DIY: Coffee table to Ottoman

There are tons and tons of tutorials, pictures and blogs turning coffee tables to ottomans.  My "light bulb idea" sparked from browsing Pinterest while looking for things to do with a pallet.  I didn't actually have a pallet, but my hubs had recently informed me that he could get one from his job.  Obviously, I wanted to find something to do with it.  I stumbled upon a picture of a beautiful room with a beautiful ottoman.  The caption stated "Get a pallet, foam, table legs, fabric and a staple gun." 

I know, awesome, right?  This image came from my friend Megan's Pinterest page, so I guess I can blame her for all this.    Come to find out, THIS particular ottoman is from West Elm.  AND it's 400 bucks.  It seems like a pallet would do the job and in my mind it seems easy.  Just like the caption said.
I'm not sure if any of y'all have brought home a pallet, but they are huge.   I mean, I've seen them before laying out behind the grocery, but up close and personal they are suddenly a lot bigger....and heavy.  Really heavy. 
I had sort of given up on the idea.  It would involve contracting out my hubs, I would need his cutting skills AND strength.  I know because he brought one home and I could barely move it around the garage by myself.  He ended up disassembling it and we used the wood for another project.
Then....one day while surfing the pin boards again I see another beautiful ottoman and someone had made it from a coffee table!

http://www.fivedaysfiveways.com/2011/07/diy-tufted-ottoman.html

If you guessed that I would want to pursue this project, you would be correct.
Aaand, it just so happens that my sister-in-law had an unwanted coffee table from her sister-in-law....
it was meant to be!





The five days five ways blog gives a pretty good detailed tutorial, too.  That coupled with some other blogs (diy show off , classy clutter ) and I feel like I'm ready to tackle this.
Here's what the coffee table started out looking like.

It's totally 80's.  Actually I think it is stamped '91 on the bottom, but you get the idea.  Out of date, but not out of date enough to be a cool vintage piece.   Perfect for an ottoman, it measures 36x36 inches, just like the one from West Elm.
First it needs to be painted.  I have just recently made a pretty bold statement in our living room with some teal end tables, so I think I will stay neutral with this one.  Plus, I'm on a serious budget, so I have to work with what supplies I have.
I would really like a trendy chevron or bold graphic print but, again,.....budget.   I had printed up a 50% off coupon for JoAnn fabric, but I decided to walk through the fabric section of Walmart just to see what they had to offer.  They did have a pretty cool burlap with a black chevron print.  It wasn't too pricey, but I would probably need to double it up or put fabric underneath because the burlap was kinda "holy".  Either way that would double the expense.  I was about to leave when I glanced at the clearance rack and spotted a fairly neutral bolt.  I was a bit undecided then I saw the price was $3/yard!!  Score.  6 bucks for 2 yards, I wasn't going to find a deal like that anywhere else.  And it was upholstery fabric. Bonus.
The glass insert gets removed (obviously) and is replaced with a spare piece of wood.
After a bit of measuring and eyeballing the room, I decided the ottoman needs to be six inches shorter.  My handy hubs cut it down for me.  He even sanded the leg bases for me before he reassembled it.  

I painted around the whole bottom, but after taking out a few screws to see how much of the table came apart, I realized that just the legs came off easily and in a perfect place.  I was worried about how I was going to transition from fabric to wood.  This was going to work out perfectly.  I love the look of the nail head strips, but that would be an added expense.
I  had to buy extra long needles and the supplies to make my own buttons for the tufting.  The needles I found on Amazon, the package contains 4 needles measuring 6, 8 10 and 12 inches.  The buttons I found on Ebay, but she has a shop on Etsy  called Cover Button City.   If I ever need buttons again, I will get them here.  It was a good price and she emailed me a tutorial right away, I like good internet communication.  My buttons are size 36 or 7/8".  If you have never ordered any before, be sure to get the WIRED backs.  I almost ended up with FLAT backs because I was looking at price over description.  
(The button making could be a blog post in itself and there are many on the subject.  The best advice I read was to use glue.  Upholstery fabric is thick and these buttons are made for thin fabric.  I didn't not have Hard as Nails like the other blogger specified, but I did have Locktite which is basically the same thing.  So, I just put a little dab in each button before I very forcefully jammed in the back.  If you try this and have questions, just ask.  It was hard and tedious, but it got done.  The backs don't look pretty, but no one will know.  Well, except you.)
The foam is were I splurged.  It was $31.99 plus shipping.  Lots of bloggers seem to have found deals at Hobby Lobby, but we don't have one of those anywhere close.  Foam Factory online is what I went with.  They have every option you can think of and if you want to pay for it they will even custom cut it for you.   You can find two inch memory foam twin mattress pads for $30-35 on Ebay.  That was my first choice, but after I thought about what kind of use the ottoman was going to get, ,memory foam was too squishy.   I went with the Lux-R, opting for the 2 inch instead of the 4 with the plan to double it up.  I cut off the corners because that was the shape of my wood and since I didn't have a fancy "foam cutting bit" for the drill, I used a drywall knife.  I just worked it around until I felt like enough foam was out of each hole.

I did use craft spray adhesive to keep the two pieces of foam together and after I had the middle button in, I also sprayed some adhesive between the foam and the wood.  I didn't want it to slide around when I tilted it on the side to pull the needle through.
After a lot of pulling and strategic stapling of the thread to the underside, I had it looking almost how I wanted.

The boys were going to be jumping, rolling, sitting and who knows what else on the ottoman, so I decided that the fabric was going to have to be tight.  I like the loose, lots of tuft look, but I wasn't sure how practical it would be in my house. 
I pulled it a bit tighter and added a few more staples.

He hopped up as soon as he woke up from his nap.  So while my upholstering job may not be perfect, you can see that it's going to work out just fine.  And it is so much nicer to put your feet up on some cushion instead of a hard coffee table.