DIY: Button-tufted Ottoman

A few weeks back, I bought a storage ottoman with a ton of potential (translation: not so pretty) on Craigslist for $40 with a vision to reupholster and button-tuft it back to life.

Ottoman:  before.

First up: fabric.  I hunted high and low for the perfect pattern and couldn't find anything I loved.  Except, of course, a bunch of stuff in the $30+/yard price range--no thanks!  Then, while in West Elm looking at their by-the-yard upholstery fabrics (gorgeous, but out of my budget) I stumbled across a shower curtain that was perfect....and on back-order.

West Elm Butterfly Shower Curtain:  $39.

Well, good things come to those who wait.  So when the lovely folks at West Elm called, I made my third trip over there in a week (more on that tomorrow) to pick up my patience-testing shower curtain.  After a quick Google of "how to button-tuft an ottoman," I had my tools assembled and was ready to reupholster.

Biggest needle ever.

Covering the ottoman.

Scotch Gard-ing the ottoman to within an inch of its life.

All in all, the reupholstering took about an hour and a half between cutting, ironing, and staple-gunning, and it was pretty straight-forward.  The button tufting, on the other hand...well, that was slightly more of a process.

Making the buttons.

Measuring the tufts.

Making the fabric-covered buttons was a sinch using the kit I bought at JoAnn's, but against the pressure of the tufting, eight (out of 20) of them popped--leaving me exactly the twelve that I needed to finish the piece.  Talk about a sigh of relief.

The tufting process itself consisted of drilling through the cardboard base of the ottoman at pre-measured intervals, then fishing the enormous upholstery needle through the cushion, threading the button, then fishing it back through four inches of  foam to find the teeny-tiny drill hole.  Which it sometimes took 10 minutes to find.  And eight of the times I did this, the button popped, and I had to start completely over.  Needless to say...this was really aggravating.

Ottoman:  after.

But it was sooooo worth the effort.  Despite multiple war wounds from that ginormous needle, I seriously could not be happier with the end result.  Though I likely won't be button-tufting anything else again any time soon...