I've always been interested in seeing people transform old pieces of furniture into something fresh and new.
I had an idea that I wanted to have a storage seat in our hallway, one for practical reasons, but also just because I thought it would look nice.
You see so many of these lovely hallway seats on Pinterest, and I was inspired.
Around about the early stages of our Covid-19 lockdown in the UK my wife found an Ottoman on the local Facebook Marketplace going for free. The lady said that she has left it outside her house for anyone to take away.
We jumped in the car and drove over. We were thrilled to see it hadn't yet been taken, so whisked it up into the boot of the car. The lady came out to say thank you for taking it and I told her my idea. She thought it was a great idea and was pleased that someone was making use of it.
It sat in the hallway but I made sure that I had a time limit to get the project done, so that it wouldn't just get left. I had pretty much everything I needed. Sanding sponges, primer, satin wood paint, memory foam and all the brushes needed. The only things I needed were the fabric for the top and a staple gun, both of which we got quite quickly.
It felt great that not only did I get this piece of furniture for free, but I also had most of the materials I needed.
Around VE Day, one of our best friends surprised us with a delivery of a hamper of food for the celebrations. That alone was amazing, but also, keeping the cold things insulated was some fibre "stuff"... I'm not sure what you call it. It's not foam, but not fabric. Anyway, it was perfect to add that extra bit of cushioning with the memory foam I already had.
Upcycling this was pretty easy. There wasn't really any damage to fix, so it was very straight forward.
First of all my wife did a very light sand. It really didn't need much at all. Then I got to work. I gave it a good clean out and then started with the primer. I opted not to paint the inside as it was in good condition, and I didn't want to risk anything that we put in there getting stuck.
I left the primer to dry for at least a day.
Next I painted the white satin wood. This was the end of a pot we already had and just about enough to cover the areas I needed to. I used a brush for the edges and corners, and then a gloss roller for the flat areas. This gave it a nice finish. I didn't quite have enough for a second coat, but I decided that I didn't want to paint it anymore anyway. I liked the slightly rustic look it gave.
I used a sample pot that I had of grey satin wood paint. This was the perfect colour for the feet. I felt that those would be most likely to collect dust bunnies and get marks on, so didn't want them to be white.
I liked the idea of having it all white with grey accents.
For the text I found some nice writing online and printed it out quite large. Usually I would transfer text by covering the back of the paper with charcoal and then pressing through to make an impression, but this time I tried a different method. I chose to cut out the letters to make a stencil.I started to regret it right away but didn't give up. It was very fiddly.
I stuck the paper in place with low tack masking tape and carefully painted. With stencils, it's easy for the paint to bleed, so always try to paint from the outside into the middle. Basically away from the edges rather than towards the edges.
When I took the stencil off it's looked pretty cool. It did bleed slightly but I quite liked the look. I used a small paintbrush to go over the edges and details to tidy it up.
The last part of the project was the lid. This was going to be the seat and, I guess, the first bit people see. As I was using foam, I needed to make some ventilation, but I had to be careful not to weaken the seat too much. I drilled two holes, not too large, into the seat. This helps to stop the foam from going mouldy.
I cut the memory foam to size. I had to use two pieces to get the width that I needed. I placed the other filling (from the hamper) over the memory foam in one piece, so that disguised the join of the two pieces of foam.
I ironed out the folds of the material, that I had cut to size. I got everything in place and tightly pulled the sides of the material round to the underside of the lid. When doing this, firstly get someone to help hold it in place for the first couple of staples, and secondly, make sure that you turn over the edges of the material. This helps to keep it neat, stop it fraying and also gives the staples something to grip to.
I was so excited that it was all finished. I just had to re-attach the lid to the base and it was done.
I am really pleased with how it turned out. This was my first proper upcycling project I think. I have done decoupage on a side table before but that doesn't quite count. I got lots of lovely comments and feedback on this project. What do you think?
You can view a little video of this project on my Instagram TV.
I'm hoping to do some more upcycling projects, and I've also been filming some of the decorating that I've been doing at home, which will be on my YouTube channel at some point.
Keep an eye out for those.