Check out these IKEA Ottomans Hack I invented. I thought it would be cool to show a different side of me on the blog. I love to create things, whether that is photos or something else. I made these ottomans and I thought I’d post about. WARNING! This post has nothing to do with Photography! These photos were all taken on my crappy smartphone camera so don’t judge. 🙂
A few months ago I came across two of these heavy duty metal lamp shades in the IKEA as-is section. They were $5. I had to plead with Tash for her to let me get not one but two of them. At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I had in mind some sort of wall cubby system. 😛
They sat for a month or two (even got relegated to the garage). I all of a sudden got the idea to turn them into Ottomans. Inspiration came from this Overstock.com ottoman. At nearly $200 I knew I could do if for cheaper. Here is the total project cost.
Ikea Kulla Lamp Shades as-is: 2x$5=$10
1/2 sheet plywood = $20
Poly batting = $8
2″ foam square on sale = $18
Eroica Metro Linen Charcoal Fabric 3 yards total = $29
Cover Buttons = $8
Staples, screws, washers, thread ~ $16
So you’re looking at $110 or so.
Step 1: Cutting and securing the bottom, top, and inner supports. I used a home made circle cutting jig on my router to make sure I got perfect circles. I first cut two pieces that would rest perfectly on the upper rim of the lamp. Then I cut two more pieces that rested on the inside of the shade so they were flush with the lip. From these second piece I then cut on the inside circle which fit the bottom perfectly. Both the bottom and upper rim are needed for stapling upholstery. Be careful with Routers, they can run away on you, and are quite dangerous. I drilled through the metal shade horizontally to secure the tops and bottoms. Lastly I secured the vertical support pieces and screwed into it from the top down. I figure this way the top will be supported pretty well.
The upper lid section should rest perfectly with no overhang off the sides. Canon approves. 
The next step is to cover the outside of the round with quilt batting. This will take the hardness out of the metal when the project is done. Use spray adhesive to secure the poly to the metal and staple to secure the edges. 
Next up is to cut the 2″ foam round. Simply trace your wood top piece onto the foam. If you can give yourself 1/2″ on all sides, this will help fold down over the edge of the wood. I hear an electric knife is good for this. I used a bread knife. Cover and wrap the top with batting as well. 
It was at this point I decided I wanted to try a diamond tufted. Being a guy I didn’t want to deal with buttons and such. I did find this awesome blog post that showed you how to use screws and washers. This saved a bunch of time. If you’d like to know how to do button tufting the easy way check out this tutorial.
When cutting the fabric make sure you give yourself the right amount. Each button when using 2″ foam will take up 4″ of fabric. You need a lot. To cover this 20″ round I used 46″ because my ottoman had 4 buttons at its widest point. Think of it like this 6″ wrap (3″ on either side) +20″ width” 16″(4 buttons x 4″) + Height 4″. I only did 3 buttons on the other side so my cuts for these was actually 46×42″. I won’t go into details on this part, you should check out the tutorial. But it really wasn’t too hard. It was at this point I started getting excited. 
The folds literally happen by themselves. The cover buttons are going to get epoxyed on. Be very intentional about where you staple in the back side. Follow the tutorial and try to make it look natural. This was the hardest part. Trim the excess off carefully. I used the scraps to make a pillow slip cover. 
The sleeve was the hardest part. I used some crazy geometry app online to make sure the angles were all correct. Basically I ended up cutting precise isosceles trapezoids. Mess this part up and the outside sleeve of the shade would bunch and pucker. And yes, I did use a sewing machine for the first time. It was actually really easy. I just thought of it as a tiny Table saw. A pneumatic staple gun with 1/2″ staples was my best friend. The fabric wrapped around nicely giving the ledge a nice finished detail. 
These are storage ottomans by the way. You can just barely see the blocks I put on to keep the tops from sliding around. 
I cut some feet from some wood I had laying around. I did them at an angle facing outwards to give the ottomans more balance. 5 feet were used. I tried with 4 feet, but they were really tippy. 
I used the extra fabric to make this nice pillow case. I had an extra pillow laying around upstairs. 