the new cover.

7. Last, I attached the new cover to the frame and finished by adding the dust cover. You can either reattach the old dust cover, as I did, or use it as a template to make a new one. 

9. Enjoy your refreshed furniture piece! 

If you’re curious about the process, or have a piece of furniture you’d like to reupholster yourself, here’s the list of tools and resources I used and found incredibly helpful. Some, like the batting and the air compressor, are optional, but the compressor has been one of the most used pieces of machinery in DIY projects at our house, and it works with both staple and nail guns.

Heavy duty staple remover

Rubber mallet

Tape measure

Pair of scissors

Cotton quilt batting (optional)

Multipurpose spray adhesive, low VOC (optional)

Pneumatic staple gun

Porter cable air compressor (optional)

And if you’re interested in Micaela Sharp’s class, Introduction to Modern Upholstery, or any other Create Academy course, Cafe Design readers get a 15% discount on all classes, using the promo code cafedesign15 at checkout.

You can find my review of Micaela Sharp’s Create Academy course HERE.

Wishing you a cool summer weekend!